Ch 12
Cracking Ice
Sort of a play on words with the hitting of the iceberg. Takes place right after the last chapter.
Still wanted: Reviewers for the story. To apply for the job, click "submit review" at the bottom and type. No flames though about how the movie and/or history played out vs. my story. It's called fiction for a reason. I know Lowe wasn't in the room with Murdoch, but I put him there for storyline reasons.
I wrote the last part of the story first. But I like how the chapter turned out. I did a view of hitting the iceberg from both Harry's and Victoria's POV.
Harry
I had just gotten clocked in for work when I was in the wheel room with the Captain who was about to clock out and Lightoller who was coming on with Murdoch and me for the night shift.
"Clear outside." Captain Smith was stirring his tea as he talked.
I waited on Lightoller to respond. "Yes. I don't think I've ever seen such a flat calm."
"Like a mill pond, not a breath of wind." He was still stirring his tea, this time a bit more nervously. It was almost as if he was fighting with himself over something.
"It will make the bergs harder to see with no breaking water at the base." Lightoller was beginning to look worried.
Captain Smith just stirred his cup of tea. "Maintain current speed and heading, Mr. Lightoller. I'm off."
I watched Captain Smith take off in the direction of the Captain's quarters. Lightoller shook his head. "We don't need to be doing this. We've already gotten ice warnings from other ships. Some are even stopped during the night as not to hit the icebergs because they can't be seen.
I shrugged my shoulders. "If the Captain wants us to continue, then we continue. I personally agree with you, but if we question him or slow down, we'll all lose our jobs."
"Yeah, but I still don't agree with it. When other ships stop at night, that should be his first clue."
I put my hand on Lightoller's shoulder as I walked by him, heading outside to keep an eye on things. "When you're captain of the next voyage, do as you wish. Let me know if you need me. I'm off on rounds."
I started to walk around on the boat deck, but stopped by my room to grab my heavy wool coat. It was exceptionally cold outside. I got that and leaned up against a railing overlooking the stern of the ship. I saw two people laughing and having a good time. She was kissing on him, he was kissing on her. How I wished that was Victoria and me.
I was interrupted by my thoughts by the lookout phone ringing. I turned around to watch Moody walk to the phone. I strained my eyes, trying to see what was going on. They wouldn't call unless something was in the water. I continued to look for a second longer and then I started to walk towards the phone, but Moody beat me to it.
Moody picked up. "Yes, what do you see?" He paused to hear what the lookouts had to say. He looked over at me and as the color drained from his face, I could tell something was wrong. Something was very wrong. After listening, he replied with thank you. He hung up the phone and ran out to get Murdoch who was standing by me. "Iceberg! Right ahead!" I watched Murdoch squint his eyes looking out to the dark sea.
They yelled in unison, "Hard to starboard!" I watched the crew member inside turn the wheel over hard. Murdoch ran to the gear dials and dialed full astern. I ran to another one and did the same thing. Moody ran behind me and dialed in a third one. We all stopped to watch, unsure of what was about to happen.
The ship started to slowly turn. It looked for a minute like we were going to miss it, but I felt the shudder of the wood underneath my hands as we hit the iceberg. Moody's eyes locked with mine. We were both terrified. I followed the iceberg with my eyes as it scraped alongside the Titanic. Part of the iceberg hit one of the cables holding up the lookout tower and fell towards the lower deck, barely missing the a few other people and the lady and the man down below. Murdoch ran inside the wheel room and shut the water tight doors. I stood behind him and watched as one by one, the lights flashed on indicating that they were closed.
"Holy shit" was all I could say. "Holy shit." In all my years of sailing, I have never seen this. I started to look around. Every crew member on the deck had the same horrified look as I did. We all had no idea what to expect.
Murdoch must have woken Captain Smith. I heard him talking with Lightoller and Murdoch. They called an all stop for the ship. I was asked by the Captain to find Mr. Andrews. Captain Smith, Lightoller and Murdoch needed to speak to him after the iceberg hit. After finding Mr. Andrews in his room, I started to escort him back to his room. After getting to the hallway where Torie's room was, I sent Mr. Andrews on to the front of the ship. He started to walk towards the front, but turned around and went back to his suite. I didn't question him, but instead knocked on Torie's door.
"Harry?" She stopped to look at my expression, "Good gracious, what's going on?"
I pushed her back in her room. Her sister was a few feet behind her. I leaned in close to her to whisper the impending doom to her as not to alert her sister. I pulled her into a hug. "The ship hit an iceberg. Tell only who you must and for God's sakes, please get to a boat quickly if necessary. I love you." I put my hands on the back of her neck and kissed her quickly on the lips and nodded at Shannon. Torie was horrified at what I had just told her. As I turned to leave, she caught me by the back of my coat.
"What?" She let go of my coat. "Harry, please. What happened?"
I sighed. "You heard me." I motioned to Shannon. "I don't want to scare your sister, but please, don't be stupid. Get to a boat. You and your family. Please. Listen to me. If something happens, get to the boats. You are my life now." I kissed her again. "God help me, Torie, I can't handle losing you. Please, just do what I ask if it comes to it." I turned to watch Mr. Andrews walking towards me. "I've got to go. I love you." I kissed her once more and walked off with Mr. Andrews. I turned once more as we rounded the corner and Torie still had the same horrified expression on her face. I heard the faint click of the door as she shut it.
I escorted him back to the wheel room to discuss the damage of the ship. I stepped outside to survey the damage as Mr. Andrews unfolded some blueprints of the ship's design. After watching some passengers on the lower deck kick chunks of the fallen iceberg around, I came back inside where everyone was. I heard Mr. Andrews and the Captain talking when we walked in. Mr. Andrews unfolded another plan of the Titanic on a table. After placing paper weights on it, I saw him motion to the water tight heads on E Deck.
"Water's already in one of the boiler rooms and the mail hold is flooded." I didn't see who said that. I was too busy watching Mr. Andrews.
He looked up from his blue print of the ship momentarily to say something, but decided against it.
"When can we get under way, damn it?" Mr. Ismay was being impatient.
Mr. Andrews looked over at him with a look I hadn't seen before. This was a look of fear and worry. "She can stay afloat with the first four compartments breached, but not five. Not five." He stared back down at the blueprints. "As she goes down by the head, water will spill over the bulk heads at E deck. It'll just keep going. There's no stopping it. No matter what we do." He looked around the room at our faces and sighed. "Titanic will flounder."
"This ship can't sink." Mr. Ismay was looking at us. "She can't. She's unsinkable!"
"I assure you, she can. And she will, Mr. Ismay. It's a mathematical certainty." Mr. Andrews looked back down at his plans. He knew what was about to happen.
Captain Smith spoke up, "How long?"
Mr. Andrews stared blankly at the blueprints laid out across the table. "An hour. Two at most." His voice was barely a whisper as he uttered the words that would seal the ship's fate as well as the fate of over half of the passengers on board. He knew there weren't enough lifeboats on board. He knew then and there that half the people on the ship were going to die and there wasn't a thing anyone could do to prevent it. He turned around to face us."And how many are on board, Mr. Murdoch?"
"Two thousand two hundred souls on board, Mr. Andrews." Officer Murdoch looked around the room. We all realized by this time that some of us in the room weren't going to make it out alive.
The silence in the room continued as we all began to take in what we had just heard. I just hope Victoria listened to me earlier. She had to get to a lifeboat. I knew from doing the math in my head and watching Mr. Andrews's expression that there were enough for about half on board. I had to make sure Victoria and her family was part of the half who weren't going to freeze to death.
Victoria's POV
I knew where Rose was going to be, so I felt it in my best interest to stay hidden. I'm not a good liar and I did not want to run into Cal or Father. I found Shannon reading in her room. I knocked on the door and she told me to come in.
"Hey Shannie. What are you doing?" I moved closer to the bed. She held up a copy of a book she had gotten from the library. "You not speaking?"
Shannon sighed. "I am just really into this book. You've hardly spent any time with me. But I understand. Father wants you to find a husband."
I smiled, "I think I might have. But if you have to swear to me that you won't tell Father."
Shannon put her book on her bed and sat up. "I swear."
"Remember the officer at the beginning of the voyage? He met us at the docks?"
Shannon nodded her head.
"I really like him. I think I love him too. He's told me he loves me too."
Shannon started to smile, "He told you he loves you? What did you think? How does it feel that someone said that they love you? How does it feel to be in love?"
I laughed at her barrage of questions. "It feels good. I enjoy when I'm around him and it pains me not to be around him. I miss him. I just don't know what Father will say when the ship docks and Harry asks Father's permission to marry me."
Shannon shook her head. "If you are as happy as you say you are, then he'll be happy for you. I think all he wants is for you to be happy. Remember how he's been hammering that in our heads since we were little? That's all he said when we were growing up after I was born, he just wanted us to be happy."
I sat there for a minute, trying to digest what my wise beyond her years little sister had said. "I know that Father wants us to be happy. But I think he also wants us to court someone who is in our station." I stopped a minute, unsure as to how to proceed from here in a way that Shannon would understand it.
I was interrupted in my thoughts by a slight tremor of the ship. The chandelier crystals above Shannon's bed jingled ever so slightly.
"Torie, what was that?" Shannon stood up from her bed to walk to her port window. "Good gracious! That's an iceberg! Do you think we hit it?" Shannon motioned for me to come over.
I peered out her window and watched as the dark iceberg passed us by. "Shannon, I don't think so. But Father will let us know if we did."
Shannon nodded and we walked off to go find Father. I knew deep in my heart though that we did hit the iceberg. I just didn't know what it meant. I had to find Harry. He'd know what to do.
"Girls, we need to be on alert. I heard from one of the attendants some disturbing news." Father sighed before he continued. For the first time in my life, I saw fear in his eyes. I knew what he was going to say next. "The ship has hit an iceberg. I don't know what this means. But we need to be ready in the event of anything." Father hugged us both then walked back to his room. Shannon and I sat there looking at each other for what seemed like forever.
"What do we do next Torie?"
I looked out the window, "I don't know Shannie. I guess we just wait." I turned around as a knock on my door brought me back in. Shannon stayed where she was as Harry and I talked. He kissed me goodbye and walked off. I turned to face Shannon. I tried to keep my guard up and not alert her, but she sensed it.
"Your husband said we hit that iceberg didn't we? I saw how he was talking to you. He didn't want to scare me. Tell me the truth, Torie. What did he say?"
I looked down at Shannon. "Come on, we need to find Father. He needs to hear this too."
We walked into where he was. "Harold just stopped by here." Father stood up. "The iceberg. The ship did hit it. Harold doesn't know yet what will happen. He looked scared. He looked truly scared. He told us to be careful and if something happened, get to a boat quickly."
Father stopped to look at me, then at Shannon. "Please keep your ears open. If Officer Lowe tells you anything, I want to know, too. The safety of all of us is at stake. I'm going to go tell Belinda, Melissa and Franklin." He looked at me, and I knew what he was thinking.
I was scared.
