A Titanic Resemblance

Author Morgan Robertson penned the novel Futility. In it, he tells the tale of a grand ship, claimed to be unsinkable, larger and more luxurious than any ever built.

The ship set sail from Southampton to New York on it's maiden voyage, and struck an iceberg, and sank in the North Atlantic on a frigid April night. It had too few lifeboats, so the majority of the passengers perished. The ship in the story was called the Titan.

Sound familiar? The parallels to the sinking of the real-life ship Titanic is uncanny at best. So, if the author was simply retelling the story, why not just call the ship by its real name? Every fact surrounding the Titan resembles the Titanic.

~ The Titanic displaced 66,000 tons of water; the Titan displaced 70,000 tons. ~ The Titanic was 882 feet long; the Titan was 800 feet. ~ Both liners could travel at up to 25 knots. ~ Both could carry up to 3000 passengers. ~ Neither ship had enough lifeboats for the passengers on board. ~ Both sank at the exact same spot in the North Atlantic.

So, with all the similarities, why not call a spade a spade? Morgan Robertson's novel about the Titan was written in 1898.

The Titanic sank April 12, 1912.