It's an old sailing superstition. A ship moving backwards at the start of a voyage means that disaster will come.

But Renee Harris was a theater manager,

not a sailor, and so when the ship she had recently boarded began reversing in the harbor,

she thought little of it. She had been standing on the deck, looking down at the cheering

crowd who had gathered below to see the voyage off. I can only imagine her excitement,

the sea wind in her hair, an adventure ahead of her,

and finally, the giant engine that had just roared to life.

Huge propellers turned, roiling the water in the harbor.

As they spun, the suction became so fierce

that a nearby ship snapped loose from its mooring,

which is when, to avoid collision, the ocean liner reversed its engines and floated backward,

while tugboats corralled the runaway ship.

Catastrophe averted. A bit of a hiccup, but overall, pretty lucky, right?

Renee sure thought so.

Until that is, she overheard a man beside her

grumbling about the reversal's ill omen. Suddenly, he turned to her and posed a grave question.

Do you love life, the man said? Renée replied in the affirmative. Then get off the ship at

Sherberg, he continued. If we get that far, that's what I'm going to do.

Now, Renee Harris would end up ignoring that stranger's advice, but those cautionary words would

haunt her for the rest of her days. If only she had listened, she would later lament,

if only she had gotten off the ship when she had the chance. But that's the thing about

history, isn't it? We can't change it, no matter how much we wish we could. And so, Renee stayed on

...