Wreck of the Titanic Foretold?

by Martin Gardner

The Titanic's memory lives on today in documentaries, movies, and even a Broadway musical. Persistent investigators remain on the case, offering new theories to explain its demise.

Those who strongly believe in precognition point to Morgan Robertson's sea novel The Wreck of the Titan, published fourteen years before the Titanic went down, as proof of the power of extrasensory perception. This rare fifty-page novel is reproduced here in full, along with a selection of other writings that seem to foretell the Titanic's fate, including an excerpt from a novel by famous British journalist and spiritualist W.T. Stead, a short story called "The White Ghost of Disaster," and several poems about ships hitting icebergs in the North Atlantic.

Martin Gardner includes notes and running commentary that explore the coincidences and laws of chance as applied to this historical phenomenon. He also includes a new preface with reaction and updates to the original publication of The Wreck of the Titanic Foretold?

Martin Gardner, a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, is the author of many books, including Weird Water & Fuzzy Logic, and Good, Bad, and Bogus.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

157 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1986

About the author

Martin Gardner was an American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, literature (especially the writings of Lewis Carroll), philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion. He wrote the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American from 1956 to 1981, and published over 70 books.

Reviews

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is on a different premise than the other Titanic material I have read. Fictitious works that supposedly foretold the event are excerpted, along with the author's analysis of probability as to why these are not actual predictions of the Titanic sinking. It's an interesting angle but not enough substance. I would give it 2.5 stars if I could.