Futility

[daisy]

Does anyone believe this book, written by Morgan Robertson to be a premonition of the Titanic disaster? I believe that Its very possible,that this book foretold of the disaster, of course some people probably would'nt have believed such a story, And if they had read the book, they unlikely would not have associated the book with the disaster.What do you think?Daisy

 

[Dave Gittins]

The edition of 1912 only has a rough resemblance to reality. The original version was even less like the real thing. Robertson's original Titan was a good deal smaller than Titanic and when the book was reprinted in 1912 the displacement and power of the ship were increased to make them more like those of Titanic. Most of the story is nothing like the real tale. Titan was not on her maiden voyage, she set sails to help her engines and the collision with the berg rolled her onto her side. There are many other differences. If this is foretelling the disaster, it is not a very accurate job.

Morgan Robertson was a seaman who qualified as First Mate. He was quite capable of extrapolating from the ships of 1898 to the ships of the coming century and imagining what would happen if the careless seamanship he saw about him continued.

There is a fine book containing Futility and other stories. It's called The Titanic Disaster Foretold, by Martin Gardiner. It's an amusing read and shows that tales about ships hitting bergs were not rare. Hardly surprising, since it happened often enough in real life.

 

[Michael Salvona]

Hi DAISY i recently bought a copy of FUTILITY NOW known as THE WRECK OF THE TITAN a nineteenth century prophecy. Wich i bought from borders books a shop in buchanan st GLASGOW i found it intresting worth getting. I believe they had copies left if your looking for one.try them 0141-222-7700 or POCKET BOOKS WEST GARDEN PLACE KENDAL ST LONDON W2 2AQ there is a cip cat rec number for it from the brittish library 0-671-01819-1 yours MICHAEL