As the peaceful Titanic sailed the cold waters of the North Atlantic, only a few signs could possibly show that this could ever be the day that would determine the great ship's fate. One of those few signs was that many ice warnings had been transmitted throughout the voyage. The only thing is - how many of those ice warnings were actually recieved by Captain Smith?
The first warning of the day was recieved at 9:00 from the ship Caronia saying they had passed icebergs, growlers and field ice. ( A growler is a dark slab of ice either from an iceberg our a big pack of ice.) The second telegram of the day was recieved at 11:40 from the dutch ship Noordam saying "much ice" in the same general area as were the Caronia had seen some.
The second of those few signs was that in some cases - even before the voyage - people claimed they had premonitions of a great disaster at sea such as the one that awaited the Titanic. In 1898 a man named Morgan Robertson wrote a book called Futility or the wreck of the Titan. The book talks of a ship trying to cross the Atlantic, then hitting an iceberg and sinking, killing almost all of the passengers. A young Scottish girl who lay dying had a vision of a liner sinking in the Atlantic ocean. She saw many people dying in the water. This vision happened hours before the Titanic sank.
These are just some examples of the many predictions and coincidences that led to the irony and sadness of the unsinkable ship sinking on it's maiden voyage. When looking back on the Titanic, for me, one of the saddest parts is realizing all the things they could have done to stop even some of the many deaths. Now remeber - always check the number of lifeboats before you sail your ship!
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