The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility, by Morgan Robertson
Everyone knows the story of the Titanic – the so-called “unsinkable” passenger ship that struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15th April 1912.
It’s sad fate has imposed itself upon the modern consciousness and has inspired everything from blockbuster films to art installations to animated musicals – featuring a rapping dog and widely considered one of the worst animated films ever made.
Among these cultural touchstones, you’d be forgiven for considering Morgan Robertson’s novella, The Wreck of the Titan, also known as Futility, as just another recycled narrative, potentially using the real-life disaster to make a quick buck.
The book in question tells the story of another so called ‘unsinkable’ ship, named the Titan, which sinks after colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic in April. To make matters worse, the Titan did not have enough lifeboats to ensure the escape of all its passengers.
However, The Wreck of the Titan is more than fictionalised retelling of a recent tragedy. Far from it. It was published in 1898, fourteen years before the Titanic set sail. Long before it was even a glint in the shipbuilders eye.
Coincidentally or not, this isn’t even the only literary foreshadowing of the disaster.
From January to April of 1912, a German newspaper, Berliner Tagblatt, published Gerhard Hauptmann’s Atlantis, in a the serial format that was popular at the time. Atlantis, featured an ocean liner that met the same fate as the Titanic, and was published in its complete form just one month before the tragedy.
Similarly, as the Titanic was sinking, an American pulp magazine named The Popular Magazine, lined newsstands. This very issue featured the short story The White Ghost of Disaster, where – you guessed it – an ocean liner collides with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sinks.
After the Titanic sunk, all three of these seemingly prophetic pieces of literature caused their own stir, and whispers of clairvoyance and fortune telling abound.
But what do you think? Were these fictitious works just mirroring contemporary shipbuilding trends? Or is there something supernatural afoot?
Either way, it was probably a poor idea to name the experimental submersible used to transport passengers to the Titanic’s undersea wreck, the Titan.
American Airlines Flight 191 and the dreams of David Booth
On May 25th, 1979, this domestic passenger flight set off from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois on rout to Los Angeles International Airport in California.
It crashed minutes after takeoff, when one of its engines separated from the wing. All 271 occupants, as well as 2 people one the ground, were killed, with two more people suffering sever burns.
As the nation mourned, one man was especially affected by the tragedy. His name was David Booth, and for the ten nights preceding the crash, he’d had the same harrowing dream.
These dreams involved a plane which veered wildly during take off, only to flip over and burst into flames. Booth was so troubled by this that he decided to tell the Federal Aviation Administration and American Airlines themselves about his concerns.
Surprisingly, they listened with a sympathetic ear, and even narrowed down the type of plane he saw – either a Boeing 727 or a DC-10. Unfortunately, with no information concerning dates and times, there was nothing more they could do. They certainly couldn’t ground every flight on the whim of some stranger’s dream.
After the incident, Booth was investigated by the police and FAA, due to the accuracy of his alleged premonition and has since made the rounds of paranormal reality shows, some of which claim to have verified his account.
Booth’s dreams stopped after the crash. To my knowledge, he’s had no further incidence of psychic premonitions.
Nostradamus and the Rise of Hitler
Nostradamus, one of the most famous seers of all time, made a lot of cryptic premonitions. He was equally controversial in his own lifetime as he is now, but almost 500 years after his death, we’re still discussing his many alleged prophecies.
Believers credit Nostradamus for predicting the Great Fire of London, The French Revolution, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki among many others, but one of his most famous prophecies is often cited to be the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Due to their age, there have been various translations of Nostradamus’s prophecies, but the most well-known English version apparently relating to Hitler is:
From the depths of the West of Europe,
A young child will be born of poor people,
He who by his tongue will seduce a great troop;
His fame will increase towards the realm of the East.
Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers,
The greater part of the battlefield will be against Hister.
Into a cage of iron will the great one be drawn,
When the child of Germany observes nothing.
Pretty spooky, wouldn’t you say?
Let’s take a moment to address the glaringly obvious phrase here – Hister.
It’s not a typo one mine, the translator or Nostradamus’s part. Hister, as well as being a type of beetle, is an archaic term for the Danube river, also known as Ister. This is likely what’s meant by the word, but it should be noted that Hitler’s birth place was only a few miles from the Danube.
Nostradamus’s predictions were originally written as four lined rhyming verses and are open to interpretation, hence the reason they’ve survived for so long.
For example, we must bear in mind that the version we see above, is a translation of a translation of a translation, and has been altered over the years.
For example, when this prophecy was made – some time in the 1500s – Germany was not known as ‘Germany’, and wouldn’t have been until until 1871. What was the original word used? I have no idea. I haven’t been able to find an original version, and even if I could, my knowledge of 16th century French wasn’t what it used to be.
Regardless, how would you interpret this prophecy?
Hitler himself was said to have believed in Nostradamus’s words, with German planes dropping false predictions of the defeat of France over Europe. In fact, Hitler’s belief and alleged obsession with the Occult is a rabbit hole in itself.
What do you make of these bizarre tales? Have you ever had a premonition?
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