Last week marked the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic. This was White Star Line’s newest flagship and at the time was the biggest passenger liner ever built, it was also supposed to be unsinkable, which proved to be tragically untrue, and 1,514 passengers and crew died on its maiden voyage.

But many, many, hundreds of years earlier, another passenger liner was constructed, it was also described as the biggest passenger ship ever built and was also described as being unsinkable.

The master shipbuilder had supervised every inch of its construction according to the commands he had received from the ship’s master. Hundreds of workers slaved day and night for over a year building the massive vessel. Whole forests were torn down, as the demand for yet more wood was received from the builders and wood was transported to the site on wooden carts pulled by oxen. On the day of the ships launch, crowds came from far and wide to see the mighty vessel plunge into the water, then came the task of fitting out the inside of the vessel. The master of the ship had definite views on what he wanted and sometimes had heated debates with the builder over certain aspects of the construction. He used to always say, “My boss wouldn’t like this” and the design was eventually changed. Then came the doubts, would it be large enough for all the passengers, was there enough storage space for all the food needed for the voyage and most important, was she in fact unsinkable? The builder thought that the ship ought to have a name; the master said he would call his ship, “The Ark.” When he was completely satisfied that everything was in order, Noah took a deep breath and started the process of leading in all the animals two by two. Unlike the Titanic, when the floods came the Ark proved to be unsinkable and Noah and his precious cargo survived all that was thrown at them.