Morgan Robertson

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

He is best known for his short novel Futility, first published in 1898. This story features an enormous British passenger liner called the Titan, which, deemed to be unsinkable, carries an insufficient number of lifeboats. On a voyage in the month of April, the Titan hits an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic, resulting in the loss of almost everyone on board. There are some similarities to the real-life sinking of the RMS Titanic. The book was published fourteen years before the Titanic hit an iceberg and settled on the bottom of the North Atlantic.

Other works

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), Simon Lake and Harold Grubb had perfected the model used by the U.S. Navy by 1902, three years before Robertson's "prescient" novel.

In 1914, in a volume that also contained a new version of Futility, Robertson included a short story called "Beyond the Spectrum", which described a future war between the United States and Empire of Japan, a popular subject at the time. 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 launch 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.^[1]

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

This list may not be complete.

• 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

• Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan 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

References in media and popular culture

Episode 17 (segment "Titan") of the American television show Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction tells the story of Robertson writing Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan|Futility.

References

1. ^ ERBzine 1854: Morgan Robertson: Primordial -- Three Laws and the Golden Rule (1898-99) at www.erbzine.com

• 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.

Persondata
Name	Robertson, Morgan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1861
Place of birth
Date of death	1915
Place of death