TITANIC: A STORY TOLD
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Rose stood at the railing of the Carpathia,
at nine PM on April eighteenth. She gazed up at the Statue of Liberty, looking
just as it does today, welcoming her home with her glowing torch. It was just
as Fabrizio saw it, so clearly, in his mind.
Later, Carpathia disgorged the survivors at
the Cunard pier, Pier Fifty-Four. Over thirty thousand people lined the docks
and filled the surrounding streets. The magnesium flashes of the photographers
went off like small bombs, lighting an amazing tableau.
Several hundred police kept the mob back. The
dock was packed with friends and relatives, officials, ambulances, and the
press.
Reporters and photographers swarmed
everywhere...six deep at the foot of the gangways, lining the tops of cars and
trucks...it was the 1912 equivalent of a media circus. They jostled to get
close to the survivors, tugging on them as they passed and shouting over each
other to ask them questions.
Rose was covered with a woolen shawl and
walking with a group of steerage passengers. Immigration officers were asking
them questions as they came off the gangway.
"Name?"
"Dawson. Rose Dawson."
The officer steered her toward a holding area
for processing. Rose walked forward with the dazed immigrants. The boom of
photographers’ magnesium flashes caused them to flinch, and the glare was
blinding. There was a sudden disturbance near her as two men burst through the
cordon, running to embrace an older woman among the survivors, who cried out
with joy. The reporters converged on this emotional scene, and flashes
exploded.
Rose used this moment to slip away into the
crowd. She pushed through the jostling people, moving with purpose, and none
challenged her in the confusion.
Could she exchange one life for another? A
caterpillar turned into a butterfly. If a mindless insect could do it, why
couldn’t she? Was it any more unimaginable than the sinking of the Titanic?
She walked away, further and further until
the flashes and the roar were far behind her, and she was still walking,
determined.