BETWEEN TWO HEARTS
Chapter Eight

April 14, 1912
9:45 PM

Lowe arrived back at his room, only to find it to be quite stuffy. Everything seemed to be heavy inside it, and he took into account that he hadn’t been inside his room all day. He cracked open his window and lay down on the bed. He took off his jacket beforehand, however, because he would need to look nice when he took his place on the bridge for his shift at midnight. As soon as he set his head upon the pillow, he felt his eyes begin to shut, and he succumbed to slumber a few minutes later.

11:45 PM

Fourth Officer Boxhall was still in disbelief that they had hit the iceberg. The Titanic--the so-called unsinkable ship--had hit an iceberg. Captain Smith had gotten to the bridge not even two minutes after the initial shock of everything had passed. It seemed that he wasn’t asleep like he said he was, but he was actually in the chart rooms plotting the course for the next day. After Mr. Murdoch had told his captain all that had happened, he had sent for the carpenter to sound the ship, Mr. Moody to rouse Mr. Andrews, and himself to go wake up the other officers.

He arrived at the first room not even thirty seconds after he had received his orders. "Mr. Lightoller," he said while flinging the door open. "You are needed up on deck. Captain’s orders."

"Joe?" He looked over at him.

"Everything will be explained up there, I’m presuming. The captain is meeting with Andrews and Hutchinson soon--we’ve hit a berg. Captain Smith will give us orders after he hears what they have to say." He didn’t stick around to hear a response, but went right on to the next two rooms to rouse Pitman and Lowe.

Officer Pitman wasn’t too hard to get up--in fact, he was already awake. He quickly put on his uniform and went out onto the bridge. Lowe, however, was in such a deep sleep that he could probably sleep through the apocalypse.

Before he managed to get Lowe up, he heard Lightoller’s voice from the end of the hall. "Boxhall, you need to go calculate the ship’s position. Order just came back from the captain."

"All right. I just have to get Harry up."

"Okay…hurry up."

With that, the fourth officer opened the door. "Harold, you need to get up and get dressed--you’re needed on deck."

"Right."

The soft answer was enough for the officer, who headed to the chart room to begin his calculations. However, what he didn’t realize was that he was still sound asleep and had just let out a subconscious answer without realizing fully what was going on.

12:15

"Do you actually think I’m going to go out on one of those things?"

"Oh, I know, dear…they’ll probably just launch them tonight and we’ll all be back on the ship by morning."

The conversation slowly brought Lowe back to consciousness. Of course, he was very groggy and disoriented. After focusing his mind on the here and now, he realized that there were passengers outside on the boat deck. In the middle of the night. Not to mention on the officers’ promenade.

He stood up on his bed and peered out of the window. Indeed, there were First Class passengers, all fully dressed with lifebelts on. His first thought was that of a lifeboat drill, but it was also the middle of the night. There were only boat drills in the middle of the day…when the ship was standing still. He was quiet and listened to the movements of the ship, tuning out the voices of the passengers on the ship.

There was no movement.

What time is it? What’s going on?

He felt around in the dark for a flashlight and, finding it next to his bed, turned it on and found his clock on the wall.

"12:15! My shift…bloody hell…I overslept!"

With that comment, he shot out of bed and quickly dressed in his officer’s uniform. It didn’t take him long to complete the process because it was right next to him. After he had tied on his second shoe, he was out the door and hurrying to the bridge.

When he found that no one was out on the bridge, he went and found First Officer Murdoch, who was unsuccessfully trying to load Boat 3. "Mr. Murdoch…what’s going on?"

"Ah…Harold…where have you been? The captain has ordered lifeboats to be launched. Here…help me with 5." He took the hand of another First Class lady and brought her to the boat.

"Okay…just give me a second. I’ve got to run back and get something." With that, he ducked back into the bridge and went back to his room. There, under his bed, he drew out a box. Inside was a pistol. It was a Browning automatic, in fact--his own weapon. He checked to make sure it was loaded if needed and put it in a safe place in his jacket--holster and everything. With that, he went back to the deck to begin loading passengers.

He went over to a couple who were standing off to the side. "Ruth," he could hear the husband saying to his wife. "It’s time for you to go into the lifeboat."

"But dear, must I really? It’s so cold out there; I’d much rather be on the ship where it’s warm."

"Ma’am," Harold said to her. "It’s a good idea to get into the boat. I cannot stress it enough." The tilt of the deck was already growing noticeable under his feet--this was really happening.

"See? Go into the boat." Her husband gently pushed her towards the officer. He noticed her hesitance almost right away.

The officer looked back at the boat and saw that Murdoch had indeed put men in the boat. "Ma’am," he spoke up, "if there aren’t anymore women here to go into the boat, then you are more than welcome to have your husband join you."

"Ruth? See? I’ll be along shortly." This seemed to have satisfied her, as she let go of her husband’s arm and allowed herself to be placed in the boat.

In the midst of the persuasion, however, he heard another voice join in the commotion. "Come on! Come on! Quickly, get in the boat! Let’s go!" He turned and saw Mr. Ismay, urging the passengers to get into the boats.

He heard Murdoch cut off the loading and command Pitman to take control of the boat. "Lower away! Lower away!" Lowe could hear Ismay rambling on like an idiot as Murdoch moved over to Boat 3. Obviously he was expected to lower the boat while his senior officer began to load the next one.

"There is no time to waste…lower away!"

The White Star president came up to him and ordered him to get moving on his lowering. He couldn’t take it anymore--he wasn’t about to take orders from a passenger.

"If you will get the hell out of that, then I shall be able to do something!" Ismay looked dumbfounded that an officer would be more than willing to talk to him like that.

Lowe continued, "Do you want me to lower away quickly? You will have me drown the whole lot of them."

He turned away quickly and headed to the next boat, helping to get people into it. Lowe turned and caught the eye of Pitman, who had a smirk on his face. "Get ready to lower!" He saw that the crewmembers were indeed in position. "Lower away!"

As soon as Boat 5 hit the water, Lowe moved over to help Mr. Murdoch with Boat 3. He saw Ismay trying to help and, when they met eyes, he instantly looked away.

"Lower away!"

Murdoch took command of the lowering of Boat 3. "Will," Lowe asked him, "should I begin lowering Boat 7?"

"Actually, I’m sure that Lights needs some help on the other side. I’m sure that he’s on the aft starboard side loading boats there." With that, he turned back to the task of lowering the boats.

Lowe made the climb up to the port side. It truly started to feel like a climb because of the sharply tilted deck. He could begin to feel panic in the air.

He came up next to Moody, who was just arriving to help load the boats also. "Hey…Jim…what are you doing?"

His friend looked over at him with narrowed eyes. "I’m loading the boats…what does it look like I’m doing?" Lowe realized what he had said. Moody just laughed it off, patting his friend on the shoulder and smiling before he turned back to Boat 16.

"Have you seen Siobhan?" His friend glanced back over to him and shook his head sadly.

"I’m presuming that she’s already on a boat."

Lowe nodded, hoping that was true. He took up a post at Boat 14 and in turn began to load it.

Lowe had no problems filling the boat. In fact, there was a crowd pushing in on him and Moody, and he was afraid that the crowds would swamp both his boat and his friend’s. The second officer was trying to keep them back as best as he could, but it seemed that he was not having any luck.

"Back away from the boats, damn you!" Lowe pushed away men who were inching up to jump into the boat. "Back away!"

Lightoller put the last passenger into Boat 14 and, looking back, he saw several men break forward in an attempt to rush the boat. In an instant, he whipped out his revolver and turned around, brandishing it towards the men.

"Keep order! Keep order, I say!" The running men instantly stopped; some fell backwards. All of them backed quietly up and joined the crowd, who fell silent. They could hear commotion coming from other parts of the ship, but it was apparent that this corner was completely silent. About thirty seconds later, he turned around and the three officers could hear murmurs coming from the crowd.

"Mr. Lowe…command this boat."

Lowe’s eyes widened as he saw his senior officer snap the gun open and begin to load it. His hands shook as he loaded the gun with bullets. The fifth officer stepped in eyesight of the crowd to Lightoller and told two of the seamen to join the boat in order to help man the oars. However, it was mainly meant to leave the restless passengers in the dark that they had been tricked.

"Right," he said after the gun was loaded. He stepped into the boat. "Is everyone okay?" He got a few nods and replies from them. "Right then. Lower away!" As the boat jerked downwards, he caught his friend’s eye. The two mouthed their farewell to each other, somehow realizing that they wouldn’t see each other again.

1:35

"Lower away!" Moody stood up at the top of the deck, watching Boat 16 jerk its way down the falls. He could see that his friend’s boat had gotten down safely and began to slowly row away from the ship.

When it was about halfway down the hull, he heard an all-too-familiar voice behind him.

"Mr. Moody! Jim!"

He turned around from where he was standing, grimacing when he saw who it was.

Chapter Nine
Stories