Chapter XI: The Lifeboats
Scotland Road E-Deck was the widest passageway in the ship. It was used by crew and steerage alike, and runs almost the length of the ship. Right now steerage passengers move along it like refugees, heading aft carrying whatever they could carry on their backs.
CRASH!
A wooden doorframe splinters and a wall door bursts open under the force of Al's shoulder. Alfred and Arthur stumble through, into the corridor. A steward, who was nearby herding people along, marches over to them.
"Hey you! You'll have to pay for that, you know. That's White Star Line property—"
They both turned around together at the crewman and barked, "Shut up!"
Alfred led Arthur past the dumbfounded steward. They join the steerage stragglers going aft. In places, the corridor was almost completely blocked by large families carrying their luggage.
***
On the Boat Deck, the action has moved to the aft group of boats, numbers 9, 11, 13 and 15 on the starboard side, and 10, 12, 14 and 16 on the port side. The pace of work has become more frantic. You could see the crew and officers running now to work the davits, their previous complacency gone.
Francis pushes through the crowd, scanning for Arthur. All around him was chaos and confusion. A woman was calling for a child who has become separated from the crowd. A man was shouting over people's heads incoherently. A woman takes hold of Second Officer Sadiq's arm as he was about to launch Boat 10.
"Will you hold the boat a moment?" said the woman. "I have to run back to my room for something –"
Sadiq, looking a bit pissed, grabs her and shoves her bodily into the boat. Ivan Braginski rushes up to him just then.
"Vhy are de boats being launched half full?!" the Russian demanded.
Sadiq steps past him, helping a seaman clear a snarled rope. "Not now, Mr. Braginski."
"There, look..." Ivan points down to the black water. "Twenty orr so in a boat built for sixty five. And I saw one boat vith only twelve. Twelve!"
"Well... we were not sure of the weight—"
"Rubbish!" Ivan spat at him. "They were tested in Belfast vith de weight of 70 men. Now fill these boats, Mr. Sadiq. For God's sake, man!"
Francis was observing the exchange between the two men and then he spots Zwingly hurrying toward him through the aisle connecting the port and starboard sides of the boat deck.
"He's not on the starboard side either, sir." reported the Swiss.
"We're running out of time." Francis says in a hurried hushed tone. "And this strutting martinet..." he gestures to Sadiq, "isn't letting any one in at all."
"The one on the other side is letting more people on."
"Then that's our play. But we're still going to need some insurance." said Francis confidently and starts off forward. "Come along." Francis charges off, heading forward, followed by Zwingly.
***
The place where Alfred and Arthur first kissed, the bow railing, was now completely submerged. Water swirls around the capstans and windlasses on the foc'sle deck.
Ludwig strides to the bridge rail and looks down at the Well Deck. The water shipped over the sides and the well deck was awash. Two men run across the deck, their feet sending up spray. Behind Ludwig, another distress rocket fires and bursts and he turns to look at it. Ludwig's face was washed with white light and was deathly pale. It was out of his hands now… and he now knew what his fate would resign him to…
***
"Feliciano! Felli!"
Feliciano turns and sees Alfred with Arthur pushing through the crowd at the E-Deck corridor stairwell. He and Al hug like brothers once they reached him.
"The boats, they are all going!" the Italian said in a panicked tone
"We gotta get up there or we're gonna be gargling saltwater." said Al, "Where's Gilbert?"
Felicano points over the heads of the solidly packed crowd to the stairwell. Gilbert, wearing his buffered lifebelt, has his hands on the bars of the steel gate which blocks the head of the stairwell. The crew opened the gate a foot or so and only a few persons could squeeze through.
One steward tries to shout over the crowd "One at a time only! Please!"
But some terrified people, not understanding English, try to rush through the gap, forcing the gate open. The crewmen and stewards push them back, shoving and punching at them.
"Get back! Get back you lot!" another steward shouts, then he turns to his other crewmen. "Lock it!!"
They struggle to get the gate closed again, while the steward brandishes a small revolver. Another holds a fire axe. They lock the gate, and a cry goes up among the crowd, who surge forward, pounding against the steel and shouting in several languages.
"For the love of God, man, there are women and children down here!" Gilbert yells over the noise of the pressing crowd. "Let us up, so we can have a chance!"
But the crewmen were scared now. They have let the situation get out of hand, and now they have a mob. Gilbert gives up and pushes his way back through the crowd, going down the stairs. He rejoins Alfred, Arthur and Feliciano.
"It's hopeless that way." Gilbert said grumpily.
"Well, whatever we're goin' to do, we better do it fast." said Al.
***
CLUNK!
Francis opens the safe in his luxurious suite and reaches inside. Vash watches him, as he pulls out two stacks of bills, still banded by bank wrappers. Then he takes out the precious necklace, the Heart of the Ocean, out of its velvet box and puts it in the pocket of his overcoat, then locks the safe.
"I make my own luck." said Francis, holding up two stacks of bills.
"So do I." Vash puts his Colt .45 caliber in his waistband.
Francis grins, putting the money in his pocket as they go out.
***
Alfred, Arthur, Feliciano and Gilbert were lost, searching for a way out. They push past confused passengers... past a mother changing her baby's diaper on top of an upturned steamer trunk... past a woman arguing heatedly with a man in Serbo-Croatian, a wailing child next to them... past a man kneeling to console a woman who was just sitting on the floor, sobbing... and past another man with an English/Arabic dictionary, trying to figure out what the signs mean, while his wife and children wait patiently.
They come upon a narrow stairwell and they go up two decks before they were stopped by a small group pressed up against a steel gate. The steerage men were yelling at a scared Torris. His bloody nose has been wiped clean, but a crust of blood remains.
"Go to the main stairwell, with everyone else. It'll all get sorted out there." he tried to say calmly.
Alfred takes one look at this scene and finally just loses it. He growls and squeezes forward, gripping the steel gate and yells like an animal, shaking the bars wildly. "GOD DAMN IT SON OF SON OF A BITCH!!"
He goes back and grabs one end of a bench bolted to the floor on the landing. He starts pulling on it, and Gilbert and Feliciano pitch in until the bolts shear and the bench breaks free. Arthur figures out what they were planning to do and clears a path up the stairs between the waiting people.
"Move aside!" Arthur yells to the crowd "Quickly, move aside!"
Alfred and Gilbert run up the steps with the bench, and with both their force, they ram the wooden bench into the steel gate. The screws rip loose from its track and the wooden furniture falls outward, narrowly missing Torris. A great cheer was heard and the crowd surges though the twisted hole the bench has created, led by Alfred. Arthur steps up to the cowering steward and says in his most imperious tone:
"If you have any intention of keeping your pathetic job with the White Star Line, I suggest you escort these good people to the boat deck... now."
Torris nods dumbly and motions for them to follow.
***
Francis and Zwingly walk aft with a purposeful stride. Panic was setting in around the remaining boats aft. The crowd here was now a mix of all three classes. Officers repeatedly warn the stampeding crowd back from the boats, but the crowd presses in closer. A seaman brandishes the oars of boat 14 to discourage a close press of men who looked ready to rush the boat. Several men break ranks and rush forward. Sadiq pulls out his revolver and aims it at them.
"Get back! Keep order!" he barks. The men back down.
Fifth Officer Hercules standing in the boat, yells to the crew. "Lower away left and right together! Steady now…"
Sadiq turns away from the crowd and, out of their sight, breaks his pistol open. Letting out a long breath, he starts to load the gun with bullets.
On the other side of the ship Francis and Zwingly arrive in time to see Officer Honda lowering his last boat.
"We're too late." said Francis.
"There are still some boats forward." informed Vash, "Stay with this one. Honda… He seems to be quite... practical."
***
In the water below, another panic seems to upraise itself. Boat 13, already in the water but still attached to its falls, was pushed aft by the discharged water being pumped out of the ship. It winds up directly under boat 15, which was coming down right on top of it. The passengers shout in panic to the crew above to stop lowering. They were ignored. Some men put their hands up, trying futilely to keep the 5 ton boat from crushing them.
A stoker gets out his knife and leaps to the after falls, climbing rudely over people. He cuts the aft falls while another crewman cuts the forward lines. Boat 13 drifts out from beneath 15, just seconds before it touches the water with a slap.
Francis, looking down from the rail hears gunshots…
Second Officer Sadiq Annan, in Boat 14 was now firing his gun as a warning to a bunch of men threatening to jump into the boat as it passes the open promenade on A-Deck.
"Stay back you lot!" he snarls.
BANG…! BANG…!
The shots echo away.
"It's starting to fall apart." whispered Francis, his blue eyes were astonished at the whole chaos in front of him as if he hasn't notice it's been happening all this time. "We don't have much time."
The Frenchman sees three dogs run by, including the black French bulldog. Someone has released the pets from the kennels. He sees Officer Honda turn from the davits of boat 15 and start walking toward the bow. Francis, ever the sly one, catches up and falls in beside him.
"Mr. Honda," he calls, "I'm a businessman, as you know, and I have a business proposition for you…"
***
Alfred and the others finally burst out onto the boat deck from the crew stairs just aft of the third funnel. They look at the empty davits with limp ropes hanging from their pulleys.
"The boats are gone!" Arthur curses under his breath, his eyebrows screwing together. He sees Colonel Cerrido chugging forward along the deck, escorting two first class ladies. "Sir Antonio! Colonel! Are there any boats left?"
The Spaniard stares at his bedraggled state. "Yes, Arthur... there are still a couple of boats all the way forward. This way, I'll lead you!"
Alfred doesn't give the man a chance to lead him and grabs Arthur's hand. They sprint past Antonio, with Gilbert and Feliciano close behind. The quintet band was still, incredibly playing as Alfred, Arthur and the others run past.
"Music to drown by." said Gilbert, humorlessly, "Now I know I'm in First Class."
AN: Another week, another chapter. Now isn't that lovely? Sorry, I changed the title of Chapter 10 because I felt that the title, "The Lifeboats", fitted this chapter better. Hope that's not confusing to you lot. And… I hope this isn't too much of a cliff hanger. Short chapter is short. I'm trying to drag the story out because everybody knows that the ending is near and I know that a whole mob of you would hunt me down after I finish posting the next few last chapters…
Would you guys like to have an epilogue?
Tell me what you guys think. Cheers! ;)
