Monday, April 11, 2011

Titanic - The Paranormal Phenomenon

Titanic 1912 - The Unforgettable Ship



The RMS Titanic. You may all know her as the infamous ocean-liner that sank in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg on April 15th, 1912.

First, I'll give you the background information about the RMS Titanic.

  • In her time, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world. She was constructed at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. Titanic is owned by White Star Line.
  • She was completed on March 31st, 1912 and set sail for her maiden voyage from Southampton on April 10th, 1912.
  • Bound for New York, Titanic was already carrying at least 2,240 passengers onboard.
  • Already the signs of disaster foretold the tragedy of the doomed ocean-liner. As Titanic had just left her berth, it caused the SS New York, which was already docked nearby, to break away from her moorings where she had a near collision with Titanic (four feet apart). Luckily a tugboat towed away the SS New York, before Titanic left half an hour later.
  • Four days later, at 23:40 on April 14th, 1912, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank at 2:20am the following morning, killing 1,517 people. It was one of the most deadlist peacetime maritime disasters in history.

Now, the title says paranormal phenomenon right? Well of course! I'll get right to it now! You already know the main facts about Titanic, so here is the paranormal part.

What we will talk about is Premonitions. For those who don't know, a premonition is a type of prophecy consisting of a warning about a future event. Gut feelings (as I have them all the time), are also referred to as premonitions.

A group of twenty-two stokers were late for the Titanic, and the Captain declared the the ship would sail without them. Now that's not a premonition, but that saved their lives!
  • There are more than 19 accounts of premonitions concerning the Titanic, all occurring at least two weeks before Titanic sailed on April 10th, 1912.
  • Some cancelled their reservations after dreaming of Titanic's doom. Other's said that it was bad luck to sail on the ship's journey. Some of the survivors said they felt uneasy, but sailed anyway.

In 1898, fourteen years before the Titanic sank, author Morgan Robertson, wrote a short novel called Furtility (later known as The Wreck of the Titan). The novel displayed striking similiarites between the wreck in the novel and the sinking of Titanic. Here are some parallels:
  1. Robertson's fictitious ship name was Titan (ooh, like Titanic eh?). Very close there.
  2. Robertson's Titan was 800 ft long, and the Titanic was 882.2 ft long.
  3. Both ships (real and fictional) were both made of steel with 3 propellor two masts.
  4. Each ship was built to carry 3000 people.
  5. The total tonnage of the Titan was 46,328 tons and the Titanic, 45,000 tons.
  6. The Titan's horsepower was 40,000 and Titanic's 46,000.
  7. Each were described as the 'largest passenger ship ever built'.
  8. Both were considered 'unsinkable', until they went down in the North Alantic (scary huh?!).
  9. There were far few lifeboats on both ships.
  10. The Titan travelled 24 knots, the Titanic 22.5 knots.
  11. Both wrecks were in the month of April (seriously, this can't be a coincidence!).
  12. Both struck an iceberg on the starboard side near midnight.
Now, my belief is that there are no such thing as too many coincidences, in fact I believe it to be a an accidental paranormal phenomenon. If you want to download the book to see for yourself, here is the link for download.

http://www.classicly.com/morgan-robertson/the-wreck-of-the-titan/download

Other people who died had a bad feeling about the Titanic, and made out their wills before going onboard and dying during the sinking.

I also went to the Titanic Exhibition when it came to Melbourne. It was amazing, and so overwhelming I cried when I saw the hallways, and the grand staircase remade!

So, what did you think about this post? Do you think it's just a coincidence? Or some other force?

RMS Titanic might have been deemed 'unsinkable', but she will always be and forever be 'unfogettable'...










7 comments:

  1. I got to go to a Titanic exhibit once. It was quite eerie seeing all the artifacts and reading about the people on board.

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  2. This is not the first of your posts I've read, and you never cease to amaze me. Thank you, and I look forward to reading more.

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  3. Quite interesting ... and the similarities with the book are really startling.

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  4. I feel like I must mention that the author of the book 'Furtility' went back and edited his book to make it more like the sinking of RMS Titanic.

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    1. You are right actually. I didn't know that when I wrote this post. Good catch!

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  5. Thank you! It's good to know that people are still reading! :)

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