Alot of people do not understand the terror I went through, unless you were there you did not have that feeling of extreme horror, shock. I mean, they said it was the unsinkable ship. They said not even God himself could sink the Titanic. What had we done to deserve such terror. The construction of the massive ship started in 1908 and ended in 1909. On April 10th 1912, at 9:45 am, I arrived in Southampton and by 11:00 a.m. I had boarded the ship. I was with my mother Anne. My little brothers and sisters stayed back in Belfast with my Auntie Margaret. At noon we set off, bound for America, we wanted a better life. My father worked as an engineer, filling the furnaces in the lower decks of the Titanic. At first we sailed through calm and beautiful waters. The view was beautiful and I was so excited about going to America. At 11:40pm. While me and my mother were in bed, we felt a bash against the side of the boat. I screamed, and my mother told me to go to sleep. I was worried, what could have been so hard against the edge of the boat that it shook the whole ship. Only ten minutes later, water had started filling a cabin, I was first to notice.
"Mammy" I cried.
"What?" she replied, in a sleepy voice.
"There's water all over the floor, it almost reached my mattress."
"What?" said my mum, sitting up quickly and looking around.
"Jesus" she cried.
She climbed down off the top bunk, splashing salty water at me.
"It's sea water Mammy"
"That's what the thud must have been, we hit something. Hard."
Suddenly, there was a loud knocking at our cabin door, it opened and a member of crew threw two lifejackets at us.
"Too the top deck please, M'am." he said to mother.
He closed the door.
"This is serious." said Mammy.
"What about Daddy?" I questioned.
"He'll be okay."
I never saw my father again, but I know he was a brave man. He just wanted better for his family. He was a gentle man. But there wasn't time to ponder weather my father was well or not.
My mother picked me up and ran into the passageway, where many other third class passengers were. We got up onto top deck, and then we saw it, the hull was deep underwater. We ran down the side of the boat, to where the lifeboats. My mother pushed through the crowd.
"First class only Miss." My mum barged her way out. Two hours later, the last boat had left, and we weren't on any of them. The whole ship is almost underwater. Then, at the height of my fear, the middle of the ship snapped, clean in two. You could see the electrics, and the awful sight of people falling into the electrics, and being electrocuted, that was the worst sight I saw that night, So far anyway. The ship was at full tilt and we were still hanging on.
"Remember, I love you, your Daddy loves you and we only wanted the best for you."
"I don't want to die, Mammy, not like this."
But my mother couldn't hold on any longer, and she let go, a few seconds later, we were underwater. We rushed to the top, the water ice cold, my teeth were chattering within seconds. My mother hugged me close. Within minutes, icicles clung onto mine and my mothers hair, our eyelashes, our eyebrows. I couldn't speak. My mothers eyes were wide and unblinking, thats when I knew, she was dead. I was alone. I looked round, which was hard, because it was so cold, it was silent. No words, just dead people. I was scared, surrounded by dead people, in the arms of one. Then I saw a lantern, I couldn't talk let alone scream. I started to splash, lightly at first because my hands were numb. I splashed and kicked, so much so, I came out of my mother grasp and she floated away. Tears streamed down my cheeks, but I carried on splashing and kicking, and it made me warmer, so I began to squeak. They heard me finally. They pulled me onto the boat and wrapped me in a blanket. I was still crying when we reached the Carpathia, in America, alone. I was taken in by an orphanage. They found my mother and my fathers bodies the next day, my dad, burnt, he fell in the furnaces. My mother frozen. They died in opposite ways. I'm still sad, years on. It was the worst night of my life. I have never been back to Northern Ireland, now I'm a millionaire with my own business in New York. Sometimes the worst is for the better.