American author and
prophet (1861-1915). Born in
Oswego,
New York, he was the son of a
Great Lakes ship captain and eagerly followed in his father's footsteps, joining the
Merchant Marine Service and attaining the rank of
First Mate. Later, he studied as a
jeweler and opened a small shop in
New York City, specializing in
diamond setting. When his
eyesight failed, he had to give up the jeweler's trade and faced dire
financial straits. Knowing that Robertson had been a
sailor, a
newspaper reporter gave him a
story Rudyard Kipling had written about the
sea. Inspired, Robertson began
writing and submitting
short stories. Fourteen of his
books were published between 1896 and 1915, and he made a respectable amount of
money, though he was far from
wealthy.
Robertson is best known for a book he wrote called "
Futility." It concerned a
mighty ocean liner called the
Titan, proclaimed to be
unsinkable, which struck an
iceberg in the
North Atlantic on a
transatlantic voyage and sank with great
loss of life because there were not enough
lifeboats on board. The book was published in 1898 -- fourteen years before the
Titanic sank.
Somewhat less known is another story Robertson wrote called "
Beyond the Spectrum." It told the
story of a
futuristic war between the
United States and
Japan. The
war started after Japan made a
sneak attack on
Hawaii in
December and ended after the US dropped "
sun bombs," capable of completely
destroying a
city, on
Japan...
Primary research: Suppressed Transmission: The Second Broadcast by Kenneth Hite, "A Night to Embroider: Who Sank the Titanic?", p. 47.