SHIP OF DREAMS
Chapter Twelve
Murdoch glanced at his watch
after he had lowered C. Two o’clock. I should have just been ending my
watch. Anne and I should have been taking a walk around the ship. Or talking.
Or just enjoying each other’s company. I guess that won’t happen ever again,
though. He ran to the top of the officers’ quarters to push Collapsible A
off the roof. Dear God...please get Anne to New York safely. Please guide
her through life. Help her to forget me. Please let Mother, Father, Anne, and
Peg know that I love them dearly. He and a few other men began pushing the
lifeboat down a ramp made of oars. Their plan worked less than successfully;
the weight of the boat crushed the oars. Men suddenly rushed at the boat, and
Murdoch remembered the Webleys the officers had been given earlier during the
sinking in the chief officer’s office. He brandished the weapon to keep the
desperate passengers at bay.
*****
Suddenly, the ship took a dive
into the frigid water. The lights flickered out forever. The guy wires snapped
like whips, and the forward funnel snapped and fell into the sea amidst a cloud
of sparks and soot. The passengers in the lifeboats watched in horror as it
crushed dozens of swimmers in the water. The stern was suddenly fully out of
the water. However, the stress seemed too great for the ship to support, and as
if in slow motion, the ship snapped in two between the third and fourth
funnels.
"Oh!" Megan exclaimed.
There were no words to describe what she was seeing. She watched as the stern
slowly but powerfully fell into the water again with a loud splash and a huge
wave.
Anne watched the stern begin to
rise again. What is happening? She suddenly realized that the bow of the
ship was still attached to the stern along the bottom of the keel. As gravity
pulled the bow to the bottom of the ocean, the stern section rose upright again
at a ninety degree angle.
The stern seemed to bob in the
water for an eternity, but it must have been no more than a minute. Suddenly,
it slowly began to sink down below the water level. People were riding the
stern to the ocean. And then it was gone. Everyone was in the water. And the
air was filled with the mournful cries of the doomed.
"Please! Please, help
us!" Anne distinctly heard a woman’s voice. "I know you can hear
us!"
"We must return for
them." Megan looked pleadingly to the crewman.
"We can’t. They’ll swamp us.
Haven’t I already told you?" The crewman angrily glared at Megan.
"They’re dying.
Moody...Lowe...Lightoller...Wilde...Murdoch. All of them. They’re dying. Our
friends and family. They’re freezing in the cold water, all because we’re too
selfish to return for them," Anne softly whispered. Fresh tears welled in her
eyes at the thought of Murdoch’s death. And then, another thought. She glared
at the crewman. "There was no suction whirlpool! The ship did not pull a
single person down! They just walked off it! We could have saved people!"
She rose from her seat, ready to strangle the crewman, but Megan pulled her
back down.
"Calm down, Anne. Everything
will be fine," Megan whispered.
*****
The water swept over Murdoch’s
head. The first thought, the only thought, was how cold the water was. This
is the end. He tried to free himself...he was caught on something, but
couldn’t see what it was in the darkness. The ship pulled him farther down. I
killed them. All of them. It’s my fault. And Anne...oh, God, I hope she gets to
New York safely. Suddenly, he felt someone at his side. Someone tried to
free him. A moment later, Murdoch found himself among the hundreds of others in
the water. He looked around. Is this the last I’ll see of this world? My
doing...my fault. All mine.
*****
Anne reached deep into her
pocket. She pulled out the ring and unclasped her locket from her neck. Since
the ring was too large for her fingers, she strung it on the chain with the
locket, and put the necklace around her neck again. She wrapped the shawl
around her.
"It’s so cold," someone
said.
"Imagine how cold the water
is," Megan replied. She looked back to the frothy water, white with the
thrashings of the people freezing in it.
Our Father, who art in Heaven.
Anne looked around the
boat. The passengers were either softly crying or staring straight ahead in
shock. Hallowed be Thy name. She prayed that Murdoch was alive. Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done. She grabbed Megan’s hand and squeezed it
tightly. On earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily
bread. Megan prayed for
those in the water. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who
trespass against us. She prayed for those in the boat. Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. She wondered why Ismay had gotten
into the boat, when Andrews had perished. She had seen the latter in the
smoking room. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and glory forever.
Amen.
*****
"S-so, is Anne in a
l-lifeboat?" Moody asked. He shivered less than before.
"Y-yes." Murdoch
stiffly nodded. "I p-put her in C...with Ismay."
"I-Ismay!" Wilde
exclaimed. "Son of a...well, I h-hope he’s nice and w-warm." He blew
on his silver whistle. He knew it would carry out for miles over the ocean, and
he wanted the boats to return for the survivors.
"The temp-temperature is two
b-below...Celsius," Murdoch replied.
*****
"It’s getting quiet,"
Anne whispered. Her arms were sore and her fingers were numb from rowing
earlier, despite her gloves. Now, they were simply drifting, waiting. She
flipped Murdoch’s pocket watch open and shined one of the flashlights on it.
"It’s 2:50. Will would have been off duty for almost an hour, now."
"He’ll be fine, Anne. Don’t
worry," Megan reassured her friend.
"Megan, you barely escaped.
I’m certain most of your coworkers have perished. So many already have...it was
Will’s duty to go down with the ship, and I can’t see him having it any other
way. He’s too...too honorable. Unlike some." At this, Anne glanced quickly
at Ismay, who stared dumbly in the direction of the site of the sinking.
"I’ll never see him again."
"Of course you will,"
Megan softly said. "There’s always heaven, if nothing else." She
pulled her friend close to her.
"Thank you." Anne
embraced her friend tightly and squeezed her eyes to keep the tears at bay. But
it all seemed too much. Just a few weeks ago, she had been at Barclay, with no
hope of anything better. And then came the letter. And the ticket. And then the
most wonderful days of her life, accompanied by the most wonderful man of her
life. But all of that was gone, now. It was all just a memory that Anne would
cherish for the rest of her life. She was off to New York.
"What’s the matter?"
Megan asked with a concerned expression. She could have sworn that Anne had
just groaned, or made some sort of noise.
"I just realized that I
still have to go to Pennsylvania and work for the Lewises. To be quite honest,
I never wanted to go in the first place, and now I really don’t want to go. The
only reason I agreed was because I needed to get away from Barclay. And I
wanted to be close to my old home, even though it’s owned by another family
now. Well, I suppose things can’t happen the way we want them to." Anne
sighed remorsefully.
"Well, look on the bright
side." A small smile formed on Megan’s lips. "We might never be
found, and then you won’t have to go to the Lewises!"
Anne smiled and shook her head in
amusement. As morbid as the thought was, it did slightly cheer her. But then
the reality of it all seemed to finally sink in. The Titanic sank. Will is
dead. Moody...he’s gone, too. Rose? Jack? I hope they’re both safe. I wonder
what happened to Ruth and Cal. I could care less...no, I shouldn’t say that. I
would never wish death upon either of them. At least, I don’t think so. Will’s
gone. Gone. She reached up to her throat and dug her locket from under her
layers of clothing. She absentmindedly fingered the charm and the ring hanging
beside it. It was all she had. His ring, his pocket watch. The shawl he’d given
her. I don’t even have a picture of him.
*****
Time seemed to have stopped, and
the lifeboat drifted aimlessly in the water. Once or twice, someone claimed to
have seen the lights of a ship, but the others soon realized that it was
someone in another lifeboat, trying to signal to the others. The sky was clear and
ebony black and the stars were bright and numerous. The water was inky black
and seemed foreboding and menacing. It was as though the sea threatened to
swallow the lifeboats without a trace, and some felt as though it would truly
happen. They would never be found; they would all die in the middle of the
ocean.