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In The Same Boat

 

The Titanic was a magnificent luxury passenger ship that sank in 1912, after hitting an iceberg. The First Class had luxurious suites, servants, French cuisine, private decks and a ballroom with an orchestra.  The second class was comfortable but not luxurious. While the third class, most of whom were seeking a new life in America, were housed on the lowest level, with simple food and shared cabins. Yet, they all faced the same fear and the same death in the icy waters of the Atlantic.

The Titanic has since become a metaphor for human society. Some see it as an indictment of human hubris, others reflect on the class divisions and the unequal value of human lives between the privileged and the poor. One can move the telescope further away and look at the inequality of nations - divided between the highly developed and those much lower down the rung.

Yet every so often nature makes short work of such differences. Celebrity homes were gutted alongside those of poorer residents in forest fires that raged across Los Angeles. Covid 19 did not see bank balances when it took over 7 million lives of which USA and Europe accounted for 2.5 million.  Climatologists warn that all nations will be affected by climate change, regardless of whether they are industrialised or not.

Developed and underdeveloped nations have been tumbled around much like the passengers of the Titanic. Poverty and homelessness grow in rich countries. Nations that prided themselves on free speech such as USA and UK, are cracking down on dissent, much like the dictatorships that they, till recently, reviled.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said “We all came in on different ships, but we're all in the same boat now.” And G.K. Chesterton adds a bit of dark humour “We’re all in the same boat, and we’re all seasick.”

Vulnerable humans embarking on a journey with little more than a vessel between them and the unknown dangers of the open seas has a breathtaking magnificence.  Whether simple canoes that enabled early humans to island hop in the South China Sea or the massive steel container ships of today, traversing the world’s oceans, journeys across seas have symbolized the adventure and heroism of man confronting nature.  Viking warriors who died in battle were placed on a boat that was set ablaze. In Greek mythology, Charon the ferryman took the souls of the dead by boat into the Underworld.

Everyday language is peppered with nautical terms. We are told to not rock the boat, we wait for a favourable wind. Someone can take the wind out of our sails, we change course, we may find our ship has sailed. We can be rudderless in life, abandon a cause by jumping ship. We can be the rat escaping the sinking ship or be left high and dry. We face rocky waters, the perfect storm. We can feel under the weather, lost at sea, find ourselves in the doldrums or between the devil and the deep blue sea. We learn the ropes, batten down the hatches, and learn to run a tight ship. We tide someone over, are taken aback, or are asked to pipe down. We look for a safe harbor to drop anchor.  

Navigating the vast oceans symbolized freedom from the restrictions of society. Allama Iqbal wrote: bandagi mein ghut ke rah jati hai ek ju-e-kam-ab. aur aazadi mein bahr-e-be-karan hai zindagi. In bondage life is a stagnant pool of water. In freedom it is a boundless ocean.

Sindbad’s entertaining adventures by ship are a main feature of A Thousand and One Nights. In Buddhism, the ship symbolized adventurism motivated by greed, and history shows that controlling the seas was pivotal for the expansion of Colonialism.

However, the ship has also been the savior of humankind. All civilizations have myths of a great flood, where humanity was saved by boarding a ship. In Abrahamic religions, Noah builds an Ark, in Hindu texts, Manu builds a giant boat, In Zorastrain myths, one man survives in an ark with his cattle, in Greek mythology Zeus punishes man with a great flood, and Prometheus advises his son to build an ark.

In the distressing turmoil of mindless violence and moral vacuum, one may be excused for waiting for another salvation. More realistically, as Mikhail Gorbachev put it “We are all passengers aboard one ship, the Earth, and we must not allow it to be wrecked. There will be no second Noah's Ark.”

 

Durriya Kazi

November 13, 2025

Karachi

durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

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