8 h 3 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 3 minPaperback · 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.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you like sea adventure, naval gadgets, wrecks and mutinies, or tales of ordinary people facing a machine age that promises safety.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A ship called unsinkable sails too fast
- A fallen sailor sees the collision and refuses silence
- Drugged and set on watch, he faces the ice
- On the ice, he learns what he will do for a child
- Sea law and insurance decide what truth costs
- Two boys fight, and a thief steals the navy's newest ship
- Honor, bandages and a plan to rob a liner
- Blind fleets, plain spectacles and an invisible light
- A submarine, a jealous man and a sea cock
- Machines promise safety while people decide the outcome
Who’s who
- John RowlandA former naval officer turned drunken seaman who tries to expose the Titan's reckless speed and ends up guarding a child's life.
- Myra SelfridgeA young mother who fears the man who once loved her and wants only to keep her small daughter safe.
- Mr. MeyerA London underwriter who has insured the Titan and hunts for any excuse to avoid paying.
- William DenmanA young naval officer who is brave in danger yet haunted by an old defeat, and finds himself aboard a stolen destroyer.
- Jack ForsytheDenman's boyhood rival, now an enlisted man among the escaped convicts, eager to command and to prove himself.
- JenkinsThe giant, level-headed leader of the escaped prisoners, who wants only freedom for himself and his men.
- Florrie FlemingDenman's childhood neighbor, rescued from a burning yacht, who stays calm and holds her own among rough men.
- George MetcalfA naval surgeon and inventor whom his fellow officers mock, but who sees what the blinding lights really are.
Formats and delivery
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- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read today.
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- Hardcover
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The Wreck of the Titan
by Morgan Robertson · 1898
A lookout spots a ship straight ahead through the fog, but the Titan maintains its speed.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What happens when the largest ship ever built is ordered to race through fog at full speed? In The Wreck of the Titan, the answer comes with cold, practical clarity.
The Wreck of the Titan at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 45 min3 h 45 min fast, 5 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 67,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1898by Morgan Robertson
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A ship called unsinkable sails too fast
The Titan opens with a list of what makes her safe. She is the largest ship afloat, with ninety-two watertight doors that shut in half a minute. She would still float with nine of her nineteen compartments flooded. So the company calls her practically unsinkable.
Then comes the detail that matters. She carries only as many lifeboats as the law requires, twenty-four of them. Because she is unsinkable, nobody sees the need for more. The company also orders that the Titan will travel the Northern Lane at top speed in clear, foggy or stormy weather.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1898
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Robertson, Morgan. The Wreck of the Titan. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wreck-of-the-titan.
Robertson, M. (2026). The wreck of the Titan. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wreck-of-the-titan (Original work published 1898)
Robertson, Morgan. The Wreck of the Titan. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wreck-of-the-titan.
@book{robertson2026wreck,
author = {Robertson, Morgan},
title = {The Wreck of the Titan},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wreck-of-the-titan},
note = {First published 1898}
}
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What is The Wreck of the Titan about?
It is a collection of four sea stories by Morgan Robertson. The title novella follows a huge liner racing through fog, a drunken sailor who sees the danger, and a child he saves. Three shorter tales add pirates, an invisible light and a sunken submarine.
Did Morgan Robertson predict the Titanic disaster?
The novella features a fictional ship called the Titan, called unsinkable, with too few lifeboats, that strikes an iceberg in April while moving at high speed. Many readers note how closely its details echo a later real disaster, though it is a work of fiction.
Who is John Rowland in The Wreck of the Titan?
Rowland is a former naval officer who now works as a common sailor and drinks too much. He loves Myra Selfridge, sees the Titan's collision from the crow's nest, and refuses a bribe to keep quiet. He later protects her child on an iceberg.
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.
More by Morgan Robertson
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