MovieChat Forums > A Night to Remember (1958) Discussion > This 1898 book "predicted" the sinking o...

This 1898 book "predicted" the sinking of the Titanic?

posted 3 years ago by christomacin (4526)
6 replies | jump to latest

Of course not, but it is quite a coincidence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Titan:_Or,_Futility

"The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility is a novella written by Morgan Robertson and published as Futility in 1898, and revised as The Wreck of the Titan in 1912. It features a fictional British ocean liner Titan that sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. Titan and its sinking are famous for similarities to the passenger ship RMS Titanic and its sinking fourteen years later. After the sinking of Titanic the novel was reissued with some changes, particularly in the ship's gross tonnage"

[–] jonathan_k80 (6436) 3 years ago

"After the sinking of Titanic the novel was reissued with some changes, particularly in the ship's gross tonnage."

I would like to read the original edition of the novella, before the changes were made, to see how truly "accurate" it was. These edits were probably made as a marketing ploy to sell more copies.

[–] christomacin (4526) 3 years ago

Yes, ALWAYS go to the source material before making any conclusions. Always a good policy.
As matter of fact, instead of idly speculating, we can all do just that:
https://librivox.org/futility-or-the-wreck-of-the-titan-by-morgan-robertson/
https://archive.org/details/wrecktitanorfut01robegoog

***I believe the second link is the revised 1912 version:

[–] jonathan_k80 (6436) 3 years ago

Thank you for that link! I've always wanted to read the novella, but I never saw a copy anywhere.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 3 years ago

I am aware of this book but have never read it. After doing some research, the impression I have is that it's not actually written that well and the similarities to the story of the Titanic, while interesting, aren't much beyond the name of the ship and its destruction via the iceberg.

I may still read it at some point, but that killed a lot of my interest.

[–] christomacin (4526) 3 years ago

another conspiracy theory bites the dust

[–] moviechatterer (13217) 10 months ago

Who cares about adjusting the tonnage compared to actually getting the name right!