| [00:09.550] |
In 18 hundred and 59, the engineer Brunel, |
| [00:12.860] |
|
| [00:13.910] |
Would build the greatest ship afloat, |
| [00:15.920] |
and rule the ocean's swell. |
| [00:17.420] |
|
| [00:18.340] |
Nineteen thousand tons of steel |
| [00:20.410] |
they used to shape the mighty keel, |
| [00:22.770] |
Forged inside the smelter where |
| [00:24.460] |
|
| [00:25.020] |
they made the gates of Hell... |
| [00:27.020] |
|
| [00:28.140] |
And the name upon the contract, |
| [00:29.760] |
|
| [00:30.640] |
Isambard Brunel. |
| [00:31.700] |
|
| [00:36.190] |
As day-by-day the monster grew, |
| [00:38.440] |
the engineer Brunel, |
| [00:39.550] |
|
| [00:40.680] |
Would watch the devil's handiwork, |
| [00:42.550] |
and woe betide a man who shirks, |
| [00:44.430] |
|
| [00:45.110] |
Or slows the pace to build the keel, |
| [00:47.370] |
nineteen thousand tons of steel, |
| [00:49.180] |
|
| [00:49.920] |
Anyone with eyes to see is but a bride of Hell, |
| [00:53.230] |
|
| [00:54.100] |
And the name upon the draftsman's chart, Isambard Brunel. |
| [00:59.030] |
|
| [01:03.090] |
A riveter was on the hull with his apprentice lad, |
| [01:06.460] |
|
| [01:07.400] |
He'd served his time with the older man, |
| [01:09.770] |
some say it was his dad. |
| [01:11.080] |
|
| [01:11.830] |
200 men upon the shift but when the day is done, |
| [01:15.310] |
|
| [01:16.200] |
The count is hundred 98...before the setting sun, |
| [01:21.120] |
|
| [01:21.740] |
They searched the yard |
| [01:23.200] |
all through the night until the morning bell, |
| [01:25.010] |
No more delays are countenanced by Isambard Brunel, |
| [01:29.430] |
|
| [01:30.550] |
And so they work a double shift, |
| [01:32.870] |
to make the time in full, |
| [01:34.180] |
|
| [01:35.230] |
No mention of the missing men...they seal the double hull. |
| [01:41.350] |
|
| [01:59.020] |
The ship was launched upon the tide |
| [02:00.890] |
and all the townsfolk cheered, |
| [02:02.260] |
|
| [02:03.310] |
A brass band played |
| [02:04.760] |
but not a word of omens they had feared, |
| [02:06.690] |
|
| [02:07.680] |
But before the afternoon was out, |
| [02:09.810] |
the celebration wrecked, |
| [02:10.930] |
|
| [02:11.990] |
A dignitary clutched his heart...and collapsed upon the deck. |
| [02:16.550] |
|
| [02:17.170] |
No doctors could revive him |
| [02:19.230] |
as the telegraphs would tell, |
| [02:20.600] |
|
| [02:21.600] |
And the name upon the coffin...Isambard Brunel. |
| [02:26.280] |
|
| [02:34.520] |
And now upon the open sea, the mighty ship did plough, |
| [02:37.950] |
|
| [02:38.950] |
But many feared the darkness, in the shadow of its prow. |
| [02:42.070] |
|
| [02:42.940] |
An explosion on the lower deck, would take the souls of five, |
| [02:46.560] |
|
| [02:47.580] |
With a growing superstition 'mong the sailors still alive. |
| [02:50.950] |
|
| [02:54.190] |
The captain and his boy are lost while rowing to the shore, |
| [02:57.120] |
|
| [02:58.120] |
The crew will threaten mutiny and say they'll work no more, |
| [03:01.690] |
|
| [03:02.550] |
They began to say the ship was cursed, |
| [03:04.930] |
they hadn't even seen the worst, |
| [03:06.380] |
|
| [03:07.000] |
They'd signed on able-bodied men, |
| [03:09.140] |
but they wouldn't sail to Hell... |
| [03:10.500] |
|
| [03:12.320] |
When the name upon the manifest is Isambard Brunel. |
| [03:15.820] |
|
| [03:20.440] |
For 14 years that ship will sail, |
| [03:22.240] |
|
| [03:23.300] |
misfortune taken hard, |
| [03:24.430] |
|
| [03:25.610] |
The owners barely find a crew to reach the breakers' yard. |
| [03:28.790] |
|
| [03:29.720] |
And as they take the plates apart, |
| [03:31.540] |
unseal the double hull, |
| [03:33.410] |
|
| [03:34.470] |
The breakers call the foreman o'er, |
| [03:36.090] |
|
| [03:37.210] |
they'd found a human skull. |
| [03:38.410] |
|
| [03:40.020] |
And then they find the younger man, |
| [03:41.520] |
|
| [03:42.450] |
perforced to understand, |
| [03:43.400] |
|
| [03:44.640] |
That in the hour of their torment, |
| [03:46.270] |
|
| [03:47.010] |
he'd reached his father's hand. |
| [03:49.080] |
|
| [03:53.010] |
In 18 hundred and 59, the engineer Brunel, |
| [03:56.380] |
|
| [03:57.440] |
Would build the greatest ship afloat, |
| [03:59.560] |
and rule the mighty swell. |
| [04:00.990] |
|
| [04:01.870] |
The final shift was over, and the breakers' hammers fell, |
| [04:05.480] |
|
| [04:06.230] |
And the name upon the manifest, |
| [04:07.850] |
|
| [04:08.420] |
the contract signed in Hell, |
| [04:09.920] |
|
| [04:10.660] |
Was the same as on the draftsman's chart...one Isambard Brunel. |
