The novel “Futility” is a surprisingly accurate account of the terrible tragedy that happened to the world-famous giant ship Titanic.
The author of the novel testifies that during his illness he saw an unthinkable grandiose sea liner. Pictures of the ship’s destruction flashed before him, he heard the screams of terror of people drowning in the ocean. Time revealed that M. Robertson’s vision was prophetic. The book is incredibly coincidental with the events of the sinking of the Titanic that took place in reality. For some readers this makes a frightening impression.
The prophetic work of futility was written in 1898 by Morgan Robertson. It took place fourteen years before the wreck of the real Titanic. The novel was published for the first time in England. There was M. Robertson was an unknown writer at the time, and a retired sea captain in the past. He was a sailor with a very rich experience, experienced in his life at sea a lot of extreme situations. Many times he faced how people died during shipwrecks.
In his novel the writer describes a ship called the Titan, which perished in the Atlantic Ocean because it ran into an iceberg, even though it was previously considered an unsinkable ship. The passengers on the ship were very wealthy people, which adds to the resemblance to real events in the book. Like the real Titanic, the “book ship” was quite impressive in size.
Another important detail is that M. Robertson’s ship was equipped with everything possible except the main thing – a sufficient number of lifeboats and other tools for rescuing passengers. Thus, on the lifeboat deck there was not even a knife or any other sharp tool with which to cut the ropes to lower the lifeboats into the water.
At the sinking of the Titanic, as we know, the lookouts had no binoculars or flares to signal the disaster. The ship described by the writer in his novel was so large and massive that it would have easily crushed any other ship without hurting itself in the process.
Only an iceberg could have been heavier and more dangerous. The real Titanic encountered an iceberg. The novel failed to qualify as popular literature as soon as it was published. Its publishers lamented that they undertook the publication of the work in vain. The sinking of the real Titanic changed their attitude dramatically.
Robertson’s novel proved prophetic, and the author became instantly famous. The writer’s book was republished in 1912 with an updated title, Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan.
The writer’s fame instantly exceeded all possible expectations, but it also had a negative side for the writer. Relatives of the deceased passengers of the ship were literally hated by Morgan Robertson. After the sinking of the liner, the author of the novel began to receive letters of accusation, as if he was responsible for this tragedy.
Today Morgan Robertson is even declared the great prophet of the 20th century. He died three years after the sinking of the Titanic. Although he penned more than one novel about the ill-fated ship and several other works, these days no one remembers them.
