Titan(ic)

The oceans have always held a fascination for mankind and given rise to many legends, stories and mysteries -  who has not at least heard of the Bermuda triangle, the Flying Dutchman and Captain Jack Sparrow.

But, amidst all the Titanic hoopla on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its sinking, I came across a really weird story, apparently true.

According to a written report, a new British-owned cruise ship of around 800 feet long was on a voyage between England and New York in April. It was the largest of its kind and considered to be unsinkable. According to the report, the ship struck an iceberg on the forward starboard side in the North Atlantic 400 miles from Newfoundland at night while traveling at almost its top speed of around 25 knots, and soon afterwards sank. Unfortunately there were far too few lifeboats for all the passengers and many of them perished.

This report describes quite accurately the well-known story of the Titanic, but it concerns a fictional ship with a similar name, the Titan.  But the really strange part is that it could have been read by those who perished on the Titanic because it was written 14 years prior to the disaster.  It is from a book by Morgan Robertson published in 1898 and the title was The Wreck of the Titan.  And, not surprisingly, Robertson claimed that he was a psychic.  

Another piece of Titanic lore involves a British passenger, William Stead, who died on the Titanic and who had written a story in 1892 called “From the Old World to the New” in which a ship hit an iceberg and sank.  In the story, some of the passengers were rescued by another ship, whose captain was named Edward John Smith.  When the Titanic sank, she was commanded by a man named Edward John Smith.