Premonitions Of Disaster

Futilty, The Wreck Of The Titanic

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 titanic.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.

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 theTitanic, 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 Titanversus 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 53,000 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 lifeboats, 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.

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 (Titan = Titanic - ic)

Source: Wikipedia.org