Captain Smith peering down. Poised on the brink of destiny

This was the last picture of Titanic to be taken for 73 years
 
 

This is a poem I got out of a book called  
"The Last Days of Titanic"
 by Roberts Rinehart Publishers .
 The poem was written by Father Browne. (who left Titanic when 
 she docked in Ireland )

       "IN MEMORIAM"
      "April 15th,1912"

"A ship rode forth on the Noonday tide
  Rode forth to the open sea
 and high sun shone on the good ship's side,
 And all seemed gladness, and hope,and pride
  For the gallant sight she was"


"For the crew was strong,and the captain brave
  And never a fear had they,
 Never a thought for the turbulent wave,
 Never a dread of a watery grave,
  Nor dreams of a fateful day."

"So the ship sailed on, and the voices strong
  Sang sweet on the moring air,
 And the glad notes billowed the shore along,
 they drifted and died, till the Sailors' song
  Was soft as a whispered prayer"

"And all seemed gladness,and hope ,and pride
   As far as the eye could see,
 For where was the foe that could pierce her side,
 Or where in the Ocean depths could hide,
  A mightier power then she?"

"But far to the North, in the frozen zone
  Where the Ice King holds his sway,
 Full many a berg, like the monarch's throne
 Or castle that fabled princes own
   Gleamed white neath the Sun's bright ray"

"When the challenge came on the whisp'ring air
  It passed like a fleeting breath,
 But it roused a king in his Arctic lair,
 And waked what vengeance was sleeping there,  
   The vengeance of Doom and Death"


"But heedless and gay o'er the sunlit waves
  The vessel all lightly bore,
 Till the distant coast with its rocks and caves,
 And the land that the Western Ocean laves,  
   Were seen from her decks no more"
 
"When Evening came with the waning light,
  And shrouded the rolling deep,
 For never a moment she stayed her flight,
 Adown the path of the moonbeams bright,
  Though Heaven was wrapped in sleep."

"Another dawn with its liquid gold
  Gilded the Eastern sky
 Lighting the ship so fair, so bold
 that sped its way o'er the Ocean old,
  Nor recked of danger nigh...."

"And noonday came, when the burning sun
  Rifted the realms of snow
 And burst the fetters the Ice had spun 
 And shattered the towers that Cold had won,
 Breaking the great Ice-flow"

"Till over the ocean's heaving swells,
 Like ghosts in the twilight gloom,
 The great bergs glided with purpose fell
 Minding the quest of their Monarch well,
  The quest of Revenge and Doom"

" The deeper night with it slow advance
  Bids even the winds to cease,
 No moonbeams bright on the waters dance
 But all lie still in a starry trance
  And the Ocean sleeps in peace"

"A shuddering gasp o'er the resting deep!
  A wail from the silent sea!
 Tis heard where the stars their lone watch keep
 Tis heard in the grave where the dead men sleep,
   mindful of human glee...

"The Springtime dawn with its rosy light
  See naught but the waves' wild flow
 For under the veil of the moonless night
 When the sea was still and the stars were bright
  The Ice King had slain his foe."

"The Ship that rode on noonday tide
  Rode forth to open sea,
But gone are the gladness, and hope, and pride
 For the Northern Ocean's depths could hide
  A mightier power than she"