The engagement ring, found in the pocket of a dead, drowned sailor, remained unclaimed. Unpossessed.
The overloaded Iolaire sank within view of harbour lights, losing 205 war-weary men on the last stretch back to Lewes, to Harris.
Celebrations and reunions were in their minds. Not death. Not so close to home.
The morning of 1st January 1919, they were seen dancing in the waves, like sea-horses, onlookers said, bodies tossed back and forth in frothing waves.
A woman among so many bereft.
Her ring, that token of promise, of love, undelivered.