(EW) — The sinking of the Titanic is perhaps the most well-known maritime disaster of all time, but a new documentary claims the widely-believed cause — a fatal collision with an iceberg — isn’t entirely true.
In Titanic: The New Evidence, an upcoming hour-long documentary on the Smithsonian Channel, new evidence suggests that it was actually a coal fire which caused the 1911 disaster. Whether viewers are generally intrigued by all things nautical, or fans of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s blockbuster Titanic, the documentary promises to capture their attention with newly-unearthed photos detailing the many shortcomings that contributed to the Titanic’s terrible end at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The photos, from the private collection of the Titanic’s chief electrical engineer, John Kempster, are said to shed light on the true cause of the sinking — a topic that has been hotly debated over the years — by revealing the use of a range of substandard materials (and cost-cutting, dangerous shortcuts) during the building of the mighty ship. Using CG and colorizing techniques, the filmmakers animated the original stills taken at the shipyard to take viewers aboard and below decks.