TITANIC: A STORY TOLD
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Scotland Road, on E Deck, was the widest
passageway in the ship. It was used by crew and steerage alike, and ran almost
the length of the ship. Right then steerage passengers moved along it like
refugees, heading aft.
Crash! A wooden doorframe splintered and the
door burst open under the force of Jack’s shoulder. Jack and Rose stumbled
through, into the corridor. A steward, who was nearby herding people along,
marched over.
"Here you! You’ll have to pay for that,
you know. That’s White Star Line property--"
Jack and Rose turned together. "Shut
up!"
Jack led her past the dumbfounded steward.
They joined the steerage stragglers going aft. In places the corridor was
almost completely blocked by large families carrying all their luggage.
An Irish woman gave Rose a blanket, more for
modesty than because she was blue-lipped and shivering.
"Here, lass, cover yourself."
Jack rubbed her arms and tried to warm her up
as they walked along. The woman’s husband offered them a flask of whiskey.
"This’ll take the chill off."
Rose took a mighty belt and handed it to
Jack. He grinned and followed suit. Jack tried a number of doors and iron gates
along the way, finding them all locked.
*****
On the boat deck, the action had moved to the
aft group of boats, numbers nine, eleven, thirteen, and fifteen on the
starboard side, and ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen on the port side. The
pace of work was more frantic. Crew and officers were running now to work the
davits, their previous complacency gone.
Cal pushed through the crowd, scanning for
Rose. Around him was chaos and confusion. A woman was calling for a child who
had become separated in the crowd. A man was shouting over people’s heads. A
woman took hold of Second Officer Lightoller’s arm as he was about to launch
Boat Ten.
"Will you hold the boat a moment? I just
have to run back to my room for something--"
Lightoller grabbed her and shoved her bodily
into the boat. Thomas Andrews rushed up to him just then.
"Why are the boats being launched half
full?"
Lightoller stepped past him, helping a seaman
clear a snarled fall.
"Not now, Mr. Andrews."
Andrews pointed down at the water.
"There, look...twenty or so in a boat built for sixty-five. And I saw one
boat with only twelve. Twelve!"
"Well...we were not sure of the
weight--"
"Rubbish! They were tested in Belfast
with the weight of seventy men. Now fill these boats, Mr. Lightoller. For God’s
sake, man!"
Cal saw Lovejoy hurrying toward him through
the aisle connecting the port and starboard sides of the boat deck.
"She’s not on the starboard side
either."
"We’re running out of time. And this
strutting martinet..." Cal indicated Lightoller. "...isn’t letting
any men in at all."
"The one on the other side is letting
men in."
"Then that’s our play. But we’re still
going to need some insurance." He started off forward. "Come
on."
Cal charged off, heading forward, followed by
Lovejoy. Nearby stood a finely dressed elderly couple, Ida and Isador Strauss.
"Please, Ida, get into the boat."
"No. We’ve been together for forty
years, and where you go, I go. Don’t argue with me, Isador, you know it does no
good."
He looked at her with sadness and great love.
They embraced gently.
"Lower away!"
*****
At the bow...the place where Jack and Rose
first kissed...the bow railing went under water. Water swirled around the
capstans and windlasses on the forecastle deck.
Smith strode to the bridge rail and looked
down at the well deck. Water was shipping over the sides and the well deck was
awash. Two men ran across the deck, their feet sending up spray. Behind Smith,
Boxhall fired another rocket. Whoosh!
*****
Fabrizio, standing with Helga Dahl and her
family, heard Jack’s voice.
"Fabrizio! Fabri!"
Fabrizio turned and saw Jack and Rose pushing
through the crowd. He and Jack hugged like brothers.
"The boats are all going."
"We gotta get up there or we’re gonna be
gargling saltwater. Where’s Tommy?"
Fabrizio pointed over the heads of the
solidly packed crowd to the stairwell.
Tommy had his hands on the bars of the steel
gate which blocked the head of the stairwell. The crew opened the gate a foot
or so and a few women were squeezing through.
"Women only. No men. No men!"
But some terrified men, not understanding
English, tried to rush through the gap, forcing the gate open. The crewmen and
stewards pushed them back, shoving and punching them.
"Get back! Get back you lot!" The
steward spoke to the crewmen. "Lock it!"
They struggled to get the gate closed again,
while the steward brandished a small revolver. Another held a fire ax. They
locked the gate, and a cry went up among the crowd, who surged forward,
pounding against the steel and shouting in several languages.
"For the love of God, man, there are
children down here! Let us up, so we can have a chance!"
But the crewmen were scared now. They had let
the situation get out of hand, and now they had a mob. Tommy gave up and pushed
his way back through the crowd, going down the stairs. He rejoined Jack, Rose,
and Fabrizio.
"It’s hopeless that way."
"Well, whatever we’re going to do, we
better do it fast."
Fabrizio turned to Helga, praying he could
make himself understood.
He spoke with a lot of hand gestures.
"Everyone...all of you...come with me now. We go to boats. We go to boats.
Capito? Come now!"
They couldn’t understand what he was saying.
They could see his urgency, but Olaf Dahl, the patriarch of the family, shook
his head. He would not panic, and would not let his family go with this boy.
Fabrizio turned to Helga.
"Helga...per favore...please...come with
me, I am lucky. Is my destiny to go to America."
She kissed him, then stepped back to be with
her family. Jack lay a hand on his shoulder, his eyes saying, "Let’s
go."
"I will never forget you."
He turned to Jack, who led the way out of the
crowd. Looking back Fabrizio saw her face disappear into the crowd.
*****
Clunk! Cal opened his safe and reached
inside. As Lovejoy watched, he pulled out two stacks of bills, still banded by
bank wrappers. Then he took out the Heart of the Ocean, putting it in the
pocket of his overcoat, and locked the safe.
Cal held up the stacks of bills. "I make
my own luck."
Lovejoy patted the .45 in his waistband.
"So do I."
Cal grinned, putting the money in his pocket
as they went out.
*****
Jack, Rose, Fabrizio, and Tommy were lost,
searching for a way out. They pushed past confused passengers...past a mother
changing her baby’s diaper on top of an upturned steamer trunk...past a woman
arguing heatedly with a man in Serbo-Croatian, a wailing child next to
them...past a man kneeling to console a woman who was just sitting on the
floor, sobbing...and past another man with an English/Arabic dictionary, trying
to figure out what the signs mean, while his wife and children waited
patiently.
Jack and the others came upon a narrow
stairwell and they went up two decks before they were stopped by a small group
pressed up against a steel gate. The steerage men were yelling at a scared
steward.
"Go to the main stairwell, with everyone
else. It’ll all get sorted out there."
Jack took one look at this scene and finally
just lost it.
"God damn it to hell son of a
bitch!"
He grabbed one end of a bench bolted to the
floor on the landing. He started pulling on it, and Tommy and Fabrizio pitched
in until the bolts sheared and it broke free. Rose figured out what they were
doing and cleared a path up the stairs between the waiting people.
"Move aside! Quickly, move aside!"
Jack and Tommy ran up the steps with the
bench and rammed it into the gate with all their strength. It ripped loose from
its track and fell outward, narrowly missing the steward. Led by Jack, the
crowd surged through. Rose stepped up to the cowering steward and said in her
most imperious tone, "If you have any intention of keeping your pathetic
job with the White Star Line, I suggest you escort these good people to the
boat deck...now."
Class won out. He nodded dumbly and motioned
for them to follow.
*****
Ruth rowed with Molly Brown, two other women,
and the incompetent sailors. She rested on her oars, exhausted, and looked back
at the ship.
It slanted down into the water, still ablaze
with light. Nothing was above water forward of the bridge except for the
foremast. Another rocket went off, lighting up the entire area...there were a
dozen boats moving outward from the ship.
At the boat deck rail Captain Smith was
shouting to Boat Six through a large metal megaphone.
"Come back! Come back to the ship!"
Chief Officer Wilde joined him, blowing his
silver whistle.
From Boat Six the whistle came shrilly across
the water. Quartermaster Hitchens gripped the rudder in fear.
"The suction will pull us right down if
we don’t keep going."
"We got room for lots more. I say we go
back."
"No! It’s our lives now, not theirs. And
I’m in charge of this boat! Now row!"
Captain Smith, at the rail of the boat deck,
lowered his megaphone slowly.
"The fools."
*****
As Cal and Lovejoy crossed the foyer they
encountered Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet, both dressed in white tie,
tail-coats, and top hats.
"Ben, what’s the occasion?"
"We have dressed in our best and are
prepared to go down like gentlemen."
"That’s admirable, Ben." Cal walked
on. "I’ll be sure and tell your wife...when I get to New York."
*****
There were still two card games in progress.
The first class smoking room was quiet and civilized. A silver serving cart,
holding a large humidor, began to roll slowly across the room. One of the card
players took a cigar from it as it rolled by.
"It seems we’ve been dealt a bad hand
this time."
*****
Cal and Lovejoy were walking aft with a
purposeful stride. They passed Chief Baker Joughin, who was working up a sweat
tossing deck chairs over the rail. After they went by, Joughin took a break and
pulled a bottle of scotch from a pocket, upending it. He drained it, and tossed
it over the side too, then stood there a little unsteadily.
*****
Panic was setting in around the remaining
boats aft. The crowd there was now a mix of all three classes. Officers
repeatedly warned men back from the boats. The crowd pressed in closer.
Seaman Scarott brandished the tiller of Boat
Fourteen to discourage a close press of men who looked ready to rush the boat.
Several men broke ranks and rushed forward.
Lightoller pulled out his Webley revolver and
aimed it at them.
"Get back! Keep order!"
The men backed down. Fifth Officer Lowe,
standing in the boat, yelled to the crew.
"Lower away left and right!"
Lightoller turned away from the crowd and,
out of their sight, broke his pistol open. Letting out a long breath, he
started to load it.
*****
Cal and Lovejoy arrived in time to see
Murdoch lowering his last boat.
"We’re too late."
"There are still some boats forward.
Stay with this one...Murdoch. He seems to be quite...practical."
In the water below there was another panic.
Boat Thirteen, already in the water but still attached to its falls, was pushed
aft by the discharge water being pumped out of the ship. It wound up directly
under Boat Fifteen, which was coming down right on top of it.
The passengers shouted in panic to the crew
above to stop lowering. They were ignored. Some men put their hands up, trying
futilely to keep the five tons of Boat Fifteen from crushing them.
Fred Barrett, the stoker, got out his knife
and leapt to the falls, climbing rudely over people. He cut the aft falls while
another crewman cut the forward lines. Thirteen drifted out from beneath
Fifteen just seconds before it touched the water with a slap.
Cal, looking down from the rail, heard
gunshots.
*****
Fifth Officer Lowe, in Boat Fourteen, was
firing his gun as a warning to a bunch of men threatening to jump into the boat
as it passed the open promenade on A Deck.
"Stay back you lot!"
Blam! Blam!
*****
The shots echoed away.
"It’s starting to fall apart. We don’t
have much time."
Cal saw three dogs run by, including the
black French bulldog. Someone had released the pets from the kennels.
Cal saw Murdoch turn from the davits of Boat
Fifteen and start walking toward the bow. He caught up and fell in beside him.
"Mr. Murdoch, I’m a businessman, as you
know, and I have a business proposition for you."