Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan
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Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan was an 1898 novella written by Morgan Robertson. The story features the ocean liner Titan which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. The Titan and its sinking have been noted to be very similar to the RMS Titanic which sank fourteen years later.
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[edit] Background
Originally published in 1898 under the name Futility, the novel was republished after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 as Futility, or The Wreck of the Titan. The 1912 version was edited to make the ship larger — 70,000 tons displacement instead of 45,000 tons; the displacement of the Titanic was 52,000 tons.
[edit] Similarities
Although the novel was written before the Titanic or her sister ships had even been conceived, the fictional ship, Titan, is a large British liner that hits an iceberg. The Titanic sank on her maiden voyage, however, Titan sinks on her third east-bound crossing. Like the Titanic, the ship sank in April in the North Atlantic and there were not enough lifeboats for the passengers. There are also similarities between the size (800 ft length against 880 ft for the Titanic), speed (25 knots for Titan, 23 knots for Titanic) and life saving equipment on the ship and the number people lost in the disaster ("24 boats for three thousand people").
However, there were important differences. The ship does not make a glancing blow with the iceberg on a clear night, as in the case of the Titanic but drives headlong onto an ice "beach," possibly formed by the recent overturning of a berg, in thick fog and runs aground and capsizes before slipping backwards under the water, sinking so rapidly that the number of lifeboats was moot. Titan was filled to capacity with nearly 3,000 onboard, whilst the Titanic was barely half full with 2,223 people aboard. 706 - about one third of those on the Titanic were saved, whilst only 13 of those aboard the Titan survive.
[edit] Synopsis
The first half of the book introduces the hero, John Rowland. Rowland is disgraced former Royal Navy lieutenant who is now a drunkard and has fallen to the lowest levels of society. Dismissed from the Navy, he is working as a deckhand on the Titan. The ship hits the iceberg and sinks somewhat before the halfway point of the novel. The second half follows the adventures Rowland as he saves the young daughter of a former lover who happens to be onboard by jumping onto the ice with her. After a number of adventures, in which he kills and eats a polar bear (during which he seriously injures his arm), finds and sails a lifeboat washed up on the iceberg, is rescued by a passing ship and, over several years works his way up to a lucrative Government job restoring his former income and position in society. In the closing lines of the story he receives a message from his former lover pleading for him to visit her and her daughter.
[edit] References
- The Titan & the Titanic. Lux Aeterna Publishing Limited. Retrieved on November 23, 2005.
- Rutman, Sharon and Jay Stevenson, Ph.D. (1998). The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Titanic. Alpha Books. ISBN 0-02-862712-1.
