Disclaimer:
Titanic and all of it's passengers belong to the sea, I own nothing, this is a fictional piece of work which is hoped to bring enjoyment to those reading it, but also to honour the memory of every single passenger aboard Titanic that fateful night, survivor or not.
This will be a story written from Murdoch's point of view, please no flames. It is also based on the 1997 film.
Chapter One: Prelude
I can still feel the breeze in my hair as I step up onto the platform overlooking the deck from the bridge, my hands still cased in my black leather gloves my wife had given me months before my journey on the Titanic. I remember so many things about that night, the memories all seem to be merging as one…One complete memory or one broken promise? I'm not quite sure, I've drifted in and out of that scene every day since my death on the 15th April 1912 at around 2:15am ship time.
I've watched this very sunset a thousand times, my heart always open that this night will be different, that this night I will make a different choice, a different decision. Tonight I'll choose not to 'hard a starboard' maybe that will lessen the damage? Maybe tonight I'll see that iceberg quicker and have enough time to turn before something serious happens…
But every night is the same as it was the first time, sure I tried to change it, but obvious faults and God's own will changes it so that in some way, shape or form the Titanic founders.
I've often wondered if it was fate or the hand of God that presumed my fate aboard the Titanic. I'd come so far in my life, still so young with much left to learn. I anticipated that the Titanic really was the ship of dreams, it was MY dream, and a journey for me to take so that I could better understand what life as a sailor was really all about.
But the "unsinkable" grand ship that Titanic was could not withstand that of a sailor's own faults…
You see the story you all witnessed was just a part of the main story, you saw me at my highest, and you saw my friendly ship mates on their professional wings of fortune. What you didn't see was the lonely, cold and sometimes heartless men and women that they were, especially towards the end…
But then I'm being too harsh, staying out on this sea night after night, attempting to reach an unreachable land has made me a cold heartless man. I long for comfort, for consolidation and an end to this never ending journey I've found myself upon.
I long to see land, to see my wife, to see my family, my home and work the garden, tender to their needs and wants. Not to wake up in a cold lonely bed wondering if this is what fate lay before me for the rest of eternity. You see I have no way of knowing when my journey will come to an end, standing now aboard the deck of the titanic I feel that this journey is only just beginning and as I look down on the deck and see the courting couple embraced in a passionate kiss, I know it is.
As long as I'm here and so are you, will you listen to me tell my tale? Will you hear my words as I recall my journey on board the Titanic? My heart is open and my lips willing to speak words that no-one has been able to hear for so long…I want to tell you MY story, the Murdoch story so that I may be released, so that I may go into…Whatever it is and see my beloved Ada.
Will you journey with me to the past? To the ship….of dreams…..