Morgan Robertson (1861-1915) was a merchant seaman turned writer whose eerie foresight cemented his place in literary history. Best known for The Wreck of the Titan, or Futility-a novella that astonishingly predicted the Titanic disaster fourteen years before it occurred-Robertson's work blends maritime realism with haunting prophecy. Born to a ship captain on the Great Lakes, Robertson spent nearly twenty years at sea, mastering shipbuilding and navigation, experiences that would later fuel his fiction. When failing eyesight ended his sailing career, he turned to jewelry making in New York before fully embracing writing. Robertson's sea stories, published in magazines and journals, gained modest acclaim, but it was Futility-later reissued as The Wreck of the Titan-that immortalized him. In a further twist of destiny, Robertson claimed to have invented the modern periscope, a device central to submarine warfare, though his role remains debated. His writing, often overshadowed by financial struggles and obscurity during his lifetime, resurged after the Titanic's tragic sinking, positioning him as a prophet of maritime history. Robertson's legacy endures not just because of the chilling parallels between his fiction and real-world events but because of the deeper warnings his stories carry-cautionary tales about human hubris, technological overreach, and the illusion of invincibility.

His work continues to captivate readers fascinated by the thin line between fiction and fate.