Or, FUTILITY
AUTOGRAPH EDITION
PUBLISHED BY
McCLURE'S MAGAZINE
AND
METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE
Copyright, 1898, by
M. F. Mansfield
Copyright, 1912, by
Morgan Robertson
All rights reserved
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.
She was the largest craft afloat and the greatestof the works of men. In her construction andmaintenance were involved every science, profession,and trade known to civilization. On her bridge wereofficers, who, besides being the pick of the RoyalNavy, had passed rigid examinations in all studiesthat pertained to the winds, tides, currents, andgeography of the sea; they were not only seamen,but scientists. The same professional standard appliedto the personnel of the engine-room, and thesteward's department was equal to that of a first-classhotel.
Two brass bands, two orchestras, and a theatricalcompany entertained the passengers during wakinghours; a corps of physicians attended to the temporal,and a corps of chaplains to the spiritual, welfareof all on board, while a well-drilled fire-companysoothed the fears of nervous ones and added to thegeneral entertainment by daily practice with theirapparatus.
From her lofty bridge ran hidden telegraph linesto the bow, stern engine-room, crow's-nest on theforemast, and to all parts of the ship where workwas done, each wire terminating in a marked dial witha movable indicator, containing in its scope everyorder and answer required in handling the massivehulk, either at the dock or at sea—which eliminated,to a great extent, the hoarse, nerve-racking shoutsof officers and sailors.[2]
From the bridge, engine-room, and a dozen placeson her deck the ninety-two doors of nineteen water-tightcompartments could be closed in half a minuteby turning a lever. These doors would also closeautomatically in the presence of water. With ninecompartments flooded the ship would still float, andas no known accident of the sea could possibly fillthis many, the steamship Titan was considered practicallyunsinkable.
Built of steel throughout, and for passengertraffic only, she carried no combustible cargo tothreaten her destruction by fire; and the immunityfrom the demand for cargo space had enabled herdesigners to discard the flat, kettle-bottom of cargoboats and give her the sharp dead-rise—or slant fromthe keel—of a steam yacht, and this improved herbehavior in a seaway. She was eight hundred feetlong, of seventy thousand tons' displacement,seventy-five thousand horse-power, and on hertrial trip had steamed at a rate of twenty-fiveknots an hour over the bottom, in the face of unconsideredwi