AWAY ALL BOATS!
Chapter Three

Robert Drake hardly noticed the cold now as he worked to uncover a lifeboat on the port side of the Titanic’s boat deck. A handful of sailors winched the wooden boat out over the side. Fully loaded, each of the small vessels could hold between sixty and seventy people. But they weren’t nearly enough to evacuate all of the two thousand, two hundred souls aboard ship.

Women and children first was the rule, and men could fill whatever was open. This might work for a while, but pretty soon we’ll have a riot on our hands, Robert thought. Once people realized the Titanic was really sinking, they would panic. He prayed he wouldn’t have to decide who lived and who died tonight. How do I make that decision?

A roar of steam nearly deafened him; the excess steam was being blasted out of the bypass valves on the ship’s funnels. Looking around, Robert could see passengers already assembling on the deck. They were clad in all manner of evening dress, some in bedclothes. Quite a few clutched children tightly by the hand.

Glancing at his pocket watch, Robert saw that it was already 12:30 AM. An hour gone already! In the wireless room, Bride and Phillips were doubtlessly sending a distress call. But would anyone hear it? The unsinkable ship was sinking, and the Atlantic was a big place.

Second Officer Lightoller was going back and forth, shouting orders over the noise. Now he turned to the waiting passengers. This was the hard part. How did you convince someone to abandon a well-lit, warm, safe-looking ship and board a cold little boat in the middle of the night?

"For the time being, I shall require only women and children in the boats!" Lightoller shouted. At that moment, the horrendous noise stopped. The Titanic’s engines were dead. Reluctantly at first, the passengers began moving into the lifeboats. Robert heard quite a few jokes from people staying on the deck.

"You’ll need a pass to get back on! They’ll leave you out there if you don’t have a pass!" one woman teased her companion. Robert smiled despite himself. Joke now, because this won’t be funny for long.

"Do we really have to go in the boats, Daddy?" a sleepy little boy complained to his father. He couldn’t have been older than six or so and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"It’s only for a short time, Brian, so they can fix the ship," the father said. He was smiling at his son, but Robert could see the pain in his eyes. The man was saying good-bye.

"But I’m tired!" Brian complained. Brian’s father hugged his son tightly for a moment.

"Now be a good boy and listen to the officers, all right?" the man said. Robert stood with one foot in the boat and the other on the deck, keeping the boat close to the side. It swung back and forth as people clambered into it.

"I’ll take him, sir," Robert said. Brian’s father smiled sadly and handed him the boy. A woman sitting in the boat accepted the child into her care, promising to keep him warm and safe. His father bravely stepped back, waving to his son.

"Are there anymore women and children? Anyone else, please step forward!" Lightoller called. Very few of the passengers were willing to board the small boat. Robert could hardly blame them. Not yet, anyway. "Very well. Mr. Drake, prepare to lower away!" the second officer ordered. Robert hopped out of the boat. He was dismayed to see only twenty-eight people aboard. The craft was built to hold sixty-five! But we can’t force these people to get in, can we? I can’t hit them over the head if they don’t want to go! "Lower away!" Lightoller shouted. Two sailors slowly fed the lines through the davits, putting the boat into a jerky descent towards the water. It was a long and dangerous few minutes. If it was lowered too fast, the lines might snap and the boat could plunge into the water.

Robert held his breath until the boat set into the water with only a small splash. The lines were cut and the boat floated away from the sinking liner. A small group of passengers had been saved.

"Women and children first, please! Women and children!" Lightoller called out from the next boat down. Robert began to notice an urge to lean forward. The deck was tilting slightly towards the bow. It’s starting, he thought. She’s really going down!

He was so engrossed in filling the boat that he hardly noticed that Lightoller had disappeared. When he looked up again, the second officer was at his side with a strange object in his hand that he proffered to the younger man.

"Take this, Robert," Lightoller said. Robert was alarmed to see it was a revolver, a .44 caliber Webley. He couldn’t be serious!

"What the devil is this? I don’t need a weapon!" Robert snapped. But Lightoller insisted.

"It’s Captain’s orders. We may need them later if the passengers start panicking," the second officer explained, a grave look on his face. Robert started to protest further, but just sighed and pushed the weapon into his pocket. I’m a sailor, not a murderer!

Robert couldn’t help but think of the violent storm that sank his sailboat when he was a lad. Swimming in that freezing water had almost killed him. But this time it wouldn’t just be him, but hundreds of other people. We haven’t a chance in that cold, he told himself.

"Robert, go down to A-Deck and load this boat from there. We’ll have less of a crowd that way," Lightoller said. The younger man nodded and took the nearby ladder down to the enclosed promenade deck with Lightoller right behind him.

Cranking open the windows, Robert was surprised to see Gregory working hard right alongside the sailors. His friendly demeanor was still intact, but now laced with urgency. The lifeboat slowly came down level with the windows.

"Is it true, Robert? Are we really sinking?" Gregory called to the ship’s officer, who nodded gravely. The look in his eyes told his friend all he needed to know.

"This is the real thing, my friend. We have about an hour or so before she’s gone," Robert said quietly, aware of the passengers gathering around them.

"Crikey!" Gregory cursed and stroked his mustache out of habit.

"Try and keep this to yourself, Greg. I don’t want a panic," Robert cautioned him. His old friend smiled and nodded. The two men had been friends long enough to trust each other with something like this.

"Please, any women and children here? I assure you that you will be completely safe in this boat. Please come forward!" Robert called. This time, several passengers stepped forward at once, including Mr. Astor and his wife. Robert could see that the young woman was quite pregnant, as much as she tried to hide it.

The crew rested two deck chairs across the gap between the window and the lifeboat, forming a crude bridge. Even so, it was still dangerous. A pregnant woman was unsteady on her feet as it was. At the quiet urging of her husband, Madeline crawled through the window and Robert helped her as best he could.

"Officer? Is there any chance I could accompany my wife? She’s in a rather delicate condition," Astor inquired of Robert, who shook his head sadly.

"I’m sorry, sir. It’s women and children only right now," the young officer replied. Astor took a step forward and Robert looked straight at him.

"She is very pregnant and I can’t leave her alone in a boat," Astor countered. Robert felt the weight of the revolver in his uniform pocket. No way was he going to shoot Mr. Astor. But he might have to use it later.

"No men, and I must inform you, the officers have been issued pistols," Robert explained, which made Astor back off. He was a sensible man, if nothing else.

"Oh. Well, I don’t want to be shot over the matter. Which boat number is this?" Mr. Astor asked.

"Boat 14, Mr. Astor," Robert said. John Jacob Astor waved to his wife and lit a cigarette as he stepped back. The man was entirely composed as he watched the boat carrying his wife descend towards the Atlantic Ocean. Most if not all of the families aboard ship were going to be split up tonight. In all likelihood, Mrs. Astor would never see her husband again. A mental image of Elizabeth being informed of his death caused Robert to shiver despite his heavy coat. Don’t think of that right now. Attend to your duties! he told himself. That’s what she would want you to do.

The deck was now tilting at a much more noticeable angle and Robert found himself leaning to one side in order to keep his balance. The passengers were rushing about with a greater sense of urgency. Robert could feel a rising tide of panic in the air. Voices were rising and people moved faster and more uneasily.

Back on the boat deck, Robert could hear dance music carrying on the wind. The ship’s orchestra had assembled near the first class entrance and was playing upbeat ragtime and dance tunes on their instruments as people hurried around them. He didn’t know whether to call them brave or foolish, but they did have a calming effect on the agitated passengers.

"Mr. Lightoller! Why are these boats being launched half-filled?" Thomas Andrews called to the second officer. Overwhelmed, he tried to brush off the ship’s designer.

"Not now, Mr. Andrews!" Lightoller snapped, but the man wasn’t to be dissuaded and pointed at a boat floating a few yards away. It wasn’t even a quarter filled.

"Look. Twenty or so in a boat built for sixty-five! And I saw one boat with only twelve! Twelve!" Andrews exclaimed. Robert could see the second officer’s own excitement level slowly rising as the ship tilted more and more. It was going to get very ugly in a little while.

"Well, we weren’t sure of the weight, Mr. Andrews. These boats may buckle!" Lightoller replied and tried to resume his work and ignore the meddlesome passenger.

"Rubbish! They were tested in Belfast Harbor with the weight of seventy men! Now, fill these boats, Mr. Lightoller, for God’s sake, man!" Andrews shouted. The man was right, of course. But they couldn’t tell what the boats were going to do if overloaded.

By now, they had very little trouble finding volunteers. Indeed, some men were literally jumping into the boats as they were being loaded, to the terror of those aboard. Robert did his best to hold them back. He was a lean, strong man, but he couldn’t keep everyone back. Again, the gun he was carrying came to mind. Not yet!

"Everyone stay back! It’s women and children here! Stay back!" Robert shouted as he pushed back some of the more determined passengers. Gregory was right next to him, ushering women and children into one of the last boats on the port side.

"That’s it. One at a time. Come through, madam. Give me your hand!" the friendly steward called out, helping an older woman along. He picked up a small girl and hoisted her into the boat. The child’s eyes were huge with fear. She knew what was going to happen. No doubt she knew.

"Can you row a boat, Gregory?" Robert asked. Gregory shrugged.

"No, but how hard can it be?" he asked and stepped into the crowded boat. Robert lifted two young boys into the boat and gestured to the sailors to lower away. At that moment, a panicked woman grabbed his arm.

"Sir, those are my boys!" she yelled. Robert saw that the boat was filled to capacity; there was no room for her.

"I’m sorry, madam. You’ll have to take another boat. This one is already too full," he explained. In the boat, her two boys started crying. All of this was too scary and they wanted their mother. Gregory stood up and began climbing back out.

"It’s all right lads; your mum can have my seat," the steward offered. Robert stared at his friend in surprise.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, but Gregory simply smiled.

"Boys need their mother and besides, Vincent can handle just as well without me." Gregory waved to a fellow steward. The mother smiled at him and climbed into the boat, sitting next to her frightened boys.

"Lower away! Lower away!" Robert shouted. As the wooden boat creaked down the side of the Titanic, a man took a flying leap into it. The passengers screamed. A second man followed immediately thereafter.

"Stay back! The boat will buckle! Stay back!" Robert hollered. A third man ran up, but the wiry young officer wrapped his arm around the man’s abdomen and shoved him back. The Webley revolver was in his hand before he realized what he was doing. He aimed it directly at the unruly mob. It was fully loaded.

"Mind yourselves, for crying out loud!" he screamed. "Anyone else who jumps for a boat will be shot!" Robert hoped the threat was enough. He wasn’t ready to kill yet. Not yet.

The Titanic’s deck was listing heavily towards the bow. Robert ran forward and was shocked to see the entire bow deck under water. We don’t have much longer. Icy cold water poured into the B-Deck promenade. Almost all of the lifeboats were gone.

"This is something you can tell your grandkids about, how you sailed on the greatest ship in the world for her maiden voyage." The words of the dockworker Robert had met back in Southampton rang in his ears. Assuming I live long enough to have grandchildren, Robert thought.

"Mr. Drake, head over to the starboard side and give Murdoch a hand!" Lightoller shouted over the rising panic. Robert saluted and hurried over to the starboard side where the Titanic’s first officer was still hard at work.

Murdoch and a handful of sailors were on top of the officers’ quarters, working to untie one of the ship’s collapsible lifeboats from where it was tied down. A mob of passengers ran about, in full panic mode by now. It was almost impossible to hear orders over the screaming and shouting.

"Drake! Up here!" Murdoch shouted. The junior officer climbed the ladder to join his superior and his men. A sailor handed him a knife. Cutting at the ropes, Robert forgot how cold he was. There was just too much work to do. It was hard work, but eventually, the boat was cut free.

"You there, put the oars against the bulkhead so we can slide this boat down! Move!" Murdoch ordered a pair of sailors on the deck. The men quickly complied. Below, Robert felt panic rising in his throat as he watched the icy water creep higher and higher. I don’t think we have half an hour!

"Steady now! Steady!" Murdoch cried as the men slid the boat off the roof. Suddenly, the oars leaned against the officers’ quarters snapped; the collapsible boat fell upside down on the boat deck. At the last second, Robert grabbed for it and lost his balance, falling on top of the craft.

"Get those falls hooked up! We don’t have much time!" The first officer was a blur of motion, not slowing down for a second. It looked to Robert as if he’d been running full tilt ever since the collision. Maybe he felt the accident was his fault, even thought it really wasn’t.

Collapsible D was rather awkwardly hooked up to the Number 1 davit. Already, the lethal water of the Atlantic Ocean had reached the bridge rails. In all the confusion, Robert had lost track of Captain Smith. Looking around, he spied the Titanic’s commander standing in the midst of panicking passengers. He was a far cry from the confident skipper that had helmed the ship across the Atlantic. Now, he seemed in shock, not really a part of the unfolding nightmare. As Robert watched, Smith turned and walked onto the ship’s vacant and flooding bridge. The young officer never saw him again.

Seeing this as their last chance at survival, passengers were fast mobbing the final boat. More than fifteen hundred people were still onboard and the boat could only hold sixty-five. Now that the ship was really sinking, everyone feared for their lives and proper conduct went out the window.

"This boat is for women and children only! Everybody else stay well back!" Robert shouted at the top of his lungs. An angry-looking man roughly pushed him out of the way. The young officer slipped on the wet deck and fell in the lifeboat. He winced at the pain in his back from hitting an oar.

"Are you all right, Robert?" Murdoch cried, grabbing his hand and pulling him back on board. Both officers yanked out their pistols and aimed them at the crowd. It was time for a clearer message. Robert’s revolver barked once, twice into the air. That only worked for a moment. Angry shouts filled the air. A ring of crewmen surrounded the boat, linking arms to prevent a rush. Women and children were escorted through.

"Give us a chance to live, you Limey bastards!" a steerage man screamed at them. But Murdoch held his ground.

"I’ll shoot the next one of you who moves!" the first officer threatened. This is it, Robert realized. It’s coming apart! Suddenly, a man was shoved forward by the mob.

Pow! A single gunshot ripped into the man’s chest and he fell dead. At the same instant, another man tried to jump in and Murdoch’s pistol barked again. The man crumpled to the deck, blood pulsing from his chest. Just like that, two people were dead.

"Bloody hell!" Robert whispered, too shocked to do anything but stare. Murdoch’s eyes widened as he saw what he’d done. It had happened way too fast. Blood pooled around the dead men. The first officer looked at Robert and raised his arm in a salute.

"No!" he shouted, but it was too late. Murdoch put his pistol to his head and squeezed the trigger. His body spasmed violently and plunged into the water. Robert was almost numb with horror. Until now, he’d never seen a man die, much less commit suicide. And the real nightmare hadn’t even begun yet. "Stay back! All of you!" Robert screamed. Even the more aggressive passengers and crew had been cowed by the slaughter they had just witnessed. He kept his grip on the revolver in his hand. Part of him wanted to just pitch it in the sea. But his mind refused to let his hand complete the motion. "Lower away! Right now!" The boat was dangerously overcrowded, but the descent to the water wasn’t very long. Now the Titanic was absent all of her lifeboats. The cold waters began rushing up the boat deck, covering Robert’s shoes. The ship’s bridge was completely under water.

Suddenly, the deck lurched under his feet as the Titanic began her final plunge. Her bow was too heavy with invading seawater and was dragging the mighty ship down, faster and faster. He imagined the ship’s propellers were already visible to the folks in the lifeboats. It’s time to go! I’ve done my duty! Robert told himself.

Robert Drake turned and ran for his life, just like everyone else.

Chapter Four
Stories