Legends and myths regarding RMS Titanic
At the time the "Titanic" sank, the 1 May 1912 issue of "The Popular Magazine", an American pulp magazine, was on the news stands. It contained the short story "The White Ghost of Disaster," which described the collision of an ocean liner with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, the sinking of the vessel, and the fate of the passengers. The story, by Mayn Clew Garnett (the pseudonym of sea-story author T. Jenkins Hains), created a minor sensation. In 1898, fourteen years prior to the "Titanic" disaster,
Morgan Robertson wrote a book called "Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan". 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. There are some similarities between the fictional sinking of the "Titan" and the real-life sinking of the RMS "Titanic".
International Ice Patrol
On her maiden voyage from Southampton, England bound for New York, "Titanic" collided with an iceberg just south of the tail of the Grand Banks and sank in less than three hours. The loss of life was enormous with more than 1,500 of the 2,224 passengers and crew perishing. "Titanic", the brand new ship of the White Star Line, was the largest passenger liner of her time displacing 45,000 tons and capable of sustained speed in excess of . The loss of "Titanic" gripped the world with a sobering awareness of an iceberg's potential for tragedy. The sheer dimensions of the "Titanic" disaster created sufficient public reaction on both sides of the Atlantic to prod reluctant governments into action, producing the first Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention in 1914.