Disclaimer: I do not own Bioshock or any of its related trademarks. This is an imagining of the ascent and decline of the city of Rapture through the eyes of those who came to build it - I try to stick as close to the historical timeline as referred to in-game, but I have made some changes of my own. :)
16th of March, 1947
Benjamin Blake: Hello? Hello? Is this thing on? How can you tell…?
Technician: When the green light is on, the Audio-Diary is recording sir.
Benjamin: Oh, thanks son. What do I say…My name is Benjamin Blake, and I'm with my family on board Andrew Ryan's freighter, the Tethys, off the coast of Greenland. And soon we'll be going to a new world…
Barbara Blake: Honey, what are you doing talking to yourself?
Benjamin: The crew gave these things to us! You can record your voice on it like a little phonograph and play it back later.
Barbara: But it's so small! How do they do it?
Benjamin: I just don't know. Here honey, say something!
Barbara: Oh, Benny don't.
Benjamin: Come on darling!
Barbara: Oh…I'm Barbara Blake. Um…we have a daughter, Roberta. She's four now…
Roberta Blake: Daddy, I'm cold!
Benjamin: Oh I know Bobby. Come here; let me pick you up.
Roberta: It's colder here than Mass-uh-too-setts!
Barbara: Honey? You want to take this diary thing? Is it still on?
Benjamin: Yup, if the green light is on its recording our voice. Here, you take Bobby…there we are. I guess I should explain why we're way out in the North Atlantic. I'm the on the Board of Directors of the Iowa State Agricultural College, but a few months ago I was approached by multi-millionaire Andrew Ryan. Mr Ryan has a revolutionary idea; an entirely self-supporting city on at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. I've been called upon to help plan, construct and run the food production plants. I thought it would be impossible, but some of the plans which Ryan showed me…well, I've never dreamed of such things. So, we came out to Massachusetts, pretending to be on a family holiday, and came out to the beach in the middle of the night with our luggage three days ago – and here we are! On our way down to Rapture!
Roberta: Will Grandpa and Grandma come visit us?
Benjamin: Er…
Barbara: Maybe Grandpa and Grandma will come live with us in a little while. Come on darling, let's go and see if there are any fish around.
Roberta: Fishes!
Benjamin: The truth is that Rapture is a secret project. Ryan seems pretty distrustful even of the US government. He says that product of a man's labour should belong to that man and no one else, so he's definitely at odds with Roosevelt! But we were sworn to secrecy as part of being involved in this grand undertaking, so we couldn't tell our parents or our friends. It's sad, but there you are. How else am I going to be able to raise cattle or grow potatoes under the sea? The challenges are huge, but the opportunity is a once in a lifetime!
Barbara: Honey! Honey! Come and look at this!
Benjamin: Everyone's hurrying to the port side; the engines have stopped. What's all the commotion about? Barbara! What's going on…
Barbara: It's the Lighthouse!
Roberta: Lighthouse! Lighthouse!
Crewman: All right folks! That is your doorway to Rapture – please take your numbers for the bathyspheres so that we can get you shuttled down there in an orderly fashion. Drop the gangway!
Benjamin: This lighthouse is beautiful! It's as tall as a church steeple, and it glitters in the Arctic sun like a…like an iceberg!
Barbara: You're so fanciful dear. You ought to have been a poet!
Benjamin: No room for poets until there's food and air and homes down there Barb…number thirty-four?
Crewman: Yup mister, number thirty-four. Now step lively, time to disembark, thank you!
Barbara: Come on Benny, let's get inside. It'll be warm and there's no sense sitting out in the cold. Oh! That's one of those television sets that they keep talking about. This is just like the movies…
Voice of Andrew Ryan: Hello, my friends.
Benjamin: That's Ryan himself!
Voice of Andrew Ryan: I regret to say that I cannot welcome you personally to my new city. The responsibility of the co-ordination of raw materials and funds towards the Rapture Project keep me in New York for the time being. Besides, it is important that you, my dear friends, my experts, are given primary access to resources to create my masterpiece. Over the past months, excavation and building teams have cleared the site and set up initial living areas provided with oxygen, electricity and desalinated water. However, regular supplies from the surface are still required to keep the city running.
My friends, your part in this great endeavour cannot be emphasised enough. To give our infant city true sustainability is a necessary task that we must accomplish, so that men may enjoy the fruits of their labours for generations to come. To enjoy those fruits which the succubi of the state, the church and the law would suck straight from our veins! Yes, your task is a magnificent one. To create paradise at the bottom of the sea.
And now, friends, give yourselves up to Rapture….
Technician: Number one! Calling group number one to the bathyspheres! Number one? Where is group number one please?