Lets take a look at what those similarities are:
In this story by W.T. Stead, the ship embarks on a journey from Liverpool to New York City, and along the way becomes involved in a collision. In the panic that ensued, many passengers drowned due to the lack of lifeboats to accommodate the large number of passengers.
Also, much like the Titanic, the captain of the ship parades a revolver to prevent passengers from storming the lifeboat deck, a scene that James Cameron used in his epic depiction of the Titanic Disaster.
As reporter Adam Carter of CBC news reports, In a strange twist of fate, Stead inadvertently foretold his own death in the book: he was onboard the Titanic when it sank in April 1912.
Futility: The Wreck of the Titan (1898)
Of all the books that were going to go through today, this one might have the most unbelievable concidences of all. Could they really be just coincidence? You decide
Name: In Futility, the boat is described as the largest ship of its day and was called the Titan.
Size: The ships were practically the same size, with the Titanic measuring only 25 meters longer.
Date: Both ships, described as unsinkable, hit an iceberg and went under in mid-April.
Speed: Both were capable of speeds over 20 knots.
Safety: Despite having thousands of passengers on board, both ships carried the bare legal minimum number of lifeboats.
Sinking Location: Titan is also deemed unsinkable but hits an iceberg and sinks off the coast of Newfoundland, just like the Titanic.
Written by detective scribe M. McDonnell Bodkin, the ship in this story is called The Titanic and is described by Bodkin in similar terms and as the largest and fastest passenger boat afloat.
This similarity seems a little too precise, and some researchers see this as an indication that Bodkin may have read about the plans for the real ships construction while researching for his book. The voyage of this doomed liner treads a similar path, but luckily does not collide with any icebergs at sea on its journey.
This short story is about a ship called the Admiral, was published in 1912, just as the great Titanic was setting sail.
In the story, the ship was described as an 800-foot ocean liner which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg at a speed of 22.5 knots. Of course many passengers die as there are not enough lifeboats to accommodate everyone.
While this story was still appearing on newsstands, the 882-foot Titanic struck an iceberg at exactly the same speed.
( via endalldisease.com)