ray pool

THE MARCHIONESS

by ray pool

Monday 19th August 2024 8:27 pm

On the black night Thames deep as death

rode the Marchioness in all her finery

strung with bulbs festooned with joy

her tiny heart edging on the slip sliding boat

the prettiest naughtiest boat afloat.

While darker even than destiny

boomed a wide bottomed dredger with more

than equal pace Bowbelle by name

no lookout on either vessel,

and between two bridges the pretty lady

was rammed from behind

a rape of rare disgrace on a birthday trip

like the predestination of yuppie culture itself

fading in and out to finally disappear

along with the memories of an uneasy night.

🌷(7)

◄ PENNY WISE

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT ►

Comments

raypool

Sat 24th Aug 2024 17:38

Thanks Uilleam for your interest. Without resorting to google I can't be too clear on the accountability, but I don't think anyone was imprisoned or even fined, but some rules were updated to avoid similar tragedies. Often the case after the event.

Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh

Sat 24th Aug 2024 09:45

A horrific ending to joy and celebration...
Do we know the reasons for this tragedy..anyone held accountable?

raypool

Thu 22nd Aug 2024 11:55

Thanks to Aisha and Stephen for your likes.

Thanks David for encapsulating so well my aims; I do agree that the river has that dark side. I was given a lift on a police launch back to Wapping once where the cars were parked after a jaunt playing in the band on the Silver Barracuda. Similar vibe. One of the coppers said suicides were picked up on a regular basis.
The days of the Maxwell excesses !

Indeed Mark the contrast pretty horrendous. Time passes, the river keeps its secrets.

That's a very poignant account Greg, thank you. You have every reason to recall that day. Maybe the Battersea Heliport was involved in that. Often we find clusters of apparently coincidental disasters, as with air incidents. A musician colleague was on the next boat out after the Herald of Free Enterprise. Lucky man!

I didn't know that John - wrong place wrong time.

Thanks Stephen for your points. We should always appreciate our safe passage through life - others not so fortunate.

Ray

Stephen Gospage

Wed 21st Aug 2024 08:24

A fine poem, Ray. Like most of us, I have known people who perished in disasters of some sort. Every one of these tragedies takes away precious human lives. They should always be remembered.

John Coopey

Tue 20th Aug 2024 22:03

I seem to recollect that the sister of former England rugby captain, Lawrence Dallaglio, was one of those drowned.

Greg Freeman

Tue 20th Aug 2024 15:58

I remember this because it was the night before my father died, Ray. My wife saw a helicopter scouring the Thames from the train while travelling the following morning to his bedside. At the time it just seemed the latest in a stream of disasters ... Piper Alpha, the Zeebrugge ferry, Hillsborough ... all different in their way, but all around the same time. 'No lookout on either vessel'. I wrote a poem about my father's death and called it 'The River'.

M.C. Newberry

Tue 20th Aug 2024 13:08

Londoners like myself will know these names. A rare event
but all the worse for its combination of frivolity and everyday
mundane tragedy. Was it really that long ago?

David RL Moore

Tue 20th Aug 2024 12:27

Hi Ray,

Sorry for the delay on this comment.

A terrible tragedy which seems has sunk beyond memory.

There are some subtle and not so subtle references here, all worthy of note.

The yuppie culture of that time was destined to run out of steam, thankfully it did and in similar disastrous fashion...unfortunately leaving lives marooned, in debt and worse.

The likening of the incident to a rape seems apt considering the dark and dangerous nature of The River.

Together with the element of risk and general abandonment with which some people lived their lives in that period, this poem manages to encapsulate the times and the event into a kind of bitter metaphor.

A sad remebrance of a disaster which started out in celebration.

David

raypool

Mon 19th Aug 2024 20:35

The incident of the Marchioness occurred on the 20th March 1989, thirty five years to the day. It seems strange to find no present coverage of the tragedy which resulted in the deaths of twenty four people.

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