Futility, Or the Wreck of the Titan

MP3 Audio CD. Futility, Or the Wreck of the Titan is Morgan Robertson?s best-known book, a novella about the sinking of an ocean liner previously believed to be unsinkable.

The story features John Rowland, a disgraced ex-navy officer who has become an alcoholic and now works as deckhand on Futility, one of the world?s largest ocean liners. The first half of the novel introduces the character and tells the reader about his background, the accident that leads to the tragic sinking of the ship taking place halfway through the book. The second half of the book also features Rowland, but this time he is in action, saving a young girl, the daughter of one of his former lovers. The dramatic events change Rowland for the better ? he goes home, manages to overcome his alcohol addiction and becomes employed with the government, finding his way back to financial well-being and social status.

The novel was written and published in 1898, almost a decade and a half before anyone ever heard anything about the Titanic, yet the story bears striking resemblance to the tragedy of the largest, most powerful and most luxurious passenger liner of the first part of the 20th century. Both ships were named after titans, divine beings in Classical Greek mythology, both the Titan and the Titanic were believed to be indestructible when they were launched and they both collide with an iceberg on an April night.

Though the author was an experienced seafarer himself and uses his experience to provide the reader with lots of technical details about the ship and about how it was manned, Futility uses the accident only as a pretext. The story is about Rowland, his life, his thoughts and his efforts to return to the life he once abandoned, crowned by success, so the novel is more about character development than about anything else.