Morgan Robertson - The Wreck of the Titan

[dem bones]

Morgan Robertson - The Wreck of the Titan (Pocket, 1998: originally M. F. Mansfield, 1898 as Futility)

Harley Crossley

Publisher's Foreword
Simon Hewitt - Introduction

The Wreck of the Titan

Blurb:
‘She was the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men. In her construction and maintenance were involved every science, profession and trade known to civilization ... unsinkable, indestructible she carried as few boats as would satisfy the laws'
So wrote Morgan Robertson in 1898 in this novel of extraordinary intensity. Fourteen years before the greatest civil maritime disaster of all time, this story eerily prefigured the actual calamity. A century later The Wreck of the Titan has lost none of its power to shock. It is a compelling read in its own right, but the question remains - was it a strange series of coincidences, or was something altogether more mysterious at work?

First learned of Futility/ The Wreck of the Titan via Hugh Lamb's introduction to Robertson's The Battle of the Monsters in Victorian Nightmares. Didn't realise it was a 70 page novella as opposed to a full-blown novel. The version available via Gutenberg is the slightly extended 1912 reprint, which tags on a brief coda you don't need (and betrays the original title). In fact, much as enjoyed The Wreck of the Titan, it might have been even stronger had the author snapped shut his story at close of Chapter XIV.


Among the deckhands aboard the steamship, Titan, "the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men," the former Lieutenant John Rowland, who has taken to drink since the woman he loved married another. Ominously, this same Mrs. Myra Selfridge, her husband and their infant daughter are among the 2,000 passengers to set out from New York. Exciting rumour has it that Captain Bryce has vowed to complete the voyage in record time.

Myra complains to her husband; "John Rowland is here ... [he]tried to speak to me ... he seems to be a common sailor ... dressed in old clothes, all dirty. And such a dissipated face. He seems to have fallen so low ..." Rowland is manning the crow's nest when he reports a smaller craft ahead. The warning is ignored. The Titan smashes into the Royal Age, severing it in two, abandoning those few of its crew to survive the collision to drown.

As to his own men, Captain Bryce buys their silence. All save Rowland, who makes known his intention to alert the authorities when next they dock. Why, the d — ed bolshy young D —! Something will have to be done about him or there'll be hell to pay!

Exploiting Rowland's addiction, Bryce and Austin, the b'swain, ensure there's a flask of whiskey in his coat pocket at the start of every shift. His tea they spike with hemp. Consequently, Rowland is hallucinating when The Titan strikes a field of solid ice.

Catastrophe! Titan, "considered practically unsinkable," promptly does so, taking with her the vast majority of the passengers and crew. Sixty or so survivors, Bryce, Austin and Mrs. Selfridge among them, scramble aboard a lifeboat. Rowland, bleeding from a head injury but otherwise unscathed, rescues the baby of his former sweetheart from the sea and salvages a canvas cover from a wrecked boat to erect a makeshift tent on the ice. If they can only hang on until help arrives ...

Of course, Rowland has reckoned without a lean and famished intruder ....

To be continued

[dem bones]

Rowland's triumph over the polar bear (for me, the most suspenseful, standout sequence of the novella) will eventually cost him dear. It has, however given his life new purpose. He is determined to deliver baby Myra to her mother, as he is to bring Bryce to justice for the murder of the Royal Age men. Bear meat and whisky keep them alive long enough to be rescued by a passing ship, whose Captain Barry nurses them through fever.

News of Rowland's survival goes down like a pail of sick with, not just Bryce and the boatswain, but Mr. Meyer - a ghastly Jewish caricature - who insured the Titan to the tune of £10, 000. "This will ruin me." Suffice to say, he's too devious to allow that to happen. At close of the court proceedings, a victorious Rowland travels to New York to reunite baby Myra with her mother. If he expects a hero's welcome, he can think again ...

Will have to give Robertson's Battle of the Monsters another go as it has passed from memory. Futility — I can only think of it by that title — is unlikely to do likewise.

[Shrink Proof]

This sounds like a hell of a lot of plot to get through in a mere 70 pages. Will investigate...

[dem bones]

I'd sure be interested in your opinion. It seemed especially fortuitous to luck out on a copy a day or so after the arrival of Polar Horrors (whose cover illo suits both).