Was the Titanic Tragedy Foretold In A Book Written 14 Years Before?

Perhaps one of the strangest cases of foreshadowing the world has ever known was a novel written in 1898 by Morgan Robertson about a ship called Titan that crashes into an iceberg. And, of course, in 1912, the RMS Titanic crashed into an iceberg as well. Although the novel was written as a work of fiction, it strangely foretold the events of what would come to be one of the most famous disasters of all time.

The novel, which was originally titled Futility, was later changed to Wreck of the Titan.  The similarities between the fictional Titan and the real life Titanic are very eerie.  For instance, both ships met their fate in the North Atlantic in April by running into an iceberg.  Neither ship had enough lifeboats on board, which resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 people.  Both were the largest ships in the world and were wrongly believed to be “unsinkable”.

Also very strange are the sailing routes.  The Titan was sailing from New York to England, while the Titanic’s route was from England to New York.  Both ended up meeting with disaster in the same part of the sea.  They were also both traveling at around the same speed, and had the same number of propellers and masts.  The Titan had an accident with another ship, and the Titanic nearly collided with the New York but fortunately didn’t hit it.

There are also a few differences between the two ships.  The Titanic only bumped or scraped against the iceberg on a clear night, while the Titan runs right into an iceberg on a very foggy night.  The Titanic also had more survivors than the fictional ship did.  The Titanic sank during her maiden voyage, while the Titan had already been on several.

All of this about the Titan occurred during the first half of the novel, and the second half chronicles the adventures of the heroic main character, John Rowland.  He was a drunkard who was dismissed from the Royal Navy, and worked on the Titan as a ship hand.  During the second half of the book, he goes through a number of adventures, including a fight with a polar bear.  He’s eventually saved by a passing ship and works his way up again in society.

While it’s an exciting read altogether, the fate of the Titan is what draws most people into this novel.  Could there be a paranormal reason why this book is so eerily similar to an incident that occurred 14 years LATER?  Or are the differences between the fictional ship and Titanic enough to make it nothing more than a strange coincidence?