Authors note - Hello everyone. Welcome to my new Fan Fiction. It's 107 years since Titanic's Maiden Voyage, and last night was the night it met its awful fate (Early hours of 15th April 1912) As a fan of Madam Secretary and someone who has been interested and researched the Titanic since I was a kid. I thought this would be a good idea to write. All information I put into the story will be from survivor accounts and through official researchers. Of course we are always learning new things about the ship so sometimes information heard contradicts another piece of information, and facts can change. In respect I will be limiting the amount of real life people I use in this. However the Captain and well known crew members will remain the same, and a couple of passengers from the ship will appear occasionally. And I of course will be writing this story with respect and thought to those who unfortunately wasn't saved that night.
This is loosely based on the storyline of the film Titanic, however I have removed as much of the characters backgrounds and storyline as possible.
Please if you feel like you may be offended in anyway, please do not read.
Rated M for future scenes, violence, such as physical abuse, character death, and other mature scenes.
Thank you to 2Queens1Prince for looking through the story to make sure it was okay. And thank you to everyone else who has been supporting this story.
The greatest ship of the time, the Titanic, was about to go on her Maiden Voyage. Travelling from Ireland to Southampton where the launch of passengers would take place. Everyone from the poor to the rich about to embark on a historic journey. Every member of the third class knew how much of an honour it was to be able to travel on this luxurious liner, to in fact be the first ones to. Even most of the first class passengers knew their luck to be either invited or to have brought an extraordinarily expensive ticket to board the ship. Some people weren't even meant to be going on this ship. Due to a coal strike before, other ships docked in Southampton had their coal taken and put on the Titanic so she could complete her journey at her maximum amount of knots, and in return some of the passengers from them went onto the Titanic, these people felt honoured to have moved onto the grand ship and on her Maiden Voyage.
Queuing up at third class was a young man named Henry McCord and his mother Caroline McCord. They had travelled originally from America to the UK after Henry had been given a temporary job. His mother had accompanied him, as he didn't know anyone in that part of the world and she didn't like the idea of her second born being alone in a different country, while the rest of the family had the comfort of all being close.
Henry looked up at the luxurious steamer as they waited amongst the others, crowded up into one messed up que like a herd of sheep. It wasn't like the first class where you could just walk off, you had to be inspected and they had to check to make sure all passengers were vetted before being able to board the ship. This took time, and so on now aching legs Henry and Caroline slowly walked forward with the rest of the people huddled up around them. Their limbs on their arms were now sore from holding their limited amount of luggage, Henry being the gentleman holding the majority of the luggage.
Finally they got to inspection. A crew gathered around him and Caroline, checking everything from their general health to any lice or other parasites that might be making accommodation on their clothes and skin. It really did feel like an invasion of their bodies and privacy. First class and even second class didn't have to go through these kinds of inspections. They were currently being placed lower than the first class pets or even the rodents that had made their way onto the ship. Rats that were going to be living with them for the next few days, of course they couldn't be checked, but why should the passengers be – when they were going to be living with filthy disgusting animals.
Once the inspection was done and both he and his mother were cleared to board, Henry let out a loud audible sigh. Caroline placed a hand on his upper back, in a sense of soothing his tethered nerves. "Come on son, let's be grateful we get to go home and see our family in a few days." Henry looked slightly down at his shorter mother with a small hint of a smile, one that Caroline accepted and responded with a wider one. She had always been one who looked at the positive side of everything, Henry was a highly positive person also, something that he certainly inherited from his mother. But he did sometimes lose to negativity. The cloudy skies didn't help either to dampen his mood slightly.
However just a few seconds later as they got onto the gangway to enter the ship, Henry and Caroline looked up as they noticed the world around them become lighter. The sun was breaking through the clouds, bringing brightening sky. "Look at that, things are already looking positive." Caroline stated and with that she and Henry continued up the ramp.
"They may just be." Henry said with a fuller smile now gracing his features, a genuine tone to his slightly faded American accent. With being in England for a while both Henry and Caroline's American accents were faded slightly and now their voices altered marginally between English and American, with certain words and syllables varying.
With those last words, they boarded the ship.
Further along the ship, a young lady one who was in her late teenage years, was looking out of the window of the elegant-horse drawn carriage, the sun was shining bright as the clouds began to break and disappear on this Mid-April day, however Elizabeth Adams-Cooke's face represented gloom as she watched as the large ship began to fill with passengers. This was her home for the next couple of days, although it wasn't really a home; it was just the start of the rest of her life – a life she dreaded to start with every inch of her being. It made her feel sick, the life she was about to live. Just 5 years ago, she and her little brother, William who was currently sat next to her also staring out her window at the large vessel, had been living a joyous life. Their parents, Mrs Suzanne and Mr Benjamin Adams, two wealthy Americans, and she and William had all lived a blissful life at their countryside manor. She and her brother were happy, carefree she a young teenager, and him without a doubt a preteen with the attitude of a teenager. They lived their life without a worry in the world except providing impeccable grades with their private schooling, which wasn't hard in their stress free lives.
But now, since their tragic death after a wheel of their carriage had become loose and fell off causing a major accident. Elizabeth felt like her life was dark, miserable. She had been adopted, with the intention from the start that her new adoptive parents were going to marry her off to a wealthy man named Master Johnathon Davids, who was 10 years older than she. For the five years Elizabeth had been with this new family, she had always known that she was arranged to marry this man, however she had never met him in that time, in fact it was only a few days ago that she had met Johnathon for the first time.
"Elizabeth… Elizabeth…" Her father banged the side of the carriage hard, snapping the teenager out of her thoughts, with a small jump of surprise. Her eyes darted over to him, hiding the shock and anger at the older man's impatient wanting of her attention.
"Yes father?" She asked, her posh accent flooding the classy enclosure of the carriage. Without saying another word, her father's eyes went back to her door, signalling for her to look. They had come to a halt at where they were to get out of the carriage, a man from the ships first class crew, dressed in his formal suit, waiting to open the door for the young woman. When Elizabeth nodded to the man through the window, he opened the door allowing the fresh sea air to hit her nostrils, the smell of the salt in the atmosphere a clear indication of where they were. The man offered his gloved White Star-Line engraved gloved hand to Elizabeth and she took his in her own golden silk gloved hand as she stood and moved out of the carriage.
Once stepped out and hands no longer together, Elizabeth turned to the man with a warm smile. "Thank you." She kindly said, the man bowing his head silently in a respectful response as her brother ran out of the carriage, followed by her mother and father.
"We don't thank the servants' Elizabeth." Madam Martha, Elizabeth's adoptive mum's rich voice scolded. However the attention was soon turned to will. "And William, we do not run around like rats. Unless you want to be confused with a low class passenger." Will mumbled an apology much to his parents distaste and hung his head down, like a puppy that had been told off by its master.
Elizabeth placed a comforting hand on her brother's shoulder and began to lead him toward the ship, just as her partner turned up from his own carriage and held out his arm for her to link hers with. Without showing hesitation, despite on the inside her skin was crawling, this man was 10 years older than her after all, and he wasn't exactly the kind of person Elizabeth felt comfortable around. Elizabeth put her arm through his as he swiftly whisked her away from her family who were still trying to sort out their luggage, to get onto the ship quicker. Though why Johnathon couldn't just go onto the ship on his own, Elizabeth didn't know, sure they shared a cabin, but so did they with Elizabeth's family. It was probably something to do with image, flaunting his new bride-to-be. He was after all well known, having owned a number of luxurious building's across the world and the heir to his father's fortune and empire. It was all a publicity stunt, one Elizabeth didn't really care to be a part of.
Suddenly a photographer called them from the bottom of the ramp they were walking on to get from land to the ship. "Miss Adams-Cooke. Master Davids. May we get a photograph for our headlines?" Johnathon turned around at the opposite end of the ramp, right in front of their door to the ship and nodded, not giving Elizabeth a second before he was making sure she was positioned rightly for the camera, his arm still interweaved with hers and the grainy black and white shot was taken. He and Elizabeth then waved and they turned and headed on to the ship.