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A book predicted the Titanic sinking 14 years before the tragedy.

When you mention ‘Titanic’ our minds generally hop to the 1997 disaster film of the same name. Director, James Cameron brought the story of the Titanic to the forefront of popular culture with his film based on the 1912 disaster.

Missed it? You can watch the trailer below. Post continues after video. 

We all know the story (warning: spoilers ahead, but honestly, it’s a historical event so there can’t really be spoilers). The latest and greatest passenger ship ‘of the future’ leaves England bound for America, ship hits iceberg, ship sinks to the bottom of the Atlantic killing over 1500 passengers.

Yet, a recently discovered short story, which was published in 1898, 14 years before the tragedy, coincidentally ‘predicts’ the events of that fateful night.

Morgan Robertson's 19th century novella, Futility or, alternatively Wreck of the Titan, tells the tale of a fictional ocean liner which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg.

Even stranger? The ship was hit on the starboard side, on a night in April and sank 740 kilometres from Newfoundland ...exactly the same as the Titanic did 14 years later.

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Oh, and the ship is called Titan. 

RMS Titanic. Image: Creative commons.

Coincidental? Yes. Reason for the Titanic sinking? Definitely not.