♠ verse introduction - the ship of dreams

”There is nothing left for you here…” Ace says to himself. Queenstown (Cobh) would never look beautiful again, not without his mother’s smile to shine upon it like the true sun it was, the only one the town needed. 

Fatherless since birth, it was a cruel deed of destiny to take his mother away from him after two mere decades living together, leaving him completely alone in the world. Sure, Ace wass a grown man now, and not without merit or worth, but he can’t help feeling the hopelessness of a lonely life, unable to give it a direction. His compass was not broken, it was dead.

One day, as he is shopping for a modest bag of groceries, Ace overhears a couple chatting all too excitedly about the White Star Line’s new darling, the RMS Titanic, planned to stop in town before heading to New York during its maiden voyage. ‘Big deal’, Ace thinks - ‘transatlantic voyages are commonplace nowadays’. Throughout the day, however, he hears the very same words over and over again about Titanic, some of which stick to his mind.“Largest ship in the world…” “…an astounding 23 knots!” “Harland and Wolff, yes, pure Irish making" Who wouldn’t get their ears full? 

More than hearing about the ship, Ace sees it wherever he goes: there’s a photograph circulating in the papers; there’s a small painting of it reproduced on a matchbox; there’s an ad for the soap allegedly stocked in the Titanic’s cabinets and which, guess what?, you can buy yourself and give your home that classy smell of luxury! It’s a beaut of a ship, Ace gives it that…

Such a ship, a ship of dreams as they were calling it, sounded like just the thing Ace could use if it meant a fresh start in America. But a dream it was indeed and so it shall remain, for he can’t afford a ticket, in spite of a hundred or so of his countrymen owning theirs. Perhaps they’d be willing to take him too as a stowaway?

Even if he can’t afford the journey, no one can stop Ace from running to the port the day Titanic makes its final port call in Queenstown, a little boy’s heart pounding drum-like inside a broken man’s chest. With hands stubbornly shoved inside his coat’s pockets as though fearful for them acting grabby beyond control if let free, Ace watches the ship, his mouth as wide as can be. It is so huge it might as well top the town itself in size. Hell, if anyone told Ace the Titanic was its own country, he would believe it! It’s still a dream, though… A gigantic, metallic, wondrous dream traversing the ocean… Just a dream, a boy’s hope in the guise of a boy’s toy amplified an infinite amount of times.

Ace doesn’t mean to - he really doesn’t - but he can’t help overhearing two members of the crew talk. They point at their watches and stomp their feet, nervously. Apparently - and what reason did these men have to lie? - the crew was a few members short after a group comprised of firemen and stokers had left the ship to go for a pint. 

They can be in any booze-selling joint in town or even out and no other members of the staff can be spared to go look for them, lest they, too, get lost. “This is all Coffey’s fault”, one of the men says. Enigmatic words Ace can’t understand. What he can, and does understand is that time is running out for the men and the Titanic cannot be operated if all its crew jumps ship. With a big deal of nerve and nothing to lose, Ace pokes a shoulder. "I’m sorry, did you say you need a stoker?”

Passing the health inspection, Ace hitches a ride on the world’s greatest vessel as a worker. His salary? Three meals a day, a bed to sleep in and a ticket to a new life.

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