Titanic and Personal Injury Suits

Several people have asked me for copies of the verses I used in my presentation at the Johnson Geo Centre in St. John’s last week.  Here they are.

My verse inspired by the Costa Concordia could be called “Captain Coward”. 

The passengers stood where the captain should
But the law of the sea is grim
When the Captain romped ere his ship was swamped
The law came after him!

This was inspired by the first verse of a longer ditty which a journalist of the day wrote about J. Bruce Ismay’s escape.  Ismay was an owner of the Titanic.  Unlike the captain, he did not go down with the ship.  It went like this:

The Captain stood where a captain should
For the law of the sea is grim
The owner romped err his ship was swamped
And no law bothered him.