Titanic Twice?

On a cold April night in the North Atlantic, the largest ship ever constructed struck an iceberg on her starboard side and sank, whist approximately 400 nautical miles off of the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Of the 2,500 passengers and crew on board the stricken vessel, only 13 survived. The leviathan, which was 800 feet in length and displaced 45,000 tons, was described as unsinkable, which was probably the reason why she had been equipped with only 24 lifeboats; capable of carrying less than half of her total complement of 3,000.

 

Despite being the largest vessel ever built, due to the use of innovative triple screw propellers, the ship was capable of an astonishing 25 knots at full power, which was exactly the speed she was travelling at when she struck the iceberg a glancing blow.

 

If all this sounds familiar it is hardly surprising, as it is of course instantly recognisable as a description of the twentieth century’s most infamous maritime disaster; the sinking of the Titanic. The only trouble is, it isn’t! The catastrophic collision between ship and iceberg described above, is a work of pure fiction. Be that as it may, you are probably thinking, the tale borrows so heavily from the actual events of 15th April 1912, that the author could hardly be credited with a fertile imagination!  Indeed,one may even go so far as to accuse the writer of profiting from tragedy.

 

Certainly that would be fair comment, except for one thing; the book in question was published in 1898, a full 14 years before the Titanic plunged to the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean. In fact, when the book was written, the ship that would become the RMS Titanic had not even been conceived. So, who was the potentially clairvoyant author, and how accurately did he describe the events of that notorious night, well over a decade before they actually occurred?

 

The author was one Morgan Robertson, a former seaman and diamond setter, who turned to writing sea tales once his eyesight began to deteriorate as a result of the years spent setting precious stones into items of jewellery. Born in 1861, Robertson was never a prolific writer, but nevertheless penned a short novel titled Futility, which would come to be regarded as his magnum opus, in which a British passenger liner he called the SS Titan, sank after striking an iceberg. The hero of the story is a character named John Rowland, who saves the life of the daughter of a former lover, by jumping onto the iceberg with her after the collision. The pair are eventually rescued by a passing ship.

 

Morgan Robertson (1861-1915)

  Morgan Robertson between 1890 and 1900. George G. Rockwood (1832 – 1911 (july 11)). This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or less.

 

The novel was first published in 1898, but was reissued after the sinking of the Titanic, with a new title of The Wreck of the Titan. So, could this work really be considered an example of precognition (the knowledge of a future event or situation, especially through extrasensory means)? To this end, let us take a look at the similarities between Robertson’s work of fiction and the actual facts relating to the real sinking.

 

First of all we have the similarity in the names of the two ships. Titanic is an adjective meaning of great size, and the noun titan similarly means a person or thing of great size. Both ships were British passenger liners plying their trade in the North Atlantic. Both were described as unsinkable, and both were powered by triple screw propellers. The Titan was crossing the North Atlantic on an April night when she struck an iceberg on her starboard side, whist approximately 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland, Canada. The Titanic was crossing the North Atlantic on the night of 14th April 1912, when she too struck and iceberg on her starboard side whilst approximately 400 nautical miles from Newfoundland. Both ships sank.

 

An Artists Impression of the Sinking of the Titanic

 Willy Stöwer, died on 31st May 1931. 1912. The author died in 1931, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 80 years or less.

 

Both vessels were the largest ever constructed and were of very similar size and weight. The Titanic was 882 feet long to Titan’s 800 feet, and Titanic displaced 46,000 tons compared to Titans 45,000 tons. Titanic was travelling at 22.5 knots when the collision occurred, only slightly slower than the 25 knots Titan was managing at the time she sideswiped the iceberg. Both ships carried too few lifeboats for the number of passengers and crew aboard, although the outcome of Robertson’s tale was more pessimistic, with only 13 survivors out of a complement of 2,500, compared to 705 survivors of the Titanic disaster, out of a total of 2,200 passengers and crew.

 

After the sinking of the Titanic, many were quick to label Morgan Robertson a clairvoyant or soothsayer. However, Robertson himself always denied this, explaining that the similarities were simply due to his knowledge of ships, shipbuilding and maritime trends. Sadly for Morgan Robertson, he was not to enjoy his new found fame for long. On 24th March 1915, he was found dead of a suspected drug overdose in his room at the Alamac Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was just 53 years old.

 

Nevertheless, over a century later, the close correlation between the novel Futility and the actual Titanic disaster remains astonishing to say the least. Was it all really just a remarkable coincidence, or was Morgan Robertson an unwitting recipient of precognition? To this day the jury remains out!

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Titan:_Or,_Futility

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Robertson