The Wreck of the Titan or Futility

I first learned of this book when reading Walter Lord's famous "A Night to Remember," which was of course later released as a fine film of the same name, and which Lord updated in the early 1980s with the wonderful follow-up novel, "The Night Lives On." At the beginning of "A Night to Remember," Lord alludes generously to Robertson's novel "Futility," about the fictional ship 'Titan' and its uncanny resemblence to the 'Titanic' both in physical dimensions and tragic sinking. From Lord's brief synopsis of Robertson's novel, I got the impression that "Futility" would be a comprehensive novel that went to great lengths to describe the ship (Titan), passengers, crew, disaster, and aftermath. I was very surprised when I opened the shipping box and instead received a very skimpy novelette, weighing in at a whole forty pages or so.

Although "Futility" does have eerie similarities with the actual Titanic disaster, which makes it immediately of high historical novelty value, as a stand-alone novel in its own right it is simply not a very well-written piece of fiction. It has some nice ideas that should have been further developed. The cataclysmic sinking of the Titan is contained in about 1/3 a page, and amounts to "struck an iceberg, fell flat on her side, the end."

Amazingly, the extreme cold of the North Atlantic never seems to be an issue, as it is never mentioned. The story centers around a disgraced former US navy officer who, after his fall, became an ordinary seaman on the Titan. The plot revolves around his love affair (or lack of one) with a former girlfriend. The story is filled with cheesy dialog (even for 1890s Victorian standards) and interminable soliloquies that will have the reader rolling his or her eyes and going "whatever."

The plot of this story can be summed up thus:

- Titan is a huge ship and represents Victorian decadence

- Rowlands (the disgraced officer) loves some girl who's married to someone else

- Girl mistakenly thinks Rowlands is trying to murder her toddler

- Ship hits iceberg

- Ship founders two paragraphs later

- Rowlands rescues his ex girlfriend's toddler

- Rowlands somehow defeats a 2,000 lb polar bear in hand to hand combat

- no one gets hypothermia

- the end.

This story is interesting insofar as its similarity to the Titanic disaster, but beyond that, it is doggerel.

I would call it an insipid sort of book, very loosely and clumsily constructed. If not for the fact that it resembled the Titanic disasterin some remote way, few would likely know about it. Its coincidence with the Titanic is not nearly so remarkable as some might make out. In fact, the 70-page story contains a few dozen sentences about the Titan and its wreck; most of the rest is unrelated and hard to understand. The style was very abrupt and choppy where the Titan was respected, and too prolific concerning the hero, John Rowland, by the way, who was altogether too heroic. His feminine love was much too perfect, of enough mention was made of her to be able to tell. The story centers selfishly around its hero, who, stranded on an island after the ship sank, one-handedly kills a polar bear with a jack knife to save the heroine's daughter. As for the Titan, it apparently just flops over on its side and sinks.

Walter Lord's book, "A Night to Remember" ends with a list of "ifs." If only they had heeded the ice warnings; If only the lookouts had been given binoculars; If only there were more lifeboats; and a long list of others. Add one more: "If only they'd paid attention to Morgan Robertson." The "Wreck of the Titan," is only one of several short stories in the book, "The Wreck of the Titan." All of the stories deal with the sea, and through them, you can see that Mr. Roberts was very knowledgeable in all aspects of maritime science. Many of his stories deal with Annapolis, and one might assume that he was a graduate, though I have no way of knowing that for sure. Many of his stories show amazing insights - for example, in "Beyond the Spectrum" he speculates on a Pacific war between the United States and Japan, where submarines and secret weapons play an essential role. However, Robertson's main claim to fame was the title story: "The Wreck of the Titan." Robertson knew everything about the Titanic disaster, fourteen years in advance. He knew where shipbuilding was going; he knew the length, and displacement of the next generation of ships, the power of their engines, the speeds they could achieve, and all about their "safety" features - including electronic control and communications systems and the approximate number of watertight compartments. He also knew that the ships carried too few lifeboats; that they raced at unsafe speeds through dangerous waters, and that watertight compartments wouldn't save a supposedly "unsinkable" ship if it sideswiped an iceberg. He even knew when and where a disaster was most likely to happen. He had his Titan sink in the month of April, just a few miles north of the actual spot where the Titanic went down. Was he clairvoyant? Probably not. In hindsight, his dire prediction should have been obvious to anyone. He realized that the way ships were being run a disaster was inevitable. On the other hand - what about the name of his mythical ship - the "Titan." Just a lucky guess, perhaps. However, if that's true, then he guessed right twice. In his story "Pirates" he has a ship much larger than the Titan being torpedoed. Titanic buffs know that the Titanic had two sister ships, and that her younger and larger sister, the Britannic, was torpedoed in World War 1. However, "Britannic" was not the original name when the ship was first designed. White Star originally intended to call her the "Gigantic." They changed the name after the Titanic disaster because "Gigantic" sounded too much like "Titanic." So what was the name of Robertson's torpedoed super liner? The "Gigantia." And one more thing - though I admittedly take this out of context - consider the following passage from "Pirates:" "When he looked, the bow was under water, the stern rising in the air, higher and higher, until a third of the afterbody was exposed; then it slid silently, but for the bursting of air bubbles, out of sight in the depths." For all his insights, however, it has to be said that Robertson not a great writer. In fact, he was mediocre at best. Perhaps that's why his warnings went unheeded. Other than certain facts that turn out to be amazingly accurate, his plots are nonsensical. Still, the stories are entertaining, and there is a certain charm about all of his writings. This charm cannot be found in the great classics, because they are timeless; it can only be found in the lesser-known works of any era. Through Robertson, an average writer, we can gain rare insights into the mind of the average person of the Victorian era. From the way Robertson writes, it must have been an age of romance and chivalry. A world practically inconceivable by today's standards. Case in point: In Pirates, escapees from a military prison steal a supposedly deserted navy Destroyer. Once out to sea, however, the pirates discover that a single naval officer had been sleeping, unnoticed in the galley as they stole the ship. So what do these cutthroats do with him after they find him? Pitch him overboard, perhaps? Not quite. That would be murder; and just because they're pirates and condemned criminals, that doesn't make them murderers. Instead, they make him promise to behave, and and once he'd given his word of honor, they give him the respect he deserves as an officer, and complete freedom of the ship. Unbelievable!

Enjoyed reading this novel of the Titan, an ocean liner that was considered 'unsinkable' only to
be proved otherwise after coming into contact with an iceberg...

Unbelievable that this novel was written years before the unsinkable Titanic was stopped by an
iceberg. I just had to read it and see the parallels for myself. Very interesting....

Bought this book for my daughter, who had read it several years ago. She had gotten from the library on an inter-library loan. We were glad to find a copy in such great condition, hard back, still in print. The book was published before the Titanic was built, yet it tells the story of a similar ship being built & having the same type of incident where it hits an iceberg & sinks. This was a gift.

This is a story (really stories) worth reading. It is uncanny how the author concocted this whole premise only to have a fatal chunk of it become reality 14 years AFTER it was written! The Edgar Cayce of the sea! Worth having in your Titanic library.

They (fed bankers)and their agenda got rid of about 600 industrialists who were opposed to taking over the fed. JP Morgan said hey let's all talk about it while we cross the Atlantic and he, missed the ship at the last moment, and these game changers were prevented at gun point from entering the life boats.
Amazing how life imitates art or, is it? Futility indeed.

It is strange that reviewers of this book so often obviously haven't read it. The World War II story as it seems to be, appears to have been written in 1912 though the list of three copyright dates in this four short-story book don't specify what date belongs to what story. There is no preface or introduction. No claims are being made no explanations offered. There are no sun bombs in Beyond the Spectrum, the afor mentioned story; just an amazing description of a lazer the Japanese use to cause a temporary blindness in American navel forces. It's as if the writer had a vision of the blinding light of an attomic blast and a lazer and thought the two were somehow related. He refers to the light emited as a radiation three or four times. A description of a WWII submarine and the persecution of American Japanese is right on. The Titan story is just as suprising, but again reviewers site some parallels that don't exist. The link that brought me here said there would be material from Dr. Ian Stevenson included. There isn't.

I had not heard of this story, until one day I saw a note about the name of the ship, and the comparison to the story of the Titanic. It's uncanny resemblance is astounding. I loved the book and will definitely be putting out the word about it. I thought it was fantastic.

Written years before the 1912 sinking of the Titanic luxury liner. Morgan Freeman wrote of an eerily similar doomed ship. At times you start to get the feeling you are not reading about the Titan but the famous one instead. The Titan story is a short story, and the other stories are entertaining, as well. What I love about this fellows tales is that, unlike stories in this 21st century, the language is polite with only a very rare occasional (tiny) expletive. I just love a clean story line. Amazon has this gem from times ago at a very reasonable price. Tales about the sea, all of them, and an education in nautical terms to (pirate) boot!