Freaky Books, Part II

Tonight's episode features another maritime disaster: the sinking of the Titan.

Yes, you read that right.  The Titan, not the Titanic.  You see, in 1898, American author Morgan Robertson wrote a novella entitled Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan.  The book details the maiden voyage of a colossal luxury liner--by all accounts "unsinkable"--which crashes into a North Atlantic iceberg in April, sending the ship to the icy depths along with half its passengers, owing to an inexcusable lack of lifeboats.

Fourteen years later, as if following Robertson's novel like a script, the Titanic set sail.  The similarities are uncanny.  A tale of the tape:

• The name, for starters.  They were just asking for trouble there.
• The time and place.  Both disasters occurred in April, 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
• The enormous and unprecedented size of the ships. Titan: 800 ft.  Titanic 889 ft.
• The number of passengers. Titan: 2500. Titanic: 2207.
• The lack of lifeboats. Titan: 24.  Titanic: 20.
• The speed of the ships as they crashed.  Titan: 25 knots.  Titanic: 22.5 knots.    

I will, however, point out that they were sailing in opposite directions.  This Robertson guy really screwed that one up.  Sheesh.