The 'Titanic' was proclaimed as 'unsinkable' and was the pride of British ship-building when it was launched, in the beginning of the 20th Century. On its first trans-Atlantic voyage it struck an iceberg and sank. When it was going down with passengers falling overboard, the ships band is supposed to have assembled and were playing the popular Christian Hymn, often sung at funerals, bearing the following words :-
"Though like a wanderer, the sun goes down,
Darkness lies over me, My rest a stone,
Through all my life I'll be,
Nearer my God to thee, nearer to Thee".
This was headline news throughout the world. This was the origin of the Sinhala idiom - "Nava gillath, ban chune" - "Even if the ship is sinking the band plays the tune"
