Historical dream account · English · published source text
The Collision Seen from the Seawall
Horace G. Hutchinson
Dreams and Their Meanings (1901) · 1901 edition, chapter VII, printed pp.280–281; PDF pages 292–293; original scan leaves 296–297
Dreamer identified by the source: Isabella Young
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In the morning of Friday, 29th March, 1889, after being awakened at my usual hour for rising, I went to sleep again, and dreamt the following : I was staying with a friend, Mrs. O — and it was by the seaside ; the house overlooked the sea, the waves nearly washing against the garden wall. It was a bright clear day and I was standing close to the wall, watching in the distance two vessels on the sea, one having left the place I was at, and the other advancing from the opposite shore. To my surprise I saw that neither vessel, as they neared each other, seemed to make room for the other, and then to my horror one dashed into the other, cutting her in half. I saw the boiler burst of the injured vessel, throw up fragments and thick black smoke ; I saw the passengers hurled into the water making frantic attempts to save themselves. I especially noticed hats and other things floating on the water, and then suddenly two bodies were washed up at my feet, and I awoke and found it was nearly 8·30 A.M. The dream made a vivid impression on me, and I could not shake off the feeling of horror I had experienced all through it. That same afternoon news came from Ostend of a terrible catastrophe in the Channel, the two vessels, Princess Henriette and Josephine, crossing via Ostend and Dover, had come into collision that same morning at 10 A.M., the one had cut the other in half just as I had seen it in my dream ; indeed, the circumstances were the same. I knew no one on board, but the lady with whom, in my dream, I was staying, had three relatives on board ; one was drowned and the other two saved.
Source & context
A sleep-dream recollection reproduced in the 1901 edition’s chapters compiled by an unnamed collaborator, mainly from earlier Society for Psychical Research material. The quoted waking follow-up and supernatural interpretation are historical claims by the source, not independently verified events.
Isabella Young, reported in Horace G. Hutchinson, Dreams and Their Meanings (London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co., 1901), 1901 edition, chapter VII, printed pp.280–281; PDF pages 292–293; original scan leaves 296–297. Primary witness: original 1901 edition at Internet Archive. The compiler, dreamer, and separately credited earlier recorder are distinguished. Editorial title and navigation themes added; no generated narrative or new translation.
The publication year is not the dream date. No exact dream date or present-day person location is inferred. Dates printed in the narrative remain source wording.
Public domain in the United States (1901 edition) ↗
The original English 1901 edition is public domain in the United States by expired publication term; Archive metadata reports NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT. No new Archive license or Public Domain Mark grant is asserted. The linked NoC-US statement describes the US-only rights basis; blanket worldwide clearance is not asserted. Hutchinson’s own writing and named or unidentified contributors are distinguished; no contributor is assigned the compiler’s death date. Named or initialled historical contributor as printed; contributor death date not established here. US publication-term basis is used, not Hutchinson’s death year..
Source locator and text provenance
1901 edition, chapter VII, printed pp.280–281; PDF pages 292–293; original scan leaves 296–297
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Whitespace/linewrap normalization, witnessed end-of-line dehyphenation, and listed scan-verified OCR repairs only. No dream narrative, person, event, translation or stylistic rewrite added.
- Account text SHA-256
- f6cc12cb88f7cd9887e390f95168a555f90e3e5de3836654a64f22c5d0c06a71
- Source file SHA-256
- 40a41bb112104c3680401c260e060fde498bfe84e41f4394ee28e47f7e827b5f
Content notes
- Death
- Peril
- Claimed premonition
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.