[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.