Addiction and the Titanic

It's 9am on a Thursday in a substance abuse treatment facility. How do you solicit interest from clients? Try this out:

In 1898, the American author Morgan Robertson wrote a novel called Futility, or The Wreck of the Titan. It features a boat called the Titan that has the following specifications:

• 800 ft [244 m] long 
• Capacity for roughly 3,000 passengers
• Lifeboats for only a fraction of that number of people
• Capsizes after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean as it sailed from Ireland to the United States

On April 15, 1912, the Titanic (actually) struck an iceberg in the Atlantic killing most of the 3000 passengers on-board. Here were its specifications:

• 882 ft 9 in [269 m] long
• Lifeboats for only a fraction of that number of people
• Similarly upper-class passengers

I then ask the clients two questions. 1.) How is it possible that an author envisioned a significant historical event in advance? 2.) Which of the two events came/comes first?