Predictions: The Titanic Tragedy
It is a work written by the American Morgan Robertson, an officer of the merchant marine and writer of short works, and entitled "Futility or The Shipwreck of the Titan" was published in 1898, fourteen years before the tragedy occurred. This novel tells the story of John L. Rowland, an ex-Royal Navy, who has fallen into alcoholism, for which he is fired and begins to work on "The Titan", and throughout history he will have the opportunity to redeem themselves from their mistakes. The ship sinks shortly before the middle of the story, after the shipwreck John saves a girl and jumps to the iceberg with her. In the end both are rescued. But that's not the point, there are many similarities between this story and what happened in April 1912 to the majestic Titanic, so let's see what are the things that have caused the belief that Robertson's book became a fulfilled prophecy.
Adjectives such as "The Unsinkable" or "The greatest human creation" were applied to both, and it is not for less because the first chapter of the book tells the technical characteristics of the boat and is amazing the number of coincidences that exist between The Titan and The Titanic. For example, in terms of size The Titanic was 882 feet long, while The Titan had 800, on the other hand the number of hermetic compartments in both was also very close, the first had 19 while the second 16.
In both cases the number of lifeboats was less than that necessary for the number of souls on board. Robertson's boat carried 3000 passengers and barely had 24 boats, while The Titanic, where the number of people on board was 2207 and only carried 20 boats. In addition, both had three propellers, hit an iceberg one night in April with similar speeds going both at full speed, The Titanic at 23 knots and The Titan at 25.
As we can see there are many similarities between both boats, however there are also some differences that are worth mentioning. One of these is that The Titanic was on its maiden voyage that resulted in no return, while in the book it is mentioned that The Titan was leaving on his third cruise. On the other hand, the Titanic traveled from England to the United States, exactly from Southampton to New York, while Robertson's ship had an opposite course from New York to Liverpool, that is, from the United States to England.
Fascinating! I had never heard of the book. I wonder if the book was the inspiration for the Titanic. Whose idea was the Titanic and had they seen the book and forgotten except in the back of their mind? very bizarre.