Morgan Robertson

Morgan Robertson (September 30 1861–March 24 1915) was a well-known American author of short stories and novels, and the possible inventor of the periscope.

Nowadays he is best known for the short fictional novel Futility, first published in 1898. This story features an enormous British passenger liner called the Titan, which, deemed to be unsinkable, carries insufficient lifeboats. On a voyage in the month of April, the Titan hits an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic with the loss of almost everyone on board.

The similarities between the fictional sinking of the Titan and the real-life sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 attract attention even today although there are significant differences: for example, the fictional Titan capsized and sank almost immediately (rendering the number of lifeboats moot), and the Titan was on its third return trip from New York, not her maiden voyage to New York.

In 1905, Robertson's book The Submarine Destroyer was released. It described a submarine that used a device called a periscope. Despite Robertson's later claims that he had "invented" a prototype periscope himself (and was refused a patent), Lake and Grubbs had perfected the model used by the U.S. Navy by 1902, 3 years before Robertson's "prescient" novel.

In 1914 (in a volume that also contained the new version of Futility), Robertson included a short story called Beyond the Spectrum, which described a future war between the United States and Japan, a popular subject at the time. Like The Wreck of the Titan, Beyond the Spectrum bore some similarities with actual events. Japan does not declare war but instead launches sneak attacks on United States ships en route to the Philippines and Hawaii; an invasion fleet about to conduct a surprise attack on San Francisco is stopped by the hero using the weapon from a captured Japanese vessel. The title refers to an ultraviolet searchlight used by the Japanese (but invented by the Americans) to blind American crews. Some readers have compared the searchlight's effects (blindness, intense heat, and facial burns) to those of the atomic bomb.

Robertson was the author of Primordial / Three Laws and the Golden Rule, a novella about shipwrecked children growing up together and falling in love on a desert island. Fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs acknowledge Robertson's contribution to the works of Henry De Vere Stacpoole, particularly The Blue Lagoon. They believe that both Robertson's and Stacpoole's writings influenced Burroughs in his creation of Tarzan of the Apes.

On March 24, 1915, Robertson was found dead in his room at the Alamac Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was 53 years of age. It is believed that he died of an overdose of protiodide.

Books and Stories

• Where Angels Fear to Tread and Other Stories of the Sea, anthology published 1899, The Century Co., containing:
  • Where angels fear to tread
  • The brain of the battle-ship
  • The wigwag message
  • The trade-wind
  • Salvage
  • Between the Millstones
  • The Battle of the Monsters
  • From the royal-yard down
  • Needs must when the devil drives
  • When Greek meets Greek
  • Primordial

• Masters of Men, published 1901, Curtis Publishing Co.
  • Book I - The Age of Stone
  • Book II - The Age of Iron
  • Book III - Barbarism
  • Book IV - Civilization

• The Wreck of the Titan or Futility containing:
  • The wreck of the Titan
  • The Pirates
  • Beyond the Spectrum
  • In the Valley of the Shadow

• Down to the Sea, published 1905, Harper and Brothers, containing:
  • The Closing of the Circuit
  • A Cow, Two Men, and a Parson
  • The Rivals
  • A Chemical Comedy
  • A Hero Of The Cloth
  • The Subconscious Finnegan
  • The Torpedo
  • The Submarine
  • Fifty Fathoms Down
  • The Enemies
  • The Vitality of Dennis
  • The Helix
  • The Shark
  • The Mutiny

• The Grain Ship, anthology published 1914, McKinley, Stone and Mackenzie, NY, containing:
  • The Grain Ship
  • From the Darkness and the Depths
  • Noah's Ark
  • The Finishing Touch
  • The Rock
  • The Argonauts
  • The Married Man
  • The Triple Alliance
  • Shovels and Bricks
  • Extracts from Noah's Logs

• Three Laws and the Golden Rule containing:
  • The Three Laws and the Golden Rule
  • The Americans
  • Dignity
  • The Honeymoon Ship
  • The Third Mate
  • Through the Deadlight
  • The Hairy Devil
  • The Slumber of a Soul
  • Honor Among Thieves
  • The Survival of the Fittest
  • A Creature of Circumstance

This list is not necessarily complete

References

• Periscope Inventor Dead. Renfrew Mercury, Friday, April 2, 1915, p.7
• Titanic - Futility by Morgan Robertson.
• Wreck of The Titan/Futility by Morgan Robertson.
• Primordial, and Three Laws and the Golden Rule by Morgan Robertson.