At 2:10 PM, lookout Leslie Morton spotted the torpedo.
"Torpedoes coming on the starboard bow!" he yelled as loud as his voice could carry.
But his response was only heard from Thomas Quinn in the crow's nest.
"Good God, Frank," he said to his friend Seaman Hennessy. "Here's a torpedo."
Hennessy saw it for himself and called the bridge.
"Torpedo! Starboard side!"
Second Officer Hefford, having relayed the message by phone, shouted to Captain Turner, "There is a torpedo coming sir!"
Before he could take action, the passengers on deck, realizing they had been attacked without warning, braced themselves. There was the sound of a "ping!". The torpedo slammed into the hull and set off a powerful secondary explosion that sent Lifeboat 5 flying overboard with some debris of coal dust and a column of water into the air.
Adrien was about halfway down to E-Deck when he felt the explosion rock the ship violently. In the master-at-arm's cabin, Marinette had banged her forehead against the wall from a whiplash, weakening not only her strength but her chance to live as well. As soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, Adrien knew that he had a stronger reason for going to see her. Better yet, he had to rescue her.
The engine room responded frantically to the explosion in a desperate attempt to cut the flow of steam and stop the engines. In Boiler Room 2, Chief Stoker Peter Doyle reacted to the jet of water rushing towards him.
"Every man for himself!" he encouraged his brother and fellow stokers to the top.
As the water burst through the hull into the forward boilers, Hefford threw the switch to close the watertight doors-but the doors did not respond. The ship's electricity had weakened and the steam lines had ruptured before Chief Engineer Bryce could take further orders from the bridge.
Quartermaster Johnston had taken a gamble by turning the helm hard over to starboard towards Ireland. Captain Turner hoped that beaching Lusitania would save her, but he didn't know that with the ship's hydraulics having failed from the blast, it was overcorrecting to port on a slowly steeping list. Now the ship was even more difficult to turn. Hefford assessed the situation and feared for the worse. Under Turner's orders, he went down to make sure the watertight doors were closed. This, officially, would be the last time anyone ever saw him.
To most of Lusitania's passengers still inside, the explosion was a loud shudder of doubt and misfortune. It was ironic that a retired US Navy commander named Joseph Foster Stackhouse had been mentioning how she could never be torpedoed when the impact occurred seconds later. Rita Jolivet knew that if worse came to worse, she would use her pearl handled pistol for two reasons: suicide or murder. Michael Pappadopoulos' premonition from the previous night had come true and very soon, he would be fighting for his life. Avis Dolphin, sitting in the second class dining room, watched everything on the tables (dishes, glassware, utensils) spill from the list before she rushed out with her nurses. Aside from a few screams, the dining room was absolutely calm. Elsie Hook felt the ship lurch as she made her way down the stairs to the third class dining room. She went back outside as Alya, watching her from the stairs and feeling the explosion with dread, did the same.
Senior Second Engineer Andrew Cockburn discovered that Lusitania was taking on water fast, the Orlop Deck was already flooding and directly above it, Adrien had reached the E-Deck landing, racing the impending water that crawled up rapidly step by step.
"Marinette?!" he called, but of course, there was no answer.
He called four more times. Then, Marinette, renewed with hope, called back with every last decibel of volume in her voice.
"ADRIEN!"
He turned around as he made it down the end of the hall.
"I'M IN HERE!"
Adrien followed the voice until he found the right door. Opening it, his heart melted at the sight of Marinette, looking like a damsel-in-distress as she was tied up to a pole.
"Marinette, I am so sorry for not believing you the first time."
He hugged and kissed her like he would never let go.
"That girl Sabrina put it in my pocket," Marinette said trying to catch her breath.
"I know! I know! I know!" Adrien sobbed.
But now was not the time for despairing, he had to get her out before the room went under.
"Adrien, I think the master-at-arms dropped his key on the way out. Search the floor."
He went on his knees and scanned the floor, hoping for a glint of silver. He turned his head fifteen degrees to the right and saw the key lying there, discarded by the hasty inspectors. Adrien picked it up in his right hand and with a quick turn of the key, Marinette was grinning with free hands. She hugged him so tight, that he practically dropped the key back where he found it from a loss of strength. Then they made their way out the door into the hall. But as they were about three feet from the door, three faint voices echoed from the door across the hall.
"Hilfe! Hilfe!"
"Warum die Mühe? Ich ertrinken anstatt Gesicht Gefängnis."
"We can't leave them," Marinette understood the frightened nature of their cries.
But Adrien knew otherwise. Remembering the crate of ammunition in the hold the previous night, as well as the advertisement on the day of departure and the war at hand, he was leaving the promise of pacifism and taking the blame on three German men in the cabin across the way.
"I think I know why they are locked in there," he panted, still trying to recover from the hug. "The Germans think this ship is full of ammunition, which it is. Enough to supply a whole regiment. Maybe they were trying to find it."
He turned at the door, ready for his decision.
"If we do let them out, they might be able to tell us more."
Marinette nodded and reached for the door...
But a torrent of water, held back by a pair of double doors forward of them, blasted through into the corridor. The Germans shouting for their freedom disappeared instantly.
Screaming, Marinette and Adrien ran as a wave blasted around the corner, foaming from floor to ceiling. The hundred tons of water per second gained on them like a like a locomotive as they screamed each others names. It swirled up behind them, forcing them to the floor and sending them on a rapid river.
Through the flailing of his hands trying to reach a well of stairs, Adrien's right forearm caught hold of a bar used for helping fallen passengers, while his left gripped Marinette's collar and he pulled her over to the main stairwell from which he came about a minute ago. Pushed through by the force of the water, they made their way up the Grand Staircase.
Deciding to head aft of the ship for higher ground, Marinette and Adrien, still soaked, ran through the smoking room where they came upon Sir Hugh Lane, slowly making his own way aft as well. He had been carrying a life vest from his cabin for the duration of his walk and felt it to be rather uncomfortable.
"Sir Lane?" asked Adrien. "Will you make a try for it?"
A tear rolled down his left cheek, believing that his time was up.
"It seems that not even the British could build a strong enough ship to prevent a torpedo, young Adrien."
"The ship is going fast," Marinette said to both men.
But before they could continue further, Sir Lane held out his lifejacket to her.
"Good luck to you, Miss Marinette. I hope you will continue to carry out my legacy with your drawings...should I not make it."
Marinette hugged him back.
"And you too," she whispered.
Picking up another lifejacket on the way, Adrien pulled her away from him and they ran through the door to the kitchen of the Verandah Café.