cafe reviews, wanderings, disconnected thoughts

And the Ship Sailed On

Only yesterday I was working on a piece of music called “The Lonely Sea and the Sky” and postulating a story told from the viewpoint of a boiler operative who one night got very drunk and missed his ship. In the morning he stood on the quayside yelling “I hope your bloody ship sinks and everybody drowns!”

That ship was, of course, the RMS Titanic.

And then I am reading about the life of Jack Kerouac only to find that in the 1941-45 war he was in the Merchant Marine, served on the SS Dorchester, and one night in early 1943 got drunk and missed the boat.The Dorchester sailed, and on that voyage was torpedoed with the loss of 600 lives.

I don’t know what to make of this other than that coincidence happens.