Chapter 11
There is Your Beautiful Nightdress Gone
"Damn this coat," Charles complained. He had been working nearly nonstop and now felt every inch of his body drenched in sweat, despite the crisp chill in the air. The ship was sinking farther below the ocean and Charles knew that soon the water would reach him. He pulled he heavy wool coat off and dropped it onto the deck before continuing to fill the boats.
"Hello Lights, are you warm?"
He turned to see the Assistant Surgeon Simpson, who despite the severity of the situation, he was smiling at Charles.
Charles simply shook his head and then he turned back to boat number four, which was becoming his least favorite boat of the evening to launch. They had struggled for a good fifteen minutes to hook it up to the falls and now he was having to yell at husbands who were insistent they would go with their young wives.
He climbed over the side of the ship and into the lifeboat to help passengers in, holding a hand out for young Madeline Astor.
"Sir, may I go with my wife? She is in a delicate condition."
Charles looked up at J.J. Astor; he had been helping Madeline get situated in the boat. Her jacket hadn't been buttoned up completely and he did see a small round pregnant bump but he simply shook his head at Mr. Astor, "I'm sorry sir, but it's only women and children right now." He helped more women climb over the side of the boat and then jumped back onto the ship.
J.J was clearly irritated, "Well can I at least have the boat number?"
"It's boat number four," Charles said. He turned to the Ryerson family and helped the women into the boat.
"What about Jack?" Mrs. Ryerson cried.
Charles looked at Jack Ryerson, who looked to be a young man and he simply shook his head, "Only women and children, I'm sorry."
"For God's sake!" Mr. Ryerson shouted, "He's a boy!"
Charles grimaced, "Fine...but only him."
Jack climbed into the boat with his family.
"Right, that's everyone," Charles said next after seeing the boat was filled. He stepped back and yelled, "LOWER AWAY!"
Mr. Astor watched his wife be lowered away from him and when boat four hit the water, Charles didn't even notice J.J walk away.
"Wonder why he wanted the boat number," an officer said.
"Oh, I'm sure it's merely in order to locate his wife when we're rescue," Colonel Gracie spoke up.
Charles looked at the man who had been trying to help them fill boats the entire evening, "More like he thinks he is going to complain to Ismay when all of this is said and done."
xx
Cold water splashed around on Charlotte's face and she awoke with a start, instantly sitting up, but immediately regretting the sudden movement. She felt dried blood in her hair and the room was spinning before her. Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut before opening them again and looking around. Water was creeping into the room and it had tilted considerably.
"Oh God," she murmured. Charlotte stood to her feet, checked her pocket for the bag with Isabel's things and grabbed her father's bible. She considered it for a moment and then decided trying to save it now was useless. Charlotte ran to the door and tried the handle; it wouldn't budge.
"Oh no," she cried.
She banged her fist against the door, "Someone help me!" She screamed. No one was coming, and the water was rapidly raising around her ankles.
"Please!" she screamed until her voice was hoarse, "I'm locked in! Someone!" Charlotte threw her body against the door, but it wouldn't budge. She leaned against it, fat tears spilling down her cheeks, "Please," she choked out, but the words were useless and soft.
Charlotte stood there and started thinking, "Maybe it won't be so bad to die."
She was about to move away from the door when she heard a faint voice, "Is anyone down here?"
Charlotte stood up straight, "I'm down here!" she screamed, banging on the door. "I've been locked in and I can't get out!"
"Hello?" the voice was getting closer. Charlotte heard a door, not far from her room at all, open and then then voice again, "Anyone in here?"
Charlotte banged her fist against the door again, "Please!"
Then the person tried the doorknob, "IS someone in here?"
Charlotte cried out with relief, "Yes, I was locked in. I can't get out!" She paused, "Please help me...the water is rising. I don't-" her sobs choked her up; "I don't want to die."
"You won't," the voice replied, "Not unless I have something to do with it." There was silence and then, "Stand back, I'm going to kick the door in."
Charlotte moved away from the door, "Okay, I'm away from the door!"
There was a brief moment of silence, where the only thing Charlotte head was the cold water lapping up against the surfaces in the room. She was almost thinking that she had imagined the whole thing, a side effect of the bump on her head, but that was when there was a loud splintering noise as the mysterious persons foot came into contact with the door. Shards of wood broke off on her side, but the door still did not open. "I'm going to try again!" he called back.
There was another moment of silence and then the foot came into contact with the door and this time it flew open. On the other side was the man, "Come along, you don't have much time to get up to the deck."
Charlotte ran out of the room and threw her arms around the man, "Thank you so much!"
His arms wrapped around her briefly, "You are welcome child, but you must hurry."
Charlotte looked up the hall towards where she needed to go then back to her rescuer, "I have to know your name sir, please."
The man smiled kindly, "I'm Thomas Andrews, I built the ship," and there was sadness in his voice as he looked around at his creation, "All of this is my fault, so the least I could do was to save as many people as I could."
She felt another tear fall down her face, "This is not your fault sir," Charlotte said and then she kissed him on the cheek, "Good luck to you sir."
Thomas nodded, "Good luck to you."
The two started up the hall together with Charlotte running ahead of him. She reached the grand staircase and was about to climb them when she saw Thomas disappearing into the smoking room, clearly having no intention of saving himself. She wanted to run after him, scream at him to come with her, to save him, but Charlotte somehow knew it would be a pointless effort. Quickly she brought her legs to climb the stairs and in a moment she was outside, the music from the band, which had started a few hours ago, was still wafting up the deck. Charlotte looked down towards the bow of the ship and the water was climbing. Next she looked towards the stern and saw that was where everyone was running, so Charlotte followed. Pushing past people as the ship slipped farther below the waves. People were screaming, crying out for help, and some were already jumping into the water. Charlotte grabbed hold of a structure and contemplated it, at the very least it would give her a chance to try and get away from the ship before the suction. Charlotte looked back up to the stern where people were still climbing and if she didn't do something soon, she was going to slide back down the ship and into the water, with no hope of being saved. Finally she pushed herself forward and ran as hard as she could against gravity, which she was terrified would win.
At last her hands clamped down on the ice cold railing of the stern, Charlotte stayed there for a moment and then looked at the people around her. They were climbing over the railing to the other side of the ship. She tried to pull herself over, but it was difficult and she was afraid to let go of the railing.
"Take my hand!"
Charlotte looked at a man who was already on the other side; he was one of the stewards.
"It's Charlotte isn't it?"
She nodded her head.
"Take my hand Charlotte!"
Charlotte reached out for him and he quickly pulled her over the side, she was about open her mouth to say thanks but that was when all of the lights flickered and then they were out. Screamed permeated the air but Charlotte kept her mouth shut because the next thing was truly horrific. There was a loud groaning noise, as if the ship was protesting because the Titanic just could not hold the weight of trillions of gallons of water, as well as the people who hadn't yet escaped. She lay on the railing and then the loud splitting noise met her ears, like her door breaking open, but amplified throughout the Atlantic Ocean. The music had stopped now and all anyone heard was the ship as it snapped and yet more screams of terror rang out.
The ship slammed down onto the ocean next and for a brief second it was level once more. Charlotte looked around and then the ship began to dip below the ocean and then the entire stern was sticking up in the air before she could even think about it. Her eyes shut because Charlotte couldn't bear to look at what was happening around her.
"Charlotte?"
Her eyes opened and she fixed them onto the steward.
"Charlotte, the ship, when it goes down, it's going to pull you down with it. You have to get off of the ship before it's totally submerged, okay?"
She gave a nod and watched as he stood up, several others were following his lead, and so Charlotte stood to her own two feet. Her head spun from the bump on her head and she reached out for the young steward to balance herself. She looked and waited as the ship sunk lower and then, right at the last minute, Charlotte, the steward, and the lucky few who stood on the other side of the ship with them, jumped into the ocean. Her eyes opened under water and the salt stung her eyes, but Charlotte could think of only one thing, and that was to kick as hard as she could to the surface. The suction was strong and it tried to take her down with it, but she kept kicking until finally her head reached the surface and she took in a deep gasping breath.
It was only once she was above water that she realized just how cold it was. Her body was already numb and it felt as if someone was repeatedly stabbing her over and over again. Charlotte moved and with each kick, her entire body screamed in protest. The ocean was full of thousands of people, screaming and crying out for help.
"RETURN THE BOATS!" a voice shouted.
Charlotte saw an officer clinging to a door and she moved past him, trying to find a surface to climb on. Her head was splitting and all she wanted to do was to close her eyes, but she was terrified that if she did that, she would never wake up again.
When Charlotte was ten, her father had taken her to the lake by her grandparents' home when the family had been given time off, and that was where she had learned to swim. When she became Isabel's personal maid, Mr. Phillips insisted that Charlotte have proper lessons in case something ever happened to Isabel while they were at the Phillips country home. She had thought them silly at the time because Isabel was an excellent swimmer, now she swore that if she survived the night, she would drop down on her knees and thank Mr. Phillips for his wisdom in the matter.
It was hard for her to bring her arms up to do a stroke, because of the bulky life jacket, so it was slow moving and her muscles ached. Charlotte reached out whenever she found some form of debris and finally her hand came down on a large piece of wood. It was half of a door, she looked at it, she couldn't lie down, but if she could get up on it, she would be able to sit up on it. Carefully and slowly, Charlotte moved onto the wood until finally she was on all fours, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sit down. If she tried, the door would have just kicked her back into the ocean. Her head was still screaming in protest and now came the hard part, keeping her eyes open long enough to be rescued.
Xx
Somewhere farther out, drifting in the water, was collapsible B, which was where Charles had found himself. The boat had become overturn and the attempts to get it right side up had been fruitless when the ship finally started going down. It had been bad enough when the funnel broke, which slammed down into the Atlantic, the force of which sent the boat about thirty yards out.
As they sat in that moment, the boat was already crowded and Charles couldn't be sure how long it would float. He eyed the water warily, every inch of him was soaked and his bones ached from the pain of the icy water. The thought of falling back into this water terrified him, so much so that when men started swimming towards collapsible B, they started saying, "I'm sorry, there's no room."
Someone had just been passing around a flask when splashing right near Charles made him look. Another man was swimming towards the boat, "Sorry old man, there's no room!" Charles said.
"Why is it always you?" the voice asked.
Charles frowned and looked as the man came closer; it was Luke.
"There's no room," Charles answered through gritted teeth.
Luke looked around and he made to grab hold of a side of the boat where Charles' leg was and he gave a violent kick right into Luke's nose. He couldn't tell if he had broken Luke's nose, but Charles sincerely hoped so.
"You son of a bitch!" Luke spat, but his voice was thick and nasally.
"Problem?" one of the men who had his back to Charles asked, as he carefully turned to investigate the situation, being sure to not tip the lifeboat.
"This man tried to force his way onto the boat, after I told him that if he did, we would all wind up in the ocean. I kicked him to get him off of the boat," Charles explained.
"Sorry fellow, but we just can't spare room!" the man said.
"You'll regret this!" Luke shouted, giving Charles the dirtiest look he could manage before swimming off.
Xxx
As the hours passed, it grew steadily quieter; screams for help died down until there was only the occasional splash, but soon those died too. Charlotte's eyes were heavy and crying to be closed, but she refused to let her eyes stay shut for more than a second. Every inch of her body was sore and exhausted and all Charlotte wanted was to sleep, even if it meant a never ending rest. The idea of death occurred to her once more and Charlotte was thinking it would be lovely because nothing would hurt if she was dead. She had been twenty-five for a few hours now and it had only just occurred to her. While twenty-five was young, Charlotte thought it would be a good age to die. She was old enough to have seen some things, lived a life, but young enough to still be considered beautiful. Her entire teenage years, Charlotte had lived in fear of becoming old and wrinkled, dying in pain because none of her muscles worked anymore. If she died on her twenty fifth birthday, then that old and conceited fear of hers would never come to be.
She had just given in, finally deciding to slip into the water and let the ocean take her, absolutely refusing to think of Charles because it hurt her heart too much, when she heard a loud voice boom across the vast ocean, "IS ANYONE ALIVE OUT THERE?"
Charlotte looked up and saw a bright light flashing towards her. She opened her mouth and tried to get a sound to come out, but her mouth was so dry she couldn't muster a sound. She looked down at the water and splashed her hand down hard.
"HELLO?"
She splashed again and then brought a handful of water to her mouth. The salt was disgusting but it managed to moisten her tongue a bit, "I'm over here!" Charlotte was terrified by how hoarse her voice was and she wasn't even sure if the man with the light had heard her at all. She hung her head, her strength buckling in on its self when she heard a soft splashing of oars in the water.
"Don't hit the bodies," a soft voice said.
It hurt to raise her head but Charlotte forced her neck muscles to move and she saw the boat coming closer to her.
"Raise your oars, let's float now," a man said.
"Is it a woman?"
"Hello?" the voice asked.
It was so close now, Charlotte almost thought she'd be able to reach out for it, "Please...I don't want to die," and she thought of when she had spoken those words to Thomas Andrews. It all seemed like a lifetime ago now.
"We're not going to let you die, not if we can help it," the voice said.
Charlotte watched and within seconds the boat was right beside her and warm arms were wrapping around her stomach and they had pulled her into the boat.
"Are you hurt?" the man asked who had pulled her in.
Charlotte nodded, "Back of my head."
It felt good to be laying down now, "I hit my he-" Her eyes closed again and she was asleep once more.
Xxx
A/N-So, for finishing two chapters in one day...I totally get excused if I don't get to update in the next few days, right? Uhm anyways..Yeah once I got home from work I just worked on this because it's been running in my head for hours.
Please review...xo
Ps. chapter title was taken from a chapter title in Walter Lord's book "A Night to Remember," which was actually inspired by words spoken by Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon to her secretary in boat 1 on the night of the sinking.
