At this point, the sinking of the Titanic is no longer just a fragment of history. Thanks to the wealth of media that has been produced of the event, it has become part of our collective pop culture consciousness. Everyone knows about the Titanic, but we often think of the emotional side of it before we think of the factual side. We can thank James Cameron for that. But other pieces of media have strong connections to the sinking of the world’s most famous ship. One book in particular, “Futility,” even is said to have predicted the sinking before it happened.
The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility
In the late 1800s, a man named Morgan Robertson began developing plans for a novel called the Wreck of the Titan. He had strong connections to the sea throughout his entire life thanks to the fact that his father was a ship captain, so the inspiration for the book came naturally.
In the 1890s, he began to focus more and more on his writing, and he started up the first draft of what would become Wreck of the Titan. It ended up being published in 1898, and it wound up becoming his most enduring work. However, the book’s continued popularity isn’t necessarily due to his writing.
The Plot of the Book
The plot of Robertson’s book might feel eerily familiar to you. It begins by following a former Naval officer that is no longer able to work on boats for the Navy. Instead, he enlists to work as a deckhand on a massive ship called the Titan.
It follows his daily activities as the boat sets off to sea, but tragedy strikes when the ship hits an iceberg. He is able to escape the wreckage, though, and he and a woman from the ship await rescue on another block of ice in the ocean. They are eventually found and return safely to society. The story more or less ends there.
Did It Predict the Titanic?
We know what you’re thinking: this author must have just been incredibly inspired by the events of the Titanic, causing him to write a book based on what happened. That would make sense, but there’s one problem. Robertson’s book actually came out long before the sinking of the Titanic.
It was first published in 1898, and the Titanic didn’t have its fatal accident until 1912. That means that he was a full 14 years ahead of the history-making ship accident. In that sense, it really does seem like the Wreck of the Titan predicted the real wreck of the Titanic.
Similarities Between the Book and the Reality
The most striking similarity that will immediately jump out to anyone who reads Robertson’s book is the name of the ship. The Titan is only two letters away from being called the Titanic! Additionally, Robertson’s fictional ship is quite close in size to the real Titanic: his ship was 800 feet long while the Titanic was 882 feet long.
Finally, the events that actually caused the sinking were almost identical. Both ships hit icebergs, and both did not have enough safety equipment to save everyone on board, causing many of them to fend for themselves.
Was Robertson a Psychic?
Many people have speculated that there is only one way that Robertson could have possibly written such an accurate prediction more than a decade ahead of the Titanic’s sinking. They say that he must have been clairvoyant and able to see into the future. That could certainly be one explanation, but there are others that seem plausible as well. Robertson knew a lot about ships thanks to his upbringing, so his accuracy there was likely due to sheer knowledge.
The similarities between the two ship names are creepy, but calling a large ship the Titan or the Titanic just feels logical. And finally, it doesn’t take a maritime expert to imagine what might happen if a ship hit an iceberg. In the end, though, this strange bit of literary history remains a mystery.