RMS Titanic
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After the tragedy it became maritime law (SOLAS) that all passenger ships must carry enough lifeboats and life jackets for everyone on board and to carry out a muster drill and lifeboat drill within 30 minutes before leaving port.
Built by Harland and Wolff in the shipyards of Belfast
A luxurious gigantic cruise ship that they built to last
She was an Olympic class liner of the White Star Line
No expense was spared in construction she was grand and so fine.
From Southampton to Cherbourg then from Queenstown in Cork
Picked up her last passengers before sailing on to New York
Large crowds gathered at the quayside to cheer her and wave flags
While excited passengers embarked with large suitcases and bags.
She upped the ships anchor then headed out due west
Pushing her coal fired engines, putting them to the test
Oblivious to the dangerous ice fields that lay up ahead
And in the coming hours many on board her would be dead.
The officer on the bridge lookout a large object he spied
A foreboding mountainous iceberg on the starboard side
They slowed down the mighty engines and put them into reverse
But it collided with the iceberg and then conditions got worse.
Just below the water line it tore a gash down the one side
It couldn't have been avoided but to avoid it they'd tried
Freezing dark seawater poured in and she started to bank
Sadly, it was only a matter of time before the mighty Titanic sank.
Abandon ship was the order; that Captain Edward Smith gave
Now the task for the crew was how many lives they could save
The crew got ready all the lifeboats and lifejackets too
Now everyone's survival depended on the captain and crew.
Despite their best efforts to try and keep order and calm
With the worsening situation there was sheer panic and alarm
First into the boats were all the women and little children
And any places that were free they allowed in some men.
But for everyone on board there was not enough lifeboats,
And all they had was a life jacket, so they grabbed anything that floats
Some took their chances, and they jumped over the side
But the freezing Atlantic waters took them, and they didn't survive.
Over two thousand people on board, not all could they save
Fifteen hundred passengers and crew perished in a watery grave
A distress call had been sent before she sank, and other ships started to arrive
Providing blankets and warmth to those who'd managed to survive.
1912 on the fifteenth day of April, was the date of that tragedy
It was the worst maritime disaster that ever happened at sea
It only took two hours and twenty minutes before she was on the seabed
Experts had claimed her "Unsinkable", that's what they'd said.
Written 27 november 2018
Copyright © Tom Cunningham | Year Posted 2017
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