Nautical Links & History

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-A True Sea Story-

In 1898 a struggling author named Morgan Robertson concocted a novel about a fabulous Atlantic liner, far larger than any liner ever built. Robertson loaded his ship with rich and complacent people and then wrecked it one cold April night on an iceberg. This somehow showed the futility of everything, and in fact, the book was called "Futility" when it appeared that year, published by the firm of M.F.Mansfield.

Fourteen years later a British shipping company named the White Star Line built a steamer remarkably like the one in Robertson's novel. The new liner was 66,000 tons displacement; Robertson's was 70,000 tons. The real ship was 882.5 feet long; the fictional one was 800 feet. Both could carry about 3000 people, and both had enough lifeboats for only a fraction of this number. But, then, this did not seem to matter because both were labeled "unsinkable."

On April 10, 1912, the real ship left Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York. her cargo included a priceless copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and a list of passengers collectively worth $ 230 million dollars. On her way over she too struck an iceberg and went down on a cold April night.

Robertson called his ship the Titan; the White Star Line called its ship the Titanic.

And that my seafaring customers, is the way of the sea...

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