It was a lovely sunny afternoon,
The sun was at its height,
And my wife and I had been invited
To the captain’s table for that night,

It was a most unexpected honour,
Which we would not refuse
On this, our long awaited,
Tenth anniversary cruise,

We came aboard at Portsmouth,
For our first trip out to sea,
Heading for Australia,
And three weeks of luxury,

First class and all inclusive,
We’d saved five years to afford,
Now at last, we and our luggage,
Were safely stowed aboard,

The liner was enormous,
And the most modern then afloat,
And they treated us like royalty,
While we were on that boat,

There was nothing too much trouble,
For the stewards and the crew,
And so many great activities
For my wife and I to do,

We played golf and we went swimming,
Shot clay pigeons off the bow,
It seemed impossible to fill it all
In the time we had somehow,

Then one evening, around eleven,
The liner run aground,
I’ll never forget the way it listed,
And the loud, metallic sound,

As the hull scrapped along the sandbank,
Listing to the port,
This vessel’s going over,
Is what everybody thought,


But it seemed to come back off the sandbank,
And right it’s self again,
And every single passenger,
Cheered as though we were insane,

And you could almost hear a unified,
Sigh of sheer relief,
Though the captain and the crew,
Seemed unconcerned, would you believe?

Until someone from the deck above
Was clearly heard to call,
“Someone tell the captain,
There’s a man gone overboard”,

And we all rushed to the railing,
And gazed into the dark,
Towards the man out in the water,
Until somebody shouted, “Shark!!”.

Then each of us scanned the ocean,
And called to the man to swim,
Until illuminated by the searchlight,
Was the most enormous fin,

Circling around the swimmer,
Who was out there by himself,
Paralyzed by fear, and yet,
Still begging for our help,

Some of the stewards used the shotguns,
To keep the shark at bay,
So a lifeboat could be lowered,
While the rest of us just prayed,

But the guns were next to useless,
At that distance, in the dark,
Against a moving object
As agile as the shark,

Though they bought the time required,
For the lifeboats to get close,
If they didn’t actually harm the shark,
That was something I suppose,



Because as the lifeboat reached its target,
The fin slipped below the waves,
And for the first time since he went overboard,
We believed the fellow might be saved,

But just as we were cheering,
The great white monster breeched,
Writhing in the air,
With that poor man clenched in its teeth,

The lifeboat tossed as though a toy,
Against the liners side,
It’s crew thrown in the water,
“Save us please”, they cried,

But the blood now in the water,
Attracted scores more sharks, it seems,
And there was nothing we could do but watch,
And listen to their screams,

Screams that will stay with us,
And we will never lose,
From our three weeks of luxury,
On our tenth anniversary cruise.


By S.E.Ralph

24-6-2017