8 h 3 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What good is an unsinkable ship when pride sets her course and profit counts her lifeboats?
The Titan crosses the North Atlantic in April, a floating city of steel whose owners insist she cannot sink. Her captain pushes for speed. Below that grand promise, John Rowland, a former United States Navy officer ruined by drink, works as a deckhand and sees the dangers with a bitter eye.
In The Wreck of the Titan, Morgan Robertson brings a sailor’s knowledge to a short, hard-edged adventure. As the liner enters colder waters, a young girl named Myra becomes bound up with Rowland’s fate. Behind the crossing lies a stark question: how much can human skill protect when pride and profit outrun care?
What you’ll discover
- A giant built on confidence Step aboard a vast luxury liner whose bold promises exceed her supply of lifeboats.
- A fallen officer’s bitter eye Meet John Rowland, a deckhand whose naval past sharpens his view of the ship’s dangers.
- Cold waters ahead Feel the crossing grow colder as the northern sea gives sailors reason for caution.
- Pride against nature Explore the folly of trusting steel and speed more than the sea allows.
- An unsettling echo Discover the adventure whose ship, waters, and month invite comparisons with the later Titanic disaster.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who like sea stories, disaster tales, and the odd history of books that seem to foresee real events. It is short and brisk. If you want deep character study or gentle pacing, it may feel blunt.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The Titan is built to be unsinkable
- A drunken deckhand carries a ruined past
- Speed and profit rule the crossing
- Night, cold and the northern sea
- What the story says about pride and folly
- A short, hard-edged tale and its eerie echoes
Who’s who
- John RowlandA former United States Navy officer, ruined by drink, who works as a deckhand on the Titan and sees her dangers with a bitter eye.
- The CaptainThe proud commander of the Titan, who trusts his ship and drives her at speed to keep the owners' schedule.
- MyraA young girl traveling on the liner, whose fate becomes bound up with Rowland's as the voyage goes on.
- The TitanThe largest ship ever built, a floating city whose owners call her unsinkable and give her too few lifeboats.
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- Large print hardcover
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Der Untergang der Titan
by Morgan Robertson· 1898
A luxury liner’s voyage exposes the dangers of overconfidence.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
The Titan is built to be unsinkable
The story opens with the ship. Robertson describes her as the largest craft afloat, a floating city of steel. She is over eight hundred feet long and carries thousands of people. She has three propellers, many decks and watertight compartments, and the finest rooms a rich passenger could want.
The builders and owners boast about her safety. Her hull is divided so that she can, they say, survive damage that would kill lesser ships. Naval architects of the time did make such claims, and Robertson takes them at face value to show how far belief can run ahead of fact. The word unsinkable hangs over the opening pages.
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The author
Morgan Robertson
1861–1915 · American maritime fiction writer
Morgan Robertson was an American writer born in Oswego, New York, in 1861. He worked as a sailor before becoming a writer. His works included Futility, published in 1898 and later titled The Wreck of the Titan. He lived in New York City and died in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1915.
“She was the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men.”
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What is The Wreck of the Titan about?
It is a short novel about the largest liner ever built, said to be unsinkable, and her crossing of the North Atlantic. It follows a drunken former naval officer on board and shows how pride and speed lead to danger.
Did Morgan Robertson predict the sinking of the Titanic?
Robertson published the book in 1898, fourteen years before the Titanic sank in 1912. The likenesses are striking, but he said he was only reasoning from naval design and shipping practice, not seeing the future.
When was The Wreck of the Titan written and was it first called something else?
It first appeared in 1898 under the title Futility. It was reissued in 1912 as The Wreck of the Titan, after the real disaster made its name and its plot newly interesting to readers.
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