A flagship tale

“Your patches won’t hold. Abandon ship!” He saw the danger coming. It was not the first time he witnessed something like this. He knew it would be folly to buy a boarding pass this time. His previous voyage did not end that well. Not wanting others to repeat the mistake he had made, he tried to warn many of the impending doom that awaited them on their trip, but only a few heeded his words.

Even before launch, it was painfully obvious how this would eventually end up. The ship, like the one overhauled before it, wasn’t watertight. The threading of water was slow at first, not affecting the buoyancy much. Only a handful noticed it.

Then, not too long after departure, amidst the open sea, an iceberg, seemingly coming out of nowhere hit the bow. Some passengers did saw it coming and tried to raise the alarm, but their cries were ignored.

Of course, many thought the ship was indestructible. Not long ago they marvelled at this glorious and seemingly fine looking vessel and were eager to see all of it’s beauty. But reality came back biting, as it always does… they now wished they never bought a ticket and boarded in the first place. How they frantically scrambled to get to the lifeboats…

The water had filled most decks by now. Creaks were heard all over. People on board were getting angry at the staff, asking: “Why don’t you do something?” Panic struck shortly after as they were getting stuck everywhere. The water had become waist high in most cabins.

Then came the point of no return: the flagship broke and was about to topple down to the ocean floor.

Would the captain go down with it? Or would he face charges for sheer negligence if he does survive? We will probably never know. And what about the maintenance crew? They tried to fix the holes, but it was too late. Many were never seen again. It was a fight that could not be won.

In the end, many passengers still survived, and eventually went back to proven methods of safely navigating the seas.

The company that bought the now sunken mighty ship, many years ago, ultimately never realized how foolish they had been in their recent efforts to overhaul and make it shine again. Even though the outside was finely polished with spit by the teams hired, the engine upgrades and connections always caused sputtering and never achieved the desired outcome: functioning flawlessly and safely. Testing was rushed to meet deadlines which resulted in ever recurring problems. More importantly: The rudder often became stuck and only swayed to one direction, which proved to be the most fatal flaw.

Some of the passengers who were invited to have a first look, a few months before launch, eventually noticed this and tried to warn the engineering staff, to no avail. The company ignored them, and decided it was time for the grand opening shortly after. It would yield them quite a sum, which was all that mattered to them. A delay like last time could not be afforded. Any errors could be helped later on down the line, so they thought. Everything would be fine.

But they were proven wrong. A most costly and tragic mistake that would see the end of of an era of mighty seaworthy vessels and passengers willing to trust them and the company.

For only the most skilled, wise and cautious sailors prevail over the big blue.

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BEAUTIFUL. Can I copy and share it before it gets close due to be “off topic”? (altough, kt is obviously not)

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Thanks, sure go ahead and share it with anyone you want.