I am indebted to my old friend Ben Hughes for the time, patience and companionship he displayed as he brought me Down Memory Lane. I will return and note salient facts and anecdotes in the near future. Meanwhile I reproduce here a very worthy poem entitled Titanic. It was found on a scrap in the toolbox of Ben’s father, who was a master carpenter working on the famous ship. The author is unknown.
TITANIC
The pride of the seas, at anchor she rode
Awaiting her human freight
Her crew pent up and eager for sail
Captain, stoker and mate.
Man stood on the shore
And looked up with pride
Upon what his hands had made
The unsinkable ship, in majesty, sailed
His hard work and toil repaid.
He had strained every muscle, sinew and nerve
To make her Queen of the seas
And she sailed from her berth on her maiden trip
A floating palace of ease.
But another sailed from the frozen world
No pilot at the wheel
No hand of man had shaped her plan
Nor modelled her frozen keel.
No cheer rang out as she turned her prow
To drift towards southern clime
Yet she carried on board a message to man
That would ring down the annals of time.
On, on in the night sailed God’s silent ship
Ploughing ocean currents and stream
Smote man’s titan work a terrible blow
That shattered her beam from beam.
On into the dark she passed away
Steered by a hand unseen
But a log she had left – that all might read
‘Man shall not reign supreme’.