Maritime Archive and Library
Morgan Robertson
London: Arthur Bird, 1912 (340. ROB/R)
Written by Morgan Robertson during his time at sea, this copy was reprinted in 1912 after the Titanic disaster. The book describes the maiden voyage of a British passenger liner called Titan. The ship, hits an iceberg and sinks on her maiden voyage with out enough lifeboats in the month of April in the North Atlantic. The fictional ship is eerily similar to the yet-to-be conceived Titanic in size, speed, equipment, number of passengers and number of lives lost.
The paragraph from the book shown on this page reads:
'From the bridge, engine-room and a dozen places on her deck the ninety-two doors of nineteen water-tight compartments could be closed in half a minute by turning a lever. These doors would also close automatically in the presence of water. With nine compartments flooded the ship would still float, and as no known accident of the sea could possibly fill this many, the steamship 'Titan' was considered practically unsinkable.'