Mr. Guggenheim brought his mistress and her maid to the boat and saw her seated but declined to join them, “I shall take it as a man, not a beast. My valet and I shall take off our life belts, dress in our finest, have cigars and brandy, and behave like a gentleman. I won’t be a coward. Tell my wife I was a man.”
“Sir, please….” Murdoch offered.
“I will have none of it. I am a gentleman, Sirs. Allow me my honor.”
He gave them all a wave and walked away.
“Why must a gentleman give his life when he can save it? If there were no room, I understand, but there is room for him,” Jenny complained.
“It is part of their code of honor, Jenny,” Peter Cavendar tried to explain, but he knew she did not understand because neither did he.
“That is all? We must load any women who will go. Ladies?” Murdoch yelled, “Please, come get aboard.”
Two more women approached, demanding their male escorts go with them as well.
Murdoch shook his head and said, “We need only women, now. I am sorry, Dr. Pain.” He could not fill the boat with men after Mr. Guggenheim had said what he had. The women got into the boat but cast Murdoch dirty looks.
“Why can’t they go?”
Haines, in charge told them, “They cannot. If I allowed it, they might shoot me, and then someone else would be in charge, and they still would not allow those fellows aboard.
Arguing and cursing, some men demanded to get aboard, and Jennie saw the difference in manners and understood a little more. Running across the ship to the port side, the men tried to board there, but Lightoller waved them away with his pistol, calling them cowards as he lost his temper and felt helplessness envelope him.
Suddenly, everyone wanted aboard a boat.
When a crowd of crewmen tried to rush boat fourteen, one of Lightoller’s men, Lowe, fired into the air, and when a man ran aboard and hid under a seat, he was dragged out, punched, and left upon the deck.
Another man, desperate, hid beneath a woman’s shawl and slipped into the boat.
It was almost 1:30, just shy of two hours since the ship had hit the iceberg.
“Have you noticed that every boat is filled now? The first ones were less than half full, and these are at capacity or over,” Stead said, “and look around at how many are on the boat deck now. It is getting crowded.”
“They should have been up here getting into the boats,” Howard remarked, “but no one seemed concerned.”
“I think if Captain Smith had asked them to come along, they would have. I think he is close to going mad. Maybe he already is.”
“Auntie Annie, Auntie Delora,” Howard called, seeing them, “hurry and get aboard. I thought you had already gone. Hurry now.”
“This is silly. It is cold out here, and the boat is over-full,” Annie complained.
Delora reached for Howard, “You will be with us?”
“I cannot. Its women and children, but you go ahead. Ummm, I shall be along shortly with the others.” He used the same lie the other men had used.
“Poppycock. Just come along now,” Delora said. Her eyes were large with fear, “and we will all be together. I am so sorry I teased you for your morbidity and dread as your worries have come to pass. I am frightened, Howard.”
“Oh Auntie, here at the last hour, I have found I am not a coward and can make a difference, but I’ve also seen… things… horrible things, and if I were to write about them and tell the world, I would make a change in men’s thoughts. It is a shame all is found at the final hour.”
“You are being dreary, Howard. I cannot believe you still talk of writing silly things and refuse to get on the boat,” Delora said, and she turned her face away, refusing to look at him again since he would not come with them.
Annie nodded and kissed her fingers to her lips and held out her arm, waved the kisses to his cheek in her mind.
Joseph Laroche settled his wife and two lovely daughters into a boat, tucking blankets about them.
“Go with us, Joseph,” Juliette begged. She was pregnant, scared, and worried about the girls. They had not been able to book an earlier ship to Haiti where Joseph was from because the ship line did not accept children as passengers.
“You know I cannot,” he said as he smiled. They were second-class passengers. “We are fortunate second class can get a seat, Juliette. Think of the girls.”
“But there is room.”
“Room for more women and children,” he reminded her. If nothing else, he was a well-educated man with a degree in engineering from France, “So just go, and be safe. I shall catch a later boat and meet you aboard our rescue ship.”
Juliette looked around, “They will let you….”
Sadly, Joseph got to the point, “No men. And love, certainly a black man will not be given a seat as rich white men are staying. You know this. Now go and take care, and I shall see you….” He stepped away and forced himself to turn his back and walk away until he was lost in the crowd and could no longer hear her calling his name.
In one seat sat a woman named Alice who had been brought to the boat by the family chauffeur, Mr. Swane. When the trouble began, Alice went below decks to get the family maid, cook, and chauffer, carrying the youngest of the family’s children, Trevor, who was but eleven months old. Mr. Swane made sure the cook and maid got aboard a life boat and then helped Alice and Master Trevor Allison aboard Boat 11, tucking them in warmly.
She did not know the child’s parents were desperately searching for Trevor and would never leave the ship.
Daniels saw a young girl with a blanketed bundle. “Oh, the child must go.” He took the bundle and tossed it to one of the women in the lifeboat.” Get aboard, too.”
Edith Rosenbaum stomped her foot with fury, “I don’t want to get into that terrible boat. You’ve taken my pig!” She climbed into the boat to retrieve her toy pig, but Murdoch had the boat lowered before the woman could get out with her stuffed toy.
Daniels chuckled and shrugged at his friends.
Stead patted his back, “Good show.”
“It seems we are almost out of time.” John Astor approached the small group.
“Oh Sir, we will find room for you,” Daniels began.
“I fear it is too late. Mr. Lightoller has a gun, and he and his men will shoot any man trying to board,” he chuckled. “When this occurred, I made light of it and said being on the ship was safer than getting into a life boat, silly things that they are.”
“No one could believe it, Sir,” Howard said.
“Oh, but you warned me. My folly, it seems,” Astor said.
“Maddy and I sat on the mechanical horses in the gym, and I opened a life belt with my little knife to show her the inside and how it was made. She was quite interested,” Astor said.
“Where is Mrs. Astor?” Jenny asked.
“I saw her to boat four but was declined in my request to join her. She is in a delicate condition, you see. Ah, but I told her I would see her when we were rescued, and thus, I lied most admirably to her.”
“Come with us to Murdoch’s side. He will let us all on,” Howard said. He had said that so many times now, and no one had accepted the invitation.
“I think not, the public opinion and all. I will be a gentleman and maybe catch a later boat, but you young people must go on and board.” He paused. “I saw a man hand over two children but not board.