I agree with many of the other posters that the nautical disaster is a metaphor for a breakup, but I'll focus on part of the lyrics that I haven't seen anyone else comment on yet - the part about the lifeboat being designed for 10 and 10 only - and anything that systematic will get you hated (when at least 500 more were thrashing about). In the dating world, there are 100's of suitors for your love, but the reality is only one can have it at a time - which means everyone else will be left behind in the end. I think someone in this song had a very painful breakup when their "love" chose someone else and left them behind... and while it's in the past now (a distant memory - "as faint as a sound in my memory"), that distant memory is still painful as hell ("as those fingernails scratching on my hull"... what could be more haunting than remembering sailing to safety while others clutched at your lifeboat with their fingernails scratching the hull as they drowned)
I agree with many of the other posters that the nautical disaster is a metaphor for a breakup, but I'll focus on part of the lyrics that I haven't seen anyone else comment on yet - the part about the lifeboat being designed for 10 and 10 only - and anything that systematic will get you hated (when at least 500 more were thrashing about). In the dating world, there are 100's of suitors for your love, but the reality is only one can have it at a time - which means everyone else will be left behind in the end. I think someone in this song had a very painful breakup when their "love" chose someone else and left them behind... and while it's in the past now (a distant memory - "as faint as a sound in my memory"), that distant memory is still painful as hell ("as those fingernails scratching on my hull"... what could be more haunting than remembering sailing to safety while others clutched at your lifeboat with their fingernails scratching the hull as they drowned)