The date was April 13, 1912 and Jack Dawson and his friend Fabrizio had just won tickets to the greatest

ship ever built the Titanic. Jack was going home to the United States. He had been on his own since

his parents had died and had been touring Europe for the past few years. He was going home and with

him he was bringing his best friend and all of his experiences.

Jack was a charcoal artist and was very talented at what he did. He had managed to make his way all

over the continent of Europe doing various drawings. Someday his paintings would be worth a lot of

money, he thought. But for now he was young just twenty-one and free to do what he wanted when he

wanted and how he wanted. That was the way that he wanted to live his life as long as it was possible.

He wanted no ties just fun. Fabrizio and Jack had won the tickets to the Titanic in a game of poker. A

lucky game of poker indeed.

While standing on the deck of thie third class Jack had seen the most beautiful woman he had ever

seen in his entire life. She appeared to be a little younger than him with red curly hair. AHH but she

was a member of the first class and his friends had told him that he could forget all about her, he had

decided that he was going to get to know her one way or another.

But luck was with him that night he had seen her approaching the stern of the ship running and had

thought for a moment that she was going to jump. But she was so desperate the thought had come

to her but she was not destined to do so. She was a wonderful girl just sixteen who was being forced

to marry a man named Cal who she did not love. Her mother had lost all of their money and was

desperate for Rose to marry a rich man and Cal was the one that she had found. It mattered not to

her whether her daughter loved him, or that he physically abused her he was her meal ticket and as

such he was the perfect solution to their monetary problems.

The ship time had been an adventure, one that Jack would have never wanted to miss. He had fallen

in love with this lady Rose and he wanted to save her from the life she was being forced to take and

give her the freedom to live the life she wanted. He knew that the decision would have to be hers but

he also knew that she was young and strong and very capable of making the right decision. All he could

do was try to lead her in the right direction.

Captain Stanley Lord stood on the deck of the SS Californian and looked out into the night. The weather

was extremely cold and he worried that perhaps things would freeze that night. There were icebergs to

watch for also. He had seen several that day and had sent out many warnings and received many warnings

of their existence. The ship had encountered a large ice field that night and had stopped. He would find a

way around the ice in the morning.

The times were very tough on the wireless operator. Cyril Evans had been on duty for over twelve hours

and he finally got a break at eleven that evening. He went up on top and found the weather very cold,

but there was a brightly lit sky. He spoke to his friend Charles Groves up on deck. Groves was trying to

learn the new morse code and liked to listen in on the radio when he had the time. Cyril had no problem

with him listening in so at eleven thirty just a few minutes after Cyril went to bed Groves began to listen

to the wireless. He was not very good at it but he listened to the ship that was so close that he had to

turn the volume way down to stop the noise from blowing out his ear drums.

On the Titanic things between Rose and Jack had gotten to the point that Rose had decided to leave with

Jack in New York. She was going to stay with him and no longer was going to be engaged to Cal the cruel

man that her mother had in mind for her to marry. For the first time in Rose's live she felt as though she

was free and she and Jack enjoyed themselves. That night she made love to Jack and with that she gave

her life and soul to him.

Jack and Rose had just come up on deck when they were staggered by the ship hitting something. At first

neither one of them knew what happened, but then they saw the iceberg. It towered over the ship and

left ice all over the deck. As it went down the side of the ship they could hear the terrible scraping noise of

the ships hull as it ripped through the steel and gave the ship its mortal blow. Two men who were on the

deck behind them actually fell from the slippery deck that the ice made.

Rose and Jack looked on in horror as they watched the iceberg go by and knew that the ship was in danger. It

was a feeling that you get in your gut when you know that something is not right. The feeling that someone

is standing over you tapping you on the shoulder yelling danger. The two of them looked at each other and

watched as several passengers came up on the deck to see what had happened. The deck that had been quiet

and dark was now lit up and crowded with many onlookers. Although it was after eleven thirty at night there

had to be over one hundred people now up on deck.

Jack and Rose were headed back to Rose's cabin to warn her mother about what had just happened when they

saw Mr. Andrews talking to several of the officers on the ship. He was asking about the mail hold, and was being

told that it was already under water. Rose and Jack knew that this was very bad and headed out to warn Rose's

mother and Cal right away.

Cal was a terrible man and had made up his mind to make sure that Jack never arrived in New York a free man.

He had put the locket that he had given to Rose in Jacks pocket and then shown it to the ships purser. Jack

was taken down to the security room and with the danger on the ship, he was sent down there to die. Cal did

not mind, he would get rid of him anyways.

Roses mother and Cal had tried to get Rose into a lifeboat, but she refused. She found Jack and saved him from

his certain fate. The two of them were made for each other and Rose was sure that they would be as one once

they got off of the ship. She had made up her mind at this point that she was not going to leave Jack no matter

what happened.

As Rose and Jack made their way towards the top of the ship, they found utter chaos everywhere. People did

not know where to go what to do and the third class passengers were locked from getting to the lifeboats. It

was a terrible scene with whole families standing on a stairway begging the officers to let them go up to the

deck and find a lifeboat. None of the passengers in the third class had any idea that there was only enough

lifeboats for half the people on board and many of them did not speak English.

On the SS Californian Charles Groves was doing his best to understand what was being said on the wireless,

but he was not sure. It seemed as though they kept repeating the same thing over and over and that

there was a lot of traffic talking back to her. But he kept hearing the same sounds over and over and

thought that it might be a good idea for him to wake his friend Cyrtil.

Cyril was in no mood to be woken up. The last time that he had tried to speak to the wireless operator on

the Titanic he had been told to shut up. But at his friends insistence he listened for a minute to the talk

that was going on and knew that it was an emergency.

Charles was surprised to see his friend jump up and tell him to tell Second officer Herbert Stone that he

was receiving a distress call from the Titanic. They have struck an iceberg and are sinking. While Charles

ran up to tell the officer on duty what was going on, Cyril contacted the Titanic to get all of the information

that he could.

Herbert Stone had been watching the large ship that appeared to be about ten miles away. He had thought

that it had stopped because of the ice. He and another officer had tried to contact it with the lamp but

had not received any answer. When Charles came up on deck and told him what the wireless operator

had heard he went immediately down to the captain's cabin and told Captain Lord of the situation. Captain

Lord was a seasoned seaman and he ordered the ship to head right towards the sinking ship. His ship

was a slow ship and would take over an hour to get there but they would be there within the hour.

Meanwhile the wireless operator on the Titanic Jack Phillips was having a night to remember. He had one

ship that was on its way to them. It was the RMS Carpathia but they were three hours away and the ship

was going to sink in less than an hour. When the Californian answered he sent his partner Harold Bride

up to the bridge to let him know that a ship was but an hour away.

Now to get over two thousand people off of the ship was going to be a tough one. There were many doors

that led to gangways, but some of them were now under the water, and the tile of the ship was going to

be significant. The ships builder Andrews had said that the ship would only have about one hour before

she went down from the time that the Californian got there. The best that they could do was to get as many

into the lifeboats as possible and then try to ferry them back and forth to the Californian. It was going to

be a treacherous route with women children and many others but they had no choice it had to be done. At

this point the captain himself went out on the deck and made sure that he made it very clear that all of the

lifeboats were to leave full and both second and third class passengers were to be sent up on the deck to

get ready for the Californian when she came.

Captain Lord had just gotten the ship up and she was starting to make the turn towards the Titanic when he

gave the order for all the blankets and lanterns to be lit and that the ship had to be careful not to strike any

of the lifeboats that were sure to be out there in the dark. He had three gangways that could be used and

he knew that with over one thousand people that would need to get onto his ship it would have to be done

quickly.

The men of the ship worked very hard to get things ready for the survivors of the disaster. Now because of

all the noise and excitement, some of their passengers were starting to come up on deck. Captain Lord

told his men to get them back to their cabins. There is no time for people to gawk. They will hear all about

it in the morning.

As Captain Lord looked at the large ship as they approached it, he could see that she was listing to the side

and sinking quickly by the bow. There were people lined up on the deck and to his horror he could see that

all of the lifeboats had been launched. There must have been fifteen hundred people up on deck waiting for

him to save them with three gangplanks and the ship listing, there was little hope.

Meanwhile Captain Smith had everyone ready to board the ship and as it pulled along side, the two crews of

the ships worked together to get the walkways ready for the passengers. The rule was still in place that all

women and children were to go first and the officers had them lined up on deck. No one was allowed to bring

any belongings with them and the women were to carry all of the children that they could. They had to be

fast.

On the deck of the Californian the officers were ready to help the passengers as they hurried over to their

ship. Captain Lord estimated that they had only thirty minutes to get the people on his ship. That meant

that five hundred people would have to cross to his ship, on each gangway. That gave them about three

seconds a person. It had to be done, because if he did not succeed people were going to die.

As the passengers on the Titanic nearly ran across the gangplank, the ship listed even worse and one of the

exits had to be closed. They sent the two hundred people that were still trying to escape the sinking ship

over to another escape route.

Jack and Rose were standing there waiting for their turn and holding hands. This could very well be their

last day on Earth, and they wanted to die together if they had to. Cal had long since put himself in a lifeboat

and her mother had escaped long before in one of the first lifeboats to leave.

As the two lovers Rose and Jack walked to the Californian, they identified themselves as third class. With that

they were taken over to the stern part of the ship, into a large dining hall. Each one of them would have but

one blanket and no bed. They would have no change of clothes for the next few days either, but they were

alive.

Fabrizio had found Jack and Rose as he approached the dining room and knew that his partner and best

friend had found his mate. Rose was a wonderful woman and he was sure that Jack and her adventure

had just begun. He looked over at the hoard of people who were crowding into the dining room and sighed.

Rose Jack and Fabrizio went out on the deck to watch as the mighty ship gave a loud groan, and then with

all of the lights out on the ship and the explosions of the coal burners, she slipped into the sea at around two forty

that evening. It was Rose's hope that Cal and her mother would not find her and that she and Jack wouldbe free to live

their life out without interference, but that was not meant to be.

The next morning, Jack found Cal walking around in the third class looking for Rose. He came up to her and

did his best to force her to go with him to first class. "She has been injured, she does not know what she is

saying. She is my fiancée" he told the officers.

But he did not have his way that day. Rose and Jack got to make their own lives and their own decisions,

free from any bounds that an abusive parent or spouse could put on them.