But first lets put a slightly different slant on things. How and why things happen is always interesting. Are they destined to happen and if so why?
With the Titanic the problem, as we know, was an iceberg and we accept this without a second thought. But if we think about it properly wasn't it a bit of a coincidence that the iceberg - most likely thousands of years old - broke away from Greenland at that precise time and moved south as far as the New York latitude?
Wasn't it also strange that the Titanic's captain had sped up the ship to try and reach it's destination before time? If he hadn't have done this the Titanic wouldn't have hit the iceberg and killed all of those people.
It was almost like a plan coming together - the iceberg and Titanic had to collide. Some would say it was in the stars.
There are numerous tales of people foretelling the Titanic's demise. A Mrs. Marshall is supposedly to have screamed out as the ship sailed past the Isle of Wight, "It's going to sink, that ship is going to sink. Save them! Save them!" Her mother was on the Titanic.
There are dozens of these sort of stories but many cannot be proven. The case of Morgan Robertson is slightly different as in 1898 he published a novel telling of the 'unsinkable' SS Titan.
In his story the SS Titan steamship sailed out of Southampton on its inaugural voyage and went on to sink following a collision with, yes, an iceberg.
There were similarities between the Titan and the Titanic:
1) Titan and Titanic were on their first voyage.
2) Both ships were sunk after hitting an iceberg.
3) There is a similarity in the names of Titan and Titanic.
4) Titan was 70,000 tons and the Titanic 66,000 tons.
5) Titan 800 feet in length, Titanic 882 feet.
6) Both had three propellers.
7) Both the fictional Titan and the real Titanic were thought of as unsinkable by their owners and therefore had insufficient lifeboats. The Titan, according to the story, had 24 lifeboats for 2,500 passengers and the Titanic had just 20 lifeboats for 2,224 passengers.
1) Titan and Titanic were on their first voyage.
2) Both ships were sunk after hitting an iceberg.
3) There is a similarity in the names of Titan and Titanic.
4) Titan was 70,000 tons and the Titanic 66,000 tons.
5) Titan 800 feet in length, Titanic 882 feet.
6) Both had three propellers.
7) Both the fictional Titan and the real Titanic were thought of as unsinkable by their owners and therefore had insufficient lifeboats. The Titan, according to the story, had 24 lifeboats for 2,500 passengers and the Titanic had just 20 lifeboats for 2,224 passengers.
Perhaps there was magic afoot with the Titanic sinking? According to the British Museum she was carrying an Egyptian Pharaoh mummy destined for an American museum.
Newspapers at the time made much of the mummy calling it cursed. They made claims that everyone who had photographed the mummy had all mysteriously died.
Some of all this we can perhaps take with a pinch of salt and yet some of the coincidences make you wonder.
As the Titanic left port a cockerel crowed - a sign of bad luck for sailors ...
In 1939 a ship called the Titanian was in the general area of where the Titanic went down. The helmsman had a dreadful premonition and decided to try and stop the ship. Later the Titanian hit an iceberg. It was damaged but could carry on thanks to the collision being at a slow speed.
Further Reading:
Famous Coincidences - Abraham Lincoln
Images on this post in Public Domain
Footnote: I wrote this post just before my evening meal. Feeling lazy my wife and I decided to have this in front of the television. I switched on the TV and it was the Antiques Roadshow Special and what were they talking about - yes, Titanic collectibles!
They had the original Titanic plans from when it was built, postcards sent by a musician from the ship before it went down (he died) and lots of info about medals issued to the crew of the ship that went to Titanic's rescue - the RMS Carpathia. Carpathia saved 705 lives but was sunk herself by a German submarine during World War 1 on July 17th 1918.
Titanic memorabilia is now valuable.
They had the original Titanic plans from when it was built, postcards sent by a musician from the ship before it went down (he died) and lots of info about medals issued to the crew of the ship that went to Titanic's rescue - the RMS Carpathia. Carpathia saved 705 lives but was sunk herself by a German submarine during World War 1 on July 17th 1918.
Titanic memorabilia is now valuable.
It really mkes you start to wonder when you start putting all these facts together if there is more to this than a coincidence......great article by the way.
ReplyDeleteTwo of my all time favorites!
ReplyDeleteTheWolf: Ah, that's the 'big' question!
ReplyDeleteTrish & Rob: And mine!
Mike
Great post on the Titanic. However, the legend of the 'cursed mummy on the Titanic' is just that, a legend. See: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/mummy.asp
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ReplyDeleteTitanic - Is there anything in this ? - My beloved grandmother died 15th April 1984 (72yr anniversary of sinking) The survivors arrived in New York, April 18th (My birthday) My surname is Shipp and one of the victims was a T Beattie ( Also my name) OOOO Spooky lol!
ReplyDeleteSome of the victims were buried in Nova Scotia (New Scotland) Halifax, Canada - I live in little Scotland, Halifax lol!
How about that! Once we start looking there are coincidences and synchronicity all around us.
DeleteNewspaper headline "Titanic sinks with 1800 onboard; only 675...saved"
ReplyDelete6+7+5=18