RMS Titanic with the plot bearing a number of similarities to the "Titanic" disaster. In the novel the ship is the SS "Titan", a four-stacked liner, the largest in the world and considered unsinkable. And like the "Titanic", she sinks after hitting an iceberg and does not have enough lifeboats. Only recently has the significance of "Titanic" most notably been given by Northern Ireland where it was built by Harland and Wolff in the capital city, Belfast. While the rest of the world embraced the glory and tragedy of "Titanic", in its birth city, "Titanic" remained a taboo subject throughout the 20th
Passengers of the RMS Titanic passage, but did not actually sail, include: Theodore Dreiser, Henry Clay Frick, Milton S. Hershey, Guglielmo Marconi, John Pierpont Morgan, John Mott, and Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt (who died in the sinking of the RMS "Lusitania"). Several passengers on the "Titanic" had Levantine origins. At the time, many carried identification from the Ottoman Empire that stated they were from Greater Syria, which included what is today Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. According to Bakhos Assaf, mayor of Hardin, Lebanon, 93 passengers originated from what is today Lebanon, with 20 of them from Hardin, the highest number of any Lebanese location. Of