From the bridge, the Captain of the World War I era vessel trained his binoculars on the lifeboat still at some distance away from them, a troubled and perplexed expression on his face. He turned and handed the binoculars to his first mate, directing him to read the name on the lifeboat.
The mate did as he was directed, his normally composed expression changing as he did so. "Impossible!," he exclaimed. "That lifeboat bears the name, "Titanic!"
""Just so, Commander," agreed the Captain. "Prepare to recover lifeboat, and take any survivors on board," he ordered.
A short time later, a weak and unconscious survivor was brought on board, curiously a wolf wearing the clothing of an older woman. "We have no veterinarian on board," noted the Captain. "The ship's doctor will have to care for this wolf as best as he can."
The ship's doctor was not amused. "I'm a doctor, Jim, not a zookeeper!," he complained to the Captain.
"Do what you can with him, Bones," ordered the Captain. The issue was obviously not up for discussion.
Later, the wolf groggily regained consciousness. "Where am I?," he asked wearily.
"Why, you are on the "RMS Lusitania," assured the doctor. "You're safe now, just a bit malnourished and dehydrated. Care for some good English kidney pie and a pint or two?"
"Not right now," dismissed the wolf, troubled. "Did you say that this was the 'Lusitania?' What's today's date?"
"Why, it's May 7th, 1915," answered the doctor obligingly.
The wolf's expression changed to one of alarm. "You're about to be hit by a German torpedo," he cried, bolting off his bed. "The captain's got to be alerted!"
Pushing past the overwhelmed doctor, the wolf ran down a hallway and up on the ship's deck. "Captain!," he cried. There's a German submarine out there...take evasive action!"
But it was too late. A massive explosion shook the doomed ship as the torpedo impacted, throwing the wolf hard against the bulkhead and rendering him unconscious...
On July 25th, 1956 an Italian ocean liner was approaching the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts when it happened to fish a waterlogged wolf out of the sea. As he was being hauled aboard, the wolf happened to note the name of the rescuing ship emblazoned on the cap of one of the rescuing seamen. It was the "SS Andrea Doria."
"Well, Isn't that a kick in the head," muttered the wolf. "Get a reputation as a big bad wolf, and then you're doomed to go through history's most famous sea disasters for all eternity like some kind of flying Dutchman! I don't get no respect at all..."
And the wolf was carried below deck to await the inevitable collision with the "MS Stockholm..."