Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan
Encyclopedia
Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan is 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 real-life passenger ship , which sank fourteen years later.
Similarities between Titanic and Titan:
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
written by Morgan Robertson
Morgan Robertson
Morgan Andrew Robertson was a well-known American author of short stories and novels, and the self-claimed inventor of the periscope.He is best known for his short novel Futility, first published in 1898...
. The story features the ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
Titan, which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg
Iceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
. The Titan and its sinking have been noted to be very similar to the real-life passenger ship , which sank fourteen years later.
Synopsis
The first half of Futility introduces the hero, John Rowland. Rowland is a 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 Rowland, as he saves the young daughter of a former lover by jumping onto the iceberg with her. After a number of adventures, in which he fights a polar bear and finds a lifeboat washed up on the iceberg, he is eventually 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.Similarities to the Titanic
Although the novel was written before the Olympic-class Titanic had even been designed, there are some remarkable similarities between the fictional and real-life counterparts. Like the Titanic, the fictional 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 long for Titan versus 882 ft 9 in long for the Titanic), speed (25 knots for Titan, 21 knots for Titanic) and life-saving equipment.Similarities between Titanic and Titan:
- Unsinkable
- The Titanic was the world's largest luxury liner (882 feet, displacing 63,000 long tons), and was once described as being practically "unsinkable".
- The Titan was the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men (800 feet, displacing 75,000 tons), and was considered "unsinkable".
- Lifeboats
- The Titanic carried only 16 lifeboatLifeboat (shipboard)A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...
s, plus 4 Engelhardt folding lifeboats, less than half the number required for her passenger capacity of 3000. - The Titan carried "as few as the law allowed", 24 lifeboats, less than half needed for her 3000 capacity.
- The Titanic carried only 16 lifeboat
- Struck an iceberg
- Moving too fast at 22½ knots, the Titanic struck an iceberg on the starboard side on the night of April 14, 1912 in the North Atlantic 400 miles away from Newfoundland.
- Also on an April night, in the North Atlantic 400 miles from Newfoundland (Terranova), the Titan hit an iceberg while traveling at 25 knots, also on the starboard side.
- The Unsinkable Sank
- The unsinkable Titanic sank, and more than half of her 2200 passengers died.
- The indestructible Titan also sank, more than half of her 2500 passengers drowning.
- Went down bow first, the Titan actually capsizing before it sank.
- The names being similar (Titanic = Titan + ic)
Differences between Titanic and Titan
- The Titan does not strike the iceberg a glancing blow on a clear night, as is the case with the Titanic, but drives headlong onto an ice shelf which tears a huge gash in the ship's side, causing major flooding, rises into the air and capsizes on her starboard side, THEN sinking bow first.
- 705 people aboard the Titanic survived, while only 13 of those aboard the Titan survived.
- The Titan hit and sank a sailing ship called the Royal Oak. The Titanic came close to an accident with the New York but did not actually hit it.
- The Titanic takes over two and a half hours to sink. The Titan took only five minutes.
- The Titan had sails to improve her speed; the Titanic did not.
- The Titanic was the second of three nearly identical sister ships; the Titan had no sister ships.
- Titanic sank while sailing from England to the USA, Titan was traveling in the opposite direction.
- When the iceberg was sighted on the Titanic, the message to the bridge was Iceberg right ahead!, but when the iceberg was sighted on the Titan, the message was Ice, ice ahead. Iceberg. Right under the bows.
- The Titan had 19 watertight compartments & could stay afloat with 9 compartments flooded. The Titanic had 16 compartments could stay afloat with only 4 compartments flooded.
Popular culture
- Walter LordWalter LordJohn Walter Lord, Jr. , was an American author, best known for his documentary-style non-fiction account A Night to Remember, about the sinking of the RMS Titanic.-Early life:...
's 1955 nonfiction account of the Titanic disaster, A Night to Remember, opens with a brief description of Robertson's novella and the similarities between the actual and fictional ships.
- A copy of Futility can be seen in the apartment at the beginning of the PC game Titanic: Adventure Out of TimeTitanic: Adventure Out of TimeTitanic: Adventure Out of Time is a computer game developed by Cyberflix. It was published in the United States and Europe by GTE Entertainment and Europress respectively, and released on November 12, 1996...
. The obituary of a Titanic passenger is used as a bookmark.
- Similarities between the Titan and the Titanic were mentioned at the end of the episode 'Night of April 14' in the TV series One Step Beyond.
- A dramatisation of what led the author to write it and detailing the similarities between the events in the book and the Titanic disaster were shown in an episode of Beyond Belief: Fact or FictionBeyond Belief: Fact or FictionBeyond Belief: Fact or Fiction is an American television anthology series created by Lynn Lehmann, presented by Dick Clark Productions, and produced and aired by the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. Each episode featured five stories, all of which appeared to defy logic, and some of which were...
.
- Alan MooreAlan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One is a comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics. It is the first story in the larger League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series...
, set in 1898, makes a passing reference to the Titan Relief Fund.
- The Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
audio play The Wreck of the TitanThe Wreck of the Titan (audio drama)The Wreck of the Titan is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Plot:...
, released by Big Finish Productions in May 2010, is partly inspired by this novella, and features the characters of John and Myra.
- A character in the Nintendo DSNintendo DSThe is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
game 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doorsis an adventure game developed by Chunsoft and published in Japan by Spike on December 10, 2009, and in North America by Aksys Games on November 16, 2010. The game's design team was led by Kotaro Uchikoshi, who is also the writer of the acclaimed visual novel Ever 17: The Out of Infinity...
makes reference to the similarities between Titan and Titanic and calls this book out as a potential example of trans-temporal communication in the game world.
- In the author's note of "The Doomsday Box" by Herbie Brennan, the author mentions Futility's "prediction" to give examples of precognitive events.