Create a free account to access exclusive content, play games, solve puzzles, test your pop-culture knowledge and receive special offers.Already have an account? Login
110 years after Titanic sank beneath the surface into the icy, dark abyss many questions and mysteries remain. Was the Ship of Beauty’s fate prophesied before it even set sail? Or is it all just myth and legends?
The Great Storyteller
First Class passenger, investigative journalist, newspaper editor and spiritualist, William Thomas Stead was enroute to New York to attend a peace congress at Carnegie Hall at the request of President Taft. As stories go, at the last dinner on Titanic, he captivated his dinner companions with a tale of a cursed mummy at the British Museum. A great storyteller, did Stead predict the sinking in his own writing and foresee his own death?
Courtesy of RMS Titanic, Inc.
Before boarding Titanic, Stead penned the following two articles:
1886: “How the Mail Steamer went Down in Mid Atlantic”, Pall Mall Gazette. Two ships crash and sink resulting into a large loss of life due to a lack of lifeboats.
1892: “From the Old World to the New”, The Review of Reviews. A character dreams of a ship sailing among icebergs, hitting one, and sinking with the crew crying out for help.
Courtesy of RMS Titanic, Inc.
Published in 1898, Futility, written by former first mate Morgan Robertson tells the story of a disgraced US Navy officer who works on a ship called the Titan. When the Titan strikes an iceberg and sinks, the character survives while saving a young girl on an iceberg. The actual events of the Titanic’s sinking are eerily close to the events of this novella written 14 years ahead of the tragic accident.
The Addergoole 14
Nestled in County Mayo, the northwestern county in Ireland is Addergoole parish. Fourteen men and women from this parish set sail on Titanic, one of whom was Bridget Delia Mahon from the village of Derrymartin, located in the foothills of Nephin mountain. Before she left, her brother read her tea leaves. He allegedly told her there would be a terrible disaster and that she would die. She was on her way to Brooklyn, NY to be with friends and family. Days later when disaster struck, only three of the Addergoole 14 survived and sadly, she was not one of them. Delia’s brother’s reading was correct.
Many other family members reported having had bad feelings and uneasiness.
Courtesy of RMS Titanic, Inc.
Nephin or Néifinn, loosely translated as “heavenly” or “Finn’s Heaven.” (photo Public Domain)
Edgar Samuel Andrew
Second Class passenger Edgar Samuel Andrew, 17, of San Ambrosio, Argentina originally bought a ticket on the Oceanic but transferred to the Titanic due to a coal strike.
Courtesy of RMS Titanic, Inc.
“I wish the Titanic were lying at the bottom of the ocean.”
Before leaving, he wrote a letter to his friend Josey Cowen, “Josey, I am boarding the greatest steamship in the world, but I don’t really feel proud of it at all, right now I wish the Titanic were lying at the bottom of the ocean.” Edgar did not survive the sinking.
Courtesy of RMS Titanic, Inc.
Edgar’s suitcase, recovered RMS Titanic, Inc. in 2000, contained postcards, clothing, and several types of footwear including this pair of Oxford cap-toed shoes from Morton’s, an upscale shoe store in London.Regardless of the stories and the premonitions, the outcome of this first international accident changed the world. Experience the tales at discovertitanic.com
