Titanic - 100th Anniversary Poem

(Considered to be the greatest maritime
disaster  of all time " 14/15 April 1912)


Fair maiden of the ocean deep (1)
This mighty vessel lost to sleep
A jewel `neath a moonless sky
`Twas fate that she so soon would die

Against the ice her doom was sealed (2)
Just ten percent of it revealed
As close against its buried side
With grace and dignity to glide

The greater part was hid below (3)
For so it be with frozen snow "
A jagg`ed fortress `neath the sea
A dark, unseen catastrophe

Her belly slashed, then set to die, (4)
(Upon the ocean bed to lie) "
Into her hull the ocean gushed
People and objects swirled and crushed

But no-one listened to her cries (5)
Nor even to her calls did rise
And none acknowledged all her flares
Nor sought to answer all her prayers

Two hours and forty minutes passed (6)
With all her charges holding fast
Just twenty lifeboats, not yet filled,
(And fifteen hundred hearts were stilled)

Water seeping into her heart (7)
Tearing her very soul apart
Invincible of White Star Line
She lurched, she groaned, with severed spine


O`er time a saviour ship arrived (8)
To aid the ones who had survived
So to take them into her care
A ship of safety anchored there

But in the darkness of the night (9)
In ice-cold waters void of light
Bounced scattered souls upon the waves
Descending to their watery graves

Then all the while, when hope was gone (10)
In calm repose the band played on "
`Nearer My God To Thee`, they think,
As, with grace, she started to sink

One hundred years her memory (11)
Still lingers `neath the raging sea
Within the hearts of all bereft
Of those whose lives have long since left

They said that sink she never could (12)
But oh, dear God, she surely would !
Invincible of White Star Line
She lurched, she groaned, with severed spine

And though one century has passed
Lost souls in memories are cast
Their eyes as stars in heaven dwell
Reflected in the ocean`s swell

With tales of life and secrets kept
Of those who loved and those who wept
Your stories you will never tell
Farewell, my friends, farewell, farewell  …

The sun upon the shimm`ring sea
Will ever your companion be

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Verse 1:
10 April 1912 depart Southampton 10 April 1912
bound for New York " North Atlantic crossing.

Verse 2:
14 April 1912 at 11:40 pm she hit an
iceberg " she was travelling too fast and had taken a more northerly route than was appropriate.

Verse 3:
The iceberg lay just 1000 yards ahead but was not
seen due to it being a moonless night.

Verse 4:
She was hit starboard bow " many assumed
it was just a glancing blow which she had survived.

Verse 5 :
The crew of The Californian went to bed as it
was thought that she was having a party.

Verse 6:
She held only 20 lifeboats instead of the 64 which
she was designed to carry " just 1/3rd capacity, and
these were not filled.

Verse 7:
Five compartments were flooded (only four and she
would have survived), and just before 2:20 am on
15 April she broke up as she sank.

Verse 8:
RMS Carpathia responded to her cries for help
and proceeded to rescue lifeboat survivors.

Verse 9:
1500 lives were lost, of which 53 were children:
52 " 3rd class, but just 1 - 1st class !  Two dogs were saved.

Verse 10:
As they did on deck " all members of the band
were lost, and subsequently regarded as heroes.

Verse 11:
1912 " 2012:  100th anniversary poem " 14 April 2012.

Verse 12:
Captain Edward John Smith went down with
his ship " his body was never recovered.