Category File
Naval Conspiracies
2 documented theories filed under this subject.
- The "Dreadnought" HoaxOn 24 February 1910 the First Lord of the Admiralty told the House of Commons that "a number of persons" disguised as Abyssinians had visited one of His Majesty's ships. The ship was HMS Dreadnought, and the party, led by the prankster Horace de Vere Cole, included the future Virginia Woolf. They had been admitted on a forged Foreign Office telegram. Four years later Winston Churchill ordered a "dummy fleet" of merchant ships disguised in wood and canvas as battleships. Placed side by side, the two episodes produced a theory that British sea power in the dreadnought era was partly theatre.
- The "Monitor" vs. "Merrimack" TreasonThis theory held that the famous ironclad clash at Hampton Roads was not simply an indecisive military encounter but a mutually useful spectacle manipulated by industrial interests. In its strongest form, the story claimed that speculators, shipbuilders, and iron or steel contractors quietly benefited from an inconclusive first duel that would guarantee huge naval contracts and continued investment in armored fleets. The documented record clearly shows that the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (formerly Merrimack) revolutionized naval warfare and triggered an enormous new appetite for ironclad construction. What remains unproven is the claim that the battle itself was “fixed” by industrial speculators or arranged to maximize procurement.
- The "Submarine" TerrorThis theory claimed that invisible submarines or “boats no one could see” were responsible for unexplained sinkings throughout the Atlantic, especially in the early twentieth century when undersea warfare was still poorly understood by much of the public. It grew from the very real novelty of practical submarines, the secrecy surrounding naval development, and the dramatic tactical advantage of underwater attack. In rumor form, all missing ships could be folded into the same terrifying explanation: unseen craft were already ruling the sea.