Futility, Or The Wreck of the Titan

Morgan Robertson

May 2015 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

Futility, or The Wreck of the Titan is Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novella about the unsinkable ship Titan, which goes down after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Disgraced former naval lieutenant John Rowland is working as a deckhand on the Titan when it strikes an iceberg and capsizes. Saving the younger daughter of a former lover by jumping onto the iceberg with her, Rowland and his charge are eventually rescued and return to their homes.

Written before the Titanic was designed, Futility, or The Wreck of the Titan’s narrative is eerily similar to the real-life disaster that occurred the night of April 15, 1912: both Titanic and Titan were considered to be unsinkable; neither ship carried enough lifeboats for the number of passengers on board; and both sank after striking icebergs. The sinking of the Titanic in the frigid waters of the north Atlantic in the early hours of April 15, 1912, is arguably the most famous peacetime maritime disaster of modern history, and one that continues to capture popular imagination a century later.

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Ratings and reviews

I WAS WATCHING AN EPISODE OF ONE STEP BEYOND A B&W TV SHOW THAT AIRED ON ABC TV IN THE 50' & 60'S...THE 1ST EPISODE OF THE TV SERIES WAS ABOUT A COUPLE THE TAKE A HONEY-MOON TRIP ON THE ILL FATED MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TITANIC...THE HOST MR. NEWLAND PULLED OUT A BOOK CALLED FUTILITY ABOUT A SHIP NAMED "TITAN" THAT SANK WHEN IT HIT AN ICEBERG IN THE COLD ATLANTIC OCEAN. THE BOOK WRITTEN 14 YEARS BEFORE THE TITANIC SANK...THIS CAUGHT MY ATTENTION AND WHEN I LOOKED UP THE BOOK HE SPOKE ABOUT I WAS CURIOUS AND FOUND THAT THE BOOK REALLY EXISTED SO I WOUND UP BUYING THE E BOOK ON LINE...

About the author

Morgan Robertson was an American writer best known for his novel Futility, or The Wreck of the Titan, a prescient novel published in 1898 about the catastrophic sinking of an “unsinkable” ocean liner, eerily similar to the sinking of the Titanic fourteen years later. Robertson also penned The Submarine Destroyer, Three Laws and the Golden Rule, and the short story “Beyond the Spectrum,” which described a future war between the United States and the Empire of Japan. Morgan Robertson died in 1915.