by Morgan Robertson

Morgan Robertson (1861-1915) was a well-known American author of short stories and novels, and the possible inventor of the periscope. Nowadays he is best known for the short fictional novel The Wreck of the Titan; or, Futility, first published in 1898. 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. The similarities between the fictional sinking of the Titan and the real-life sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 attract attention even today. In 1905 Robertson's book The Submarine Destroyer was released. It described a submarine that used a device called a periscope. When the story was first published, officials of the Holland Submarine Company sent for Robertson and asked him whether he considered the idea of a periscope to be practical. In response, Robertson showed the officials a model of one that he claimed to have already patented. Officials of the company were so impressed that they purchased the invention for $50,000.