The Titanic is going to be a household word for a while because of the movie. When I think of the Titanic I always think of one of the many literary coincidences that make life interesting.

In 1898 Morgan Robertson wrote an novel about a ship called the S.S. Titan. She was the biggest ship ever built, close to 70,000 tons. She could cruise at 25 knots in spite of this immense bulk because of the amazingly powerful engines and their triple screws.

In the story the ship was on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York when she struck an iceberg and sank with great loss of life. The tragedy in the story revolved around the fact that this enormous ship had only 24 lifeboats, not enough for even half the passengers on the star-studded passenger list. Most of the passengers were drowned. This was written in 1898.