The book that predicted the Titanic disaster: Eerie 1898 novel about 'unsinkable' ocean liner 'Titan' hitting an iceberg and sinking was published 14 years before tragedy claimed 1,500 lives

She was 'unsinkable' and 'indestructible', the 'largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men'.

And then in 1912, the ship hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic with appalling loss of life.

You would be forgiven for thinking that this vessel was the Titanic, whose tragic story has captivated the world since disaster struck 112 years ago this week.

But you would be mistaken. For this was the Titan, the vessel prophetically dreamed up by American author Morgan Robertson in his little-known 1898 novel.

In 'The Wreck of the Titan Or, Futility', Robertson eerily foretold one of the most compelling maritime disasters in history.

The Titanic sank in April 1912 with the loss of more than 1,500 lives. Above: The ship leaving Southampton on its maiden voyage

The 1898 novel 'The Wreck of the Titan Or, Futility', by American author Morgan Robertson, eerily foretold the sinking of the Titanic

His novel began: 'She was the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men. 

'In her construction and maintenance were involved every science, profession, and trade known to civilisation. 

The Daily Mail's coverage of the book shortly after the Titanic disaster

'On her bridge were officers, who, besides being the pick of the Royal Navy, had passed rigid examinations in all studies … they were not only seamen, but scientists.'

He went on: 'Unsinkable—indestructible, she carried as few boats as would satisfy the laws. 

'These, twenty-four in number, were securely covered and lashed down to their chocks on the upper deck, and if launched would hold five hundred people. 

'She carried no useless, cumbersome life-rafts; but—because the law required it—each of the three thousand berths in the passengers', officers', and crew's quarters contained a cork jacket, while about twenty circular life-buoys were strewn along the rails.'

Robertson, an American, was a former sailor who published dozens of novels and also claimed to have invented the periscope. 

Like the Titanic, the Titan hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic, off Newfoundland Banks, around 1,000 miles off the coast of New York.

Both the fictional disaster and the real tragedy happened in relatively calm sea, at night, in April.

The similarities do not end there. The dreamed up vessel and the real ship were both going too fast, and each was holed on the starboard side.

Robertson's imaginary ship was owned by a steamship company whose main shareholder was a rich American.

The Titanic was part of the White Star Line, whose main stockholder was wealthy American J.Pierpont Morgan.

Both were passenger liners that were proclaimed as the most largest and most luxurious afloat, as well as being 'unsinkable'.

When the Titanic sank, more than 1,500 people lost their lives. There was similarly appalling loss of life when Robertson's Titan went down, though he did not specify numbers.

The Titanic departed from Southampton and was bound for New York. Its sinking has become the subject of global fascination

Robertson gave the Titan 19 watertight compartments and bulkhead doors which closed in the presence of water. 

The Titanic had 16 watertight compartments and bulkhead doors which were designed to do the same.

The Titan was described as having three propellers. The Titanic was the first ship to have the innovation.

Further Robertson wrote that the Titan had 40,000 horsepower and a top speed of 25 knots. 

The Titanic had 50,000 horsepower and the same maximum speed.

The Titanic carried 3,360 people, whilst the Titan had 3,000 on board.

The White Star liner was 882ft long, versus 800ft for Robertson's creation.

The Titanic had 20 lifeboats with a capacity of 1,176 people, while the Titan had 24 boats, enough to save 500 passengers.

In his depiction of the disaster, Robertson wrote: '"Ice," yelled the lookout; "ice ahead. Iceberg. Right under the bows." 

'The first officer ran amidships, and the captain, who had remained there, sprang to the engine-room telegraph, and this time the lever was turned. 

'But in five seconds the bow of the Titan began to lift, and ahead, and on either hand, could be seen, through the fog, a field of ice, which arose in an incline to a hundred feet high in her track. 

'The music in the theater ceased, and among the babel of shouts and cries, and the deafening noise of steel, scraping and crashing over ice... with her keel cutting the ice like the steel runner of an ice-boat, and her great weight resting on the starboard bilge, she rose out of the sea, higher and higher—until the propellers in the stern were half exposed—then, meeting an easy, spiral rise in the ice under her port bow, she heeled, overbalanced, and crashed down on her side, to starboard.'

Robertson wrote Futility - his first novel - as a warning to humanity amid his fury that shipping companies caused more about profits than passenger safety.

He claimed to believe that, in writing his novel, he was being controlled by a spirit and had heard 'whispered orders' from a 'master' in the 'great silence beyond'.

The author was born in 1861 in Oswego, New York. The son of a Great Lakes shipmaster, he went to sea aged 16 after the sudden death of his mother and sister.

At the age of 25 he started working as a tobacconist and odd-job man before deciding to write.

Because of his strange beliefs about spirit guides, newspaper editors considered him to be mad.  

He spent two months on a ward for psychopaths in New York Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital but was released after gaining a certificate that vouched for his sanity.

By his early 50s, Roberton was working regularly for the New York Saturday Evening Post.

He sold serial rights to two novels and two short stories were later made into silent films - The Closing Of The Circuit in 1914 and Masters Of Men in 1923.

The money he received from large advances went on nice clothes and visits to bars.

In 1909, he wrote about a war between the US and Japan, triggered by a surprise Japanese attack on American naval vessels.

The story appeared to predict the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, which prompted the US to enter the Second World War.

In other stories, Robertson wrote of submarines, airships and rockets involved in wars between Britain and Germany.

The Titanic before it set sail for New York. It was the most luxurious liner ever built

The author also turned his hand to non-fiction, predicting the rise in favour of the submarine over battleships.

In 1915, when he was 54 and British and German submarines were engaged in the First World War, Robertson began to suffer from severe rheumatism and needed a stick to walk. 

In March that year, he decided to visit Atlantic City, New Jersey, to rest but was found dead a day later in a hotel.

He was discovered standing up with his hand resting on the side of an o ak dresser.

The author died while staring at the Atlantic ocean through an open window. 

Days before, he had told his friend Bozeman Bulger, baseball editor of the New York Evening World: 'I am a sailor who has been transformed into a writer and inventor. 

'From the deck I was put at a desk, from the desk I was shoved into the laboratory, and now I feel myself going back to the sea where I belong.'

In 1998, the then little-known work was discovered by banker Simon Hewitt, who re-published it. 

The novel is now available in various formats from booksellers and online.

DISASTER IN THE ATLANTIC: HOW MORE THAN 1,500 LOST THEIR LIVES WHEN THE TITANIC SANK

The RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

More than 1,500 people died when the ship, which was carrying 2,224 passengers and crew, sank under the command of Captain Edward Smith.

Some of the wealthiest people in the world were on board, including property tycoon John Jacob Astor IV, great grandson of John Jacob Astor, founder of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Constructed by Belfast-based shipbuilders Harland and Wolff between 1909 and 1912, the RMS Titanic was the largest ship of her time

Millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, heir to his family's mining business, also perished, along with Isidor Straus, the German-born co-owner of Macy's department store.

The ship was the largest afloat at the time and was designed in such a way that it was meant to be 'unsinkable'.

It had an on-board gym, libraries, swimming pool and several restaurants and luxury first-class cabins.

There were not enough lifeboats on board for all the passengers due to out-of-date maritime safety regulations.

After leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland before heading to New York.

On April 14, 1912, four days into the crossing, she hit an iceberg at 11:40pm local time.

James Moody was on night watch when the collision happened and took the call from the watchman, asking him: 'What do you see?' The man responded: 'Iceberg, dead ahead.'

By 2.20am, with hundreds of people still on board, the ship plunged beneath the waves, taking many, including Moody, with it.

Despite repeated distress calls being sent out and flares launched from the decks, the first rescue ship, the RMS Carpathia, arrived nearly two hours later, pulling more than 700 people from the water.

It was not until 1985 that the wreck of the ship was discovered in two pieces on the ocean floor.