TITANIC: A STORY TOLD
Chapter Sixty
Jack and Rose ran up seemingly endless stairs
as the ship groaned and torqued around them.
*****
Murdoch, at Collapsible A, was no longer in
control. The crowd was threatening to rush the boat. They pushed and jostled,
yelling and shouting at the officers. The pressure from behind pushed them
forward, and one guy fell off the edge of the deck into the water less than ten
feet below.
"Give us a chance to live, you limy
bastards!" Tommy shouted.
Murdoch fired his Webley twice in the air,
then pointed it at the crowd.
"I’ll shoot any man who tries to get
past me."
Cal stepped up to him.
"We had a deal, damn you."
Murdoch pushed him back, pointing the pistol
at Cal.
"Get back!"
A man next to Tommy rushed forward, and Tommy
was shoved from behind. Murdoch shot the first man, and seeing Tommy coming
forward, put a bullet into his chest.
Tommy collapsed, and Fabrizio grabbed him,
holding him in his arms as his life flowed out over the deck.
Murdoch turned to his men and saluted
smartly. Then he put the pistol to his temple and...blam! He dropped like a
puppet with the strings cut and toppled over the edge of the boat deck into the
water only a few feet below.
Cal stared in horror at Murdoch’s body
bobbing in the black water. The money floated out of the pocket of his
greatcoat, the bills spreading across the surface.
The crew rushed to get the last few women
aboard the boat.
Purser McElroy called above the confusion.
"Any more women or children?"
The child was still crying in the alcove. Cal
scooped her up and ran forward, cradling her in his arms.
Cal forced his way through the crowd.
"Here’s a child! I’ve got a child!" He spoke to McElroy.
"Please...I’m all she has in the world."
McElroy nodded curtly and pushed him into the
boat. He spun with his gun, brandishing it in the air to keep the other men
back. Cal got into the boat, holding the little girl. He took a seat with the
women.
"There, there."
*****
Thomas Andrews stood in front of the
fireplace, staring at the large painting above the mantel. The fire was still
going in the fireplace.
The room was empty except for Andrews. An
ashtray fell off a table. Behind him Jack and Rose ran into the room, out of
breath and soaked. They ran through, toward the aft revolving door...then Rose
recognized him. She saw that his lifebelt was off, lying on a table.
"Won’t you even make a try for it, Mr.
Andrews?"
A tear rolled down his cheek. "I’m sorry
that I didn’t build you a stronger ship, young Rose."
Jack spoke to her. "It’s going
fast...we’ve gotta keep moving."
Andrews picked up his lifebelt and handed it
to her.
"Good luck to you, Rose."
Rose hugged him. "And to you, Mr.
Andrews."
Jack pulled her away and they ran through the
revolving door.
*****
The band finished the waltz. Wallace Hartley
looked at the orchestra members.
"Right, that’s it then."
They left him, walking forward along the
deck. Hartley put his violin to his chin and bowed the first notes of
"Nearer My God to Thee." One by one the band members turned, hearing
the lonely melody.
Without a word they walked back and took
their places. They joined in with Hartley, filling out the sound so that it
reached all over the ship on that still night. A few passengers began to sing
along: "If in my dreams I be, nearer my God to thee..."
A seaman pulled off his lifebelt and caught
up to Captain Smith as he walked to the bridge. He proffered it, but Smith
seemed to stare through him. Without a word he turned and went onto the bridge.
He entered the enclosed wheelhouse and closed the door. He was alone,
surrounded by the gleaming brass instruments. He seemed to inwardly collapse.
In the first class smoking room Andrews stood
like a statue. He pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time. Then he
opened the face of the mantel clock and adjusted it to the correct time: 2:12
AM. Everything had to be correct.
In Cal’s parlor suite water swirled in from
the private promenade deck. Rose’s paintings were submerged. The Picasso
transformed under the water’s surface. Degas’ colors ran. Monet’s water lilies
came to life.
Two figures lay side by side, fully clothed,
on a bed in a first class cabin. Elderly Ida and Isador Strauss stared at the
ceiling, holding hands like young lovers. Water poured into the room through a
doorway. It swirled around the bed, two feet deep and rising fast.
In a steerage cabin somewhere in the bowels
of the ship, the young Irish mother, who had earlier been stoically waiting at
the stairs, was tucking her two young children into bed. She pulled up the
covers, making sure they were all warm and cozy. She lay down with them on the
bed, speaking soothingly and holding them.
*****
A wave traveled up the boat deck as the bridge
house sank into the water.
On the port side the water picked up
Collapsible B. Working frantically, the men tried to detach it from the falls
so the ship wouldn’t drag it under. Colonel Gracie handed Lightoller a
pocketknife and he sawed furiously at the ropes as the water swirled around his
legs. The boat, still upside down, was swept off the ship. Men started diving
in, swimming to stay with it.
In Collapsible A Cal sat next to the wailing
child, whom he had completely forgotten. He watched the water rising around the
men as they worked, scrambling to get the ropes cut so the ship wouldn’t drag
the collapsible under.
Fabrizio removed the lifebelt from Tommy’s
body and struggled to put it on as the water rose around him.
Captain Smith, standing near the wheel,
watched the black water climbing the windows of the enclosed wheelhouse. He had
the stricken expression of a damned soul on Judgment Day. The windows burst
suddenly and a wall of water edged with shards of glass slammed into Smith. He
disappeared in a vortex of foam.
Collapsible A was hit by a wave as the bow
plunged suddenly. It partially swamped the boat, washing it along the deck.
Over a hundred passengers were plunged into the freezing water and the area
around the boat became a frenzy of splashing, screaming people.
As men were trying to climb into the
collapsible, Cal grabbed an oar and pushed them back into the water.
"Get back! You’ll swamp us!"
Fabrizio, swimming for his life, got swirled
under a davit. The ropes and pulleys tangled around him as the davit went under
the water, and he was dragged down. Underwater he struggled to free himself,
and then kicked back to the surface. He surfaced, gasping for air in the
freezing water.
Wallace Hartley saw the water rolling rapidly
up the deck toward them. He held the last note of the hymn in a sustain, and
then lowered his violin.
"Gentlemen, it has been a privilege
playing with you tonight."