“Well, look who it is,” said the stoker, noticing Smith enter. “I didn’t know you had a baby, Cap.”
“It’s not mine,” said Smith. “What are you doing in here?”
“Where should I be? Out there? Can’t a man enjoy one last smoke?”
“I suppose,” said Smith. “Are you gonna use that lifebelt?”
The stoker smirked. “For what...to die slowly? Take it if that sort of thing suits you, I reckon I’ll stay right here.”
Smith hurried over and grabbed the lifebelt with his free hand. Then he left the engineers smoke room with the same careful method in which he had entered, leaning at an angle against the ship and staying close to the wall.
He stopped at a railing that separated the first-class promenade section from the second-class. The infected man who had attacked the baby’s mother had become caught against the railing. Instead of passing by him, Smith chose the safer route, down a flight of stairs between the reciprocating engine casing and the third funnel.
A door at the bottom of the stairs led out to a hall that connected the first-class lounge to the first-class staircase. The lounge down on the right was completely underwater, so Smith continued straight through another door back outside and on to A-decks partially open promenade. Many of the large windows had been opened to help with the loading of the boats, but now only a handful of passengers remained on the deck.
Smith carefully crossed over to the outer edge and looked out upon the water. Most of the boats were far away, but there was one he thought maybe he could reach.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked the baby in his arms, and then waited for the ship to sink a little further before leaving it for good.
LIGHTOLLER
Lightoller and Bride helped hoist more swimmers on to the overturned boat, many of them crew members. They were determined to get as many people on the back of the boat as they could without disrupting the balance. They had fifteen on board right now, and more were coming.
Suddenly, a collective roar echoed into the night as the lights finally went out, thrusting the ocean into darkness, and leaving the ship merely an outline against the star-spangled sky.
Upset by the new darkness, the Titanic made a loud bellowing sound like a gigantic sea monster.
“Christ, what is that noise?” asked Bride.
“Her back is breaking,” answered Lightoller.
The ship began to split between the third and fourth funnels. Wooden decks splintered apart. Metal railings twisted into new shapes. Glass shattered and fell inward. The cables connected to the two remaining funnels snapped and flew forward like fiery whips, slicing a number of passengers into two pieces. Then the third funnel collapsed into the water and a huge gash opened through each deck and down into the hull, sending the stern, and the hundreds of frightened passengers assembled there, rushing back down to the ocean.
The water hurried to fill the split bow, forcing it downward at a sharp angle. The ship’s propellers once again lifted out of the water as the stern was slowly pulled back upright.
Except for the sound of the water splashing at the base consuming the ship, the night was soundless. Those passengers who had managed to hold on during the sterns sudden plunge, no longer screamed or cried out anymore, as though they had all decided as a group to hold their breath. Lightoller and everyone hanging on to overturned collapsible B, as well as all the other lifeboats scattered around witnessing the Titanic go down from different viewpoints, all joined in on the moment of silence.
A moment that would change them forever.
One they couldn’t turn away from.
One they would never forget.
The stern stopped straight up in the air and seemed content to just rest there for a spell before beginning its final descent. Less than a minute later, the Titanic was gone, the stern’s flagpole the last thing to go under. Large pockets of air rushed back to the surface causing the water to bubble up for many seconds after the ship had disappeared.
The moment of silence officially ended.
The cries of those left in the water were heartbreaking to hear. People begged for the boats to return. Some even blew whistles. In no time, however, their cries developed into a mash of noise like a crowd at a train station, making their individual voices less audible.
Lightoller helped three more helpless souls in the water on to the boat, two of them passengers and one more crew member, and could see another slowly swimming up. Unlike the majority of others they’d rescued, this one didn’t have a lifebelt on. Instead it floated out in front of him like a raft. As the man got closer, Lightoller saw why.
There was a baby bundled up in a blanket lying on the lifebelt to keep it from getting wet, and it was being guided across the water toward collapsible B by the most senior officer of the Titanic.
“Captain, is that you?” asked Lightoller.
“Good to see you again, Charles,” Captain Smith said, approaching the edge of the boat. “I have something for you.”
“That’s incredible.”
Smith pushed the lifebelt up against the boat so Lightoller could reach down and pick up the baby. “Isn’t she wonderful?”
Lightoller looked down at the princess in his arms. “Aye. She sure is. Now it’s your turn.”
Smith had a hand on the side of the boat but made no motion to climb on.
“Come on. We’ll make room, won’t we boys?”
“Yes, captain, please,” another crewman said.
“You go on ahead. Save as many as you can.”
“Don’t be foolish,” said Lightoller. “Will you not save yourself?”
“No, I’m sorry. I saved her. That’s enough. See to it that she lives a long life.”
Lightoller nodded. “Aye, aye, sir.”
The captain let go of the boat and began swimming off. A moment later, he turned back and yelled, “Good luck, gentlemen. I’m going to follow the ship.”
They watched him swim away until he was just a speck on the dark water.
BROWN
Lifeboat six.
“We need to go back. We can’t let all those people freeze to death,” Margaret said. It had only been ten minutes since the Titanic sank and already the voices of those in the water grew faint. “There’s plenty of room for a few more.”
“If we go over there, they’ll swamp us,” Quartermaster Hichens shouted. “They’ll pull us under! Don’t you get that?”
“The only thing I get is that you are a selfish little coward,” Margaret replied, and then addressed the other passengers in the boat. “Those people out there breathe the same air as us. Somewhere they got someone who loves them, someone who is gonna miss them. Maybe that someone is in this very boat. Maybe it’s you.”
“Most of those people are already sick and dying,” said Hichens. “They can’t be saved, but they could kill all of us. Have you already forgotten the trouble we went through? I don’t expect anyone wants a repeat, madam.”
Earlier, a few passengers had become unresponsive, appearing to have died, only to wake not long after wanting to eat their blanket buddy. From the look of the other lifeboats around, this had occurred a lot, as most had their numbers brought down immensely by the hidden infected.