Titanic Loss … concluded

We conclude the poem of T J Charleston on The Loss of the Titanic.




Titanic, Titanic, thou destroyer of life

Thou has parted many a man from children and wife

And many little children thou has plunged in the deep

Innocent as lamb, to take their last sleep.

 

No doubt some hundreds lay fast asleep

As her living cargo she gave to the deep

But hundreds more had to watch the awful end

That trip would bring, you can depend.

 

Through being a monarch – as many thought –

Hundreds to a watery grave were brought

As every one on board did think

It was impossible for the ship to sink.

But she deceived them and thousands more

Who heard the news on either shore

And to know she foundered on such a lovely night

As from the heavens the stars shone bright.

 

No storms had disturbed the deep, deep sea

So that cannot be the owners’ plea

But speed and ice had brought to doom

The finest ship, very much too soon.

 

The thirteenth of April well-remembered be

By people here and across the sea

When that beautiful hymn that has been sung

By the band was played to old and young.

 

To drown the cries of mother and child

Who we must know were almost wild

The conductor ordered midst cries and fume

‘Nearer my God’ to be the tune.

 

The boats were lowered and the orders ran

‘Women and children, but stand back, man’

As that I think is the law of the sea

Or whatever and Englishman may be.

 

Husband put wife, father put child

Took their last look at the face that once smiled

Kissed their sweet lips, again and again

For that was their last, in this their life’s train.

 

The parting it was awful for human tongue to tell

Father wishing children and wife the last farewell

Knowing it was their last look into each other’s eyes

Until they meet in heaven, the world above the skies.

 

Some faithful wives would not leave the ship

But to their husbands they then did slip

And in each other’s arms were locked and bound

With their loved one, agreed to drown.

 

There was plenty of time and that we know

To give every passenger, and safely stow

Them into boats, if they were on board

But she not very many stored.

 

The look-out man cried, ‘Iceberg ahead!’

Or that is what the papers said

Why was the Titanic then not slowed down?

Which has been the talk in every town.

 

If the one to blame is among the dead

He has nothing more to fear or dread

But let this for future a warning be

To men in charge of ships at sea.

 

When carrying passengers across the deep

A good lookout they always keep

And should see an iceberg, or anything else indeed

Ring at once to those below to stop, or slacken speed.

 

If this had been done in the Titanic case

Such a slaughter would never have taken place

Which sent so many hundreds into the angry deep

To take their last both cold and icy sleep.

 

While some were waiting on the other side

To welcome wife, or one to be their bride

Others their little children’s faces would have kissed

If that deadly iceberg the Titanic missed.

 

Whole families of eight, and even eleven

Were all swept out, and we hope in heaven

Not one of them left the tale to relate

Or join their friends in the United States.

 

No one thought in this world of bliss

That anything could happen where Captain Smith

Had command of a ship so fine

When their journey commenced on the railway line.

 

Farewell was sung, which I heard by chance

As some folk started from their town, Penzance

Farewell it was and always will be

Their friends, their faces no more will see.

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