Wreck of the Titanic Foretold?

Book Overview

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?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573922013
• ISBN13: 9781573922012
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 157 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Did someone actually predict the sinking of the Titanic?

I have read several books about the Titanic, and what a surprise when I came across this book.It was the fact that it was about the Titanic that grabbed my attention.Then I noticed that the author was Martin Gardner,a name I was very familiar with;and thought it was another author by the same name.A further perusal showed that it was,in fact,the same author I have known about and had many of his books in my library.Martin Gardner seemed always to have been around,particularly if one was interested in Recreational Mathematics,Puzzles,etc.He was born in Tulsa,Oklahoma,on October 1914.It's interesting to note that he was born less than 3 years after the Titanic sank on April 15,1912. Now at the age of 95,he is still with us,while that fateful night ,now seems so far in the past.I first encountered Martin Gardner while I was in university in the mid 50's via his "Scientific American column,Mathematical Games";which he authored for 25 years.He has over his lifetime ,authored more than 65 books on a variety of subjects.However,he has been,by far,the prominent and best loved author in the world of Mathematical Recreations. This book is a little different than what one normally thinks of when one thinks of Martin Gardner and his puzzles. During ,and after,the turn of the century,huge advancements had been made in building and sailing of massive steamships,capable of carrying thousands of passengers and crew,across great oceans.It was a whole new experience,filled with glamor and luxury;but still in its infancy ,as far as methods to identify ocean hazards,coping with accidents,and where the safety of the shiips seemed to be compromised by a belief in invincibility.Many articles,books and stories were written at that time about all sorts of disasters at sea;and often about ships hitting huge icebergs in the North Atlantic and sinking.This book includes the complete novel "The Wreck of the Titan",by Morgan Robertson in 1898,14 years before the Titanic sank.It also includes chapters from another book,"From the Old World to the New",by W.T. Stead and another book ,published in 1912 ,"The White Ghost of Disaster" by Mayn Clew Garnett;as well as some poems from the same period. Martin Gardner analyzes these and other popular writings from the period and with so much similar stories ;and concludes that it is only a matter of coincidence,entirely within the bounds of normal statistical laws of chance,that someone would make predictions or create stories that seemed to fortell the actual sinking of the Titanic. As we are all aware,great events,especially disasters,are followed by a wide variety of announcements that they were predicted by someone.Evidence is usually very skimpy but believers are only too ready to believe.Even if some seer happens to get lucky and make a prediction that materializes;we should consider the multitude of othe predictions that that same seer made but never happened and are forgotten about. A good example might be "The Big One" that

Titanic book rises again

The following review was printed in Doubting Thomas #1 (reprinted here with permission):I am a fan of Gardner's work, especially his 1952 Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science which helped jump start the skeptical movement. Gardner's wit is always refreshing and the curious reader is never disappointed.So, it was a great pleasure to see this book being offered again after its initial publication in the mid-80s, not long after the remains of Titanic were found by Dr. Robert Ballard....I would recommend this book in two ways: to read a good critique on precognition on this specific case, and as a selection of century-old literature that cannot be found in many places.

Great book for rationalists!

Martin Gardner, acclaimed rationalist, debunks those who would call Robinson psychic. Some of the "amazing coincidences" regarding "The Wreck of the Titan" may in fact be explained by the White Star Line's own news releases! Gardner includes the Robinson story, plus lots of other related Titanic material. Great book.