Most Titanic buffs are familiar with at least one remarkable coincidence related to that great tragedy – the fact that, fourteen years before that fateful day, author Morgan Robertson penned a novella entitled “Futility”, about the largest, grandest, most luxurious ocean liner ever to set sail. This ocean liner was considered to be the safest, most unsinkable ship around due to it’s new, water tight compartments. Coicidentlly, the ship in that story also sank after hitting an iceberg. And an even bigger coincidence? The name of the ship in the story was “The Titan”!

But here’s a little known fact you can use to amaze your friends and family. On that fateful last night aboard the Titanic, over 200 Second Class passengers were eagerly holed up in the Second Class dining room. What was keeping these passengers so entertained? Why, a new fangled contraption called a Motion Picture! And what were they watching? What else? “The Poseidon Adventure”!

In 1912, the film industry had just begun producing motion pictures. They were all still silent features and all filmed in black and white. Most were no more than one real long, only lasting for 8 to 10 minutes. But this new form of entertainment captivated audiences everywhere. To show that it was the most luxurious liner on the seven seas, the Titanic carried it’s own movie projector and a library of movies.

The film industy still had a somewhat undesirable image, though, that it had aquired in the days of the Nickleodeon. This is probably the reason that not many have heard this story. The First Class passengers considered the movies to be vulgar so the films were shown late in the evening, at 11 PM after the First Class passengers had retired, and only in the Second Class dining room.

The audience of a few hundred Second Class passengers was so enthralled with The Poseidon Adventure – a tale of six passengers and crew members struggling to survive the sinking of their ship ” that they either didn’t feel the shudder of the ship as it struck the iceberg or they took no notice. In fact, they were so entertained by the movie that it was shown a second time, immediately after the first.

As stated before, most movies of the time were only 8 to 10 minutes long. But “The Poseidon Adventure” had just been released and it was 53 minutes from start to finish. By the time the Second Class passengers finished viewing it for the second time, it was well after 1AM. When they finally returned to the deck of the Titanic, it was to find that nearly all of the lifeboats had already been launched, most at only partial capacity and occupied by nearly all First Class passengers and crew.

This grim coincidence could explain why barely one third of the Titanic’s Second Class Passengers survived while nearly two thirds of the First Class passengers and crew made it to safety.