15 Raw Facts Everyone Forgot About The Sinking Of The Titanic

Life

10. A Novel Predicted The Disaster 14 Years Before It Happened

You sometimes hear about people who predicted a tragedy years before it happened in some way, but the eerie similarities to what happened on April 14th, 1912 and the events of a book written in 1898 are way too close for comfort. 14 years before the Titanic sank on her maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg, an American author named Morgan Robertson wrote a novel called ‘Wreck Of The Titan’ (right out the gate, the names are almost identical).

A freakier coincidence than simply sharing similar names is the fact that Robertson’s fictional ship suffered exactly the same fate as Titanic would go on to. The novel tells the tale of a British-made ship called Titan which hits an iceberg on its maiden voyage, causing it to sink and bringing all passengers and crew members down with it. Apart from the fact that Titanic had survivors and the book had none is the only detail that sets the two events apart. Creepy as hell.

9. British Newspapers Initially Reported “No Lives Lost”

Us, Brits, are known for always trying to put a brave face on things, but in this case, the UK was just grossly misinformed about the true nature of the Titanic disaster. After the ship had hit the iceberg, those on land weren’t fully aware of the scale of the disaster, and a false report put out by the ship’s White Star Line company led the public to believe that the “unsinkable” ship had lived up to its name and survived the iceberg collision.

Because of this report made in error, the British newspaper, the London Daily Mail, wasted no time in reporting that “No Lives Were Lost” on the front of their April 15th edition. Horrifyingly, though, the truth soon came out, and the British and American press were waking up to the news that not only did the great “unsinkable” ship at the bottom of the Atlantic sink but that over 1,000 people–many of whom will have been their loved ones–were dead or presumed dead.

8. It Was An Hour Before The First Lifeboat Was Released

Titanic struck the iceberg at around 11:40 pm on April 14th. Astonishingly, it would be another hour until the first lifeboat was launched out onto the water. The ship would submerge completely less than two hours after the first lifeboat was released. This incredibly slow reaction time and poor organization was mainly down to the fact that the crew on board never had any proper training with the lifeboats.

Since Captain Edward J. Smith had canceled the lifeboat drill earlier that morning, there will have been a chaotic scramble on deck to decide how to lower the lifeboats without damaging them and how many people could go on once they had been released. To make things even worse in this time of crisis, two of the collapsible lifeboats that the ship had on deck along with the traditional wooden boats had begun to float away as the Titanic sunk ever further beneath the surface.

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