The afternoon was calm, lazy, lovely and peaceful in contrast to a tilting island of steel, iron and wood known as Lusitania. Passengers swarmed with activity as her aft deck rose from the sea, higher and higher at an alarming rate. Captain Turner looked down from the bridge as the forecastle submerged into the sea. The water swirled around the captsans and windlasses. He looked behind at the Boat Deck, ready to give the order.
Robert Leith, the telegraphist, took over from David McCormick in the Marconi shack to tap out an SOS:
"Come at once, big list, 10 miles south Old Head Kinsale."
At 2:12, Leith heard from the Anglo-American Oil Company tanker Narragansett. He assumed that she was the first to respond to his SOS call. In fact, Narragansett's wireless man Talbot Smith, had heard the message as "Strong list. Come quick." Leith sent Lusitania's position and asked Smith for Narragansett's. Smith took about a minute to respond that they were about thirty-five miles southeast, becoming more and more aware of Lusitania's situation. Leith kept tapping, Smith lost the signal and Narragansett's Captain Harwood dutifully changed his course for a position where he would find U-20 waiting for him with another torpedo. Believing that the distress calls were luring them into a trap, Harwood and his crew retreated back on their original route to Bayonne, New Jersey.
Lusitania's call was soon picked up by the Leyland Line's Etonian and the Ellerman Line's City of Exeter, both of whom passed it along to outlying ships. The wireless station at Land's End, Cornwall heard the news directly from Lusitania and relayed the message inland. The news eventually travelled to Queenstown, Ireland. By chance, Admiral Coke heard the distress call "SOS". Coke responded instantly, requesting every ship available, including Juno, to set course for the ship's current position. As he issued a detailed list of commands, to prepare his crew for a full speed run and a sea rescue, Lusitania's electric plant failed completely by 2:14 PM and Leith switched to auxiliary power, tapping out an urgent message as the situation worsened.
"Send Help Quickly. Am Listing Badly!"
As he continued tapping, Captain Turner ordered the boats uncovered. The crew and passengers mustered and lifejackets were distributed to all. Many of the seamen were quick to operate the davits that held Lusitania's boats. The officers shouted and used hand-signals to work around the rapid flooding. The increasing list, however, was making the boats on the port side difficult to launch, the starboard ones were easier...if the results had proven to be less chaotic.
At 2:15 PM, starboard, Lifeboat 13 was the first to be launched. First Officer Jones supervised the loading, it had to be done quickly as there was little time for a serenading evacuation. Amongst the crowd were Gabriel and Nathalie, who were already outfitted in their lifejackets.
"Will the lifeboats be seated according to class?" he asked the officer. "I hope they are not too crowded."
"There is no time for class differences, Mr. Agreste, now get in!"
"What about my son?"
"He'll be along soon enough," Jones said as he pushed him in. "Lower away!"
Nathalie jumped into the boat as the sailors, some of them inexperienced in making a fast launch, tried their best to lower the boat as quickly as they could without spilling the load. The boat descended unevenly, tilting to the bow. The passengers were unprepared for this kind of emergency. The dark portholes slid past and the seconds crawled by as if in a nightmare. Blue and calm, the ocean received Number 13, launched with about seventy seats occupied. Gabriel was wracked with guilt, knowing the emotion of loss for the second time in almost five years.
"Adrien..."
Nathalie soothed his worries. She too was expressing her concerns, but it couldn't help the fact that they were in need of getting as far away from the ship before her final plunge created a suction that could pull them down.
"Like the man said, sir. He'll be along."
Seconds later, on the port side, Lifeboat 20 was the second to be launched. Ogden and Mary Hammond, standing nearby, felt that the ship was as safe as a trolley before boarding it. In the middle of the lowering, the sailors lost control of the boat, causing it to dip bow first and spilled it's passengers into the sea. Lusitania towered above them, black and solid. At the time of launching, Number 20 had only about thirty five seats occupied.
The pace of work was frantic and the bow of the ship was so low in the water that it's Lusitania nameplates were submerged. Crewmen and officers ran to work on the davits, their previous complacency gone. Isaac Lehmann, armed with a revolver in his pocket, grew frantic at the water advancing on the deck, threatening a sailor to let him on. His boat of choice, Number 18 from the port side, swung inward and crushed two sisters in their fifties with a blow to the head. Lehmann sprained his right leg, but managed to limp from the bystanders. The ship had less than ten minutes to live.
Marie Depage, who helped several children to safety with Dr. James Houghton, became one of fifty five first class women who did not board a boat. For the members of the ship's crew and Staff Captain Anderson honoring the British rule of "women and children first", some couples were not given a choice. The separation was quick and painful. One woman who had been hit hardest was Alice Hubbard, who refused to leave her husband.
"We are here now, some day we shall go," Elbert philosophized. " And when we go we would like to go gracefully."
Chloé scanned through the crowd for Adrien. Around her was chaos and confusion. Theodate Pope Riddle, her maid Emily Robinson and Edwin Friend were making no attempt to enter a boat. Grace French, the Scottish milliner, jumped into the water without her coat and a lifejacket. An eddy of water was holding her down in the leap that took her twenty feet below the surface. Charles Lauriat, watching Lifeboat 7 still attached to the falls, climbed aboard and helped to cut the falls with a steward's pocket knife. In the process, he was knocked back by a descending davit, but recovered and pushed his way through the occupants who were partially submerged. Very few of them, including Lauriat, made it safely into the water before Number 7 was pulled into the sea. Looking down from the rail, Chloé turned and saw Sabrina hurrying toward her through the aisle connecting the port and starboard sides of the boat deck.
"This place is starting to fall apart," fear was coming into her face. "We don't have much time."
She saw Lady Allan's Pekingese Peek-a-Boo run past her. He was hoping to find his mistress, who had jumped into the water with Gwen, Anna, Frederick Orr-Lewis and the valet George Slingsby. Mr. and Mrs. Bilicke, whose boat was perpendicular, spilled into the sea as well. The girls caught up with Captain Turner at the bridge, where Quartermaster Johnston announced that the ship's list had reached twenty five degrees according to the spirit gauge. Chloé stepped up to him.
"Captain, as the daughter of a French politician, I purpose a new statue for torpedo attacks if we make it to shore."
"Save yourself," his words were aimed at Johnston, who left the bridge with a salute.
Chloé and Sabrina rushed through the bridge towards the port side, where the crewmembers were trying to free the collapsibles and rafts from the spots previously held by the main lifeboats.
In his last act as the commander of a doomed vessel, he instructed the other officers to abandon ship and to do their best for the passengers and crew. Then he remained at the bridge, and as the sinking progressed, he was waiting in over a foot of water. This was the last time most remembered seeing Captain Turner before the ship had completely submerged.
A mixture of all three classes had formed a crowd by the aft lifeboats. The officers, crewmembers and Anderson kept them back as they tried to fill the rest of the boats to capacity.
At 2:21, starboard, Lifeboat 17 was the fifth to be launched. Number 17 was launched with only thirteen seats occupied, maybe even more.
Avis Dolphin watched Professor Holbourn, who had been her friend for the majority of the voyage, slide away from her gaze. After being kissed good-bye from the kind man who told her to find his wife and children if he did not survive, she entered Lifeboat 17 with Hilda Ellis and Sarah Smith, her nurses. As the boat lowered, all Avis could hear was the blood pounding her ears as if she were fearing the long drop to the water and could not believe the unbearable pain in her heart if her friend (who was only thirty one years older than her) would never see her again. At least she had her nurses, as her mother was all the way across the Atlantic back in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.
Suddenly, two men moved, trying to jump into the boat. Unfortunately, the jerked weight of the landing only caused the boat to capsize just before it reached the water. Everyone still onboard had spilled out and Avis, unable to find Miss Ellis and Miss Smith, clung onto a raft. The others who accompanied her in the boat continued on to find other pieces of salvation.
"Depend on it, that's our Avis!" Holbourn shouted as he saw the girl resurface.
Forty two miles out of Kinsale, Captain Wood was pushing Etonian to her maximum speed, taking watch from the bridge. He scanned the horizon for any sign of the sinking ship. Soon, he could pick out the periscope of a submarine, half a point off the starboard bow. Wood, taking the precaution of his own safety, quickly reported to the engine room, asking for more speed. The crew agreed, outrunning the submarine by no less than two miles. But many of the passengers and crew aboard City of Exeter saw the periscope as well, two even and both ships turned back, convinced that the distress signal had been nothing more than a ruse. Danger, as it seemed for them, was not too far away.
Theodore and Belle Naish waited by the boat deck, offering to help the passengers with their lifejackets.
"She's all right, she'll float for an hour," one of the remaining officers told them.
But Belle saw through his fib through a careful observation of the ship's current angle and could only state the negative.
"We're sinking fast. It can't be long now."
By the third class entrance some time earlier, the passengers of said class were also preparing for the evacuation. Much to Alya's disbelief, she and the others had to wait before the captain ordered the lifeboats to be lowered. Chief Steward John Humphrey Griffiths, blocking the entrance stairs, tried to assure the passengers to stay calm to little avail, and that was when Alya stepped in at the front of the crowd.
"You can't keep us waiting too long! The ship is sinking!"
The steerage passengers who heard her words, sensed that their time was running out and began to panic.
"Wait until everything is ready!" shouted Griffiths.
At that moment, Thomas Stewart, an assistant steward, came to inform him.
"Captain's orders, the boats are ready," he said with a rapid speech into Griffiths' left ear.
Satisfied, Griffiths let himself aside and the stream of steerage passengers moved their way up, slowly at first, then rapidly. As they left, several other stewards distributed lifejackets for those who did not have any. Some found their way up the Grand Staircase and others were trying to find alternative ways of reaching the Boat Deck. The sea was creeping forward of the steerage quarters by the time Elsie Hook found some five dollars on the steps. Her father, knowing that the approach of doom was not too far behind, scolded her.
"Throw them away, they may cost you your life."
Elsie dropped the dollars, and Alya, Alix, Ivan, Mylène and Nathanaël followed Mrs. Coughlin and nurse-in-training Violet James to A-Deck, where a portion of the crowd was rushing towards the first boat they saw, Lifeboat 1. Seaman John Clifford Morton, a year older than his brother Leslie, helped his brother with the forward end of the said boat, leaving his previous one, the safely launched Number 11, to lower Number 1 which was already halfway down.
"Give us a chance to live already!"
Alix had pushed herself through the crowd, but before she could let a second cry of demand, her unknowing legs caused her to topple off the deck. As she fell, her right hand reached the side of the boat but slipped in a split second. Alya watched her fall into the water and quickly grabbed a life vest from James McCubbin, the purser. Ivan, Mylène and Nathanaël went aft at the sight of the rising water.
At 2:25, starboard, Lifeboat 15 was the eighth boat to go and the last to be successfully launched from Lusitania. Under the command of First Officer Jones, Number 15 was launched overloaded with about eighty people. He spotted the drifting Lifeboat 1 and, with that boat being empty, he rowed towards it, intent on transferring half of the occupants of his boat into that one.
Collapsible A2 was freed from the deck and floated off, carrying at least a few sailors. The bow was plunging suddenly and the forecastle had gone completely under when Chloé and Sabrina climbed aboard. They watched Lifeboat 14, the only boat on the port side to have been successfully launched drifting away with about eleven of it's original sixty occupants.
At that moment, the water had reached the bridge and was beginning to submerge. Alya struggled to put on her life jacket as the water reached her feet. Around her, as she helped the sailors with their attempts to launch the rafts, Lusitania had now reached the end of her eight year career, leaving her passengers and crew with marks of prestige and opprobrium.
Captain Turner's last moments aboard would become the subject of controversy for years to come. Believing himself to be the last person onboard, he climbed to the halyards to prevent himself from being swept away.
Alfred Vanderbuilt was last seen on the port side near the Verandah Café, his valet Denyer jumped into the sea with Dr. Owen Kenan and did not return to the surface.
No one would ever know how Alice and Elbert Hubbard met their end.
As a wave swept aft, men furiously cut away the falls that still attached whatever lifeboats were left to the davits. Some of the overturned boats served as escape crafts for a hardy few. Other boats, even some that were swamped by the rising sea, drifted away, saving some lives and providing others with a quieter place to die. For everyone else, there would be no escape from the foundering Lusitania and the water that was rapidly consuming her.
Father Basil Maturin remained selfless as his final actions delivered a prayer for everyone, sacrificing his life for a child by delivering it in the last boat to go with the instructions:
"Find it's mother."
Three members of the ship's band, the remaining two would later be lost, swam away from the ship, losing all of their instruments in the process.
"I have lost a damned good cello," said Thomas Hawkins as he swam for the boats.
Marinette and Adrien ran out of the Verandah Café into the large crowd. Marinette pushed her way to the rail and she and Adrien looked at the state of the ship. The bridge was under water and there was chaos on deck. There was little chance for any of the remaining lifeboats to be launched. Marinette helped Adrien put the lifebelt on. People streamed around them, shouting and pushing.
"We have to stay on the ship as long as possible!" she shouted. "The boats are too risky. Come on!"
They pushed their way aft, through the panicking crowd of passengers and crew.
Collapsible A2 whirled around like a leaf in the currents, Chloé and Sabrina, using their oars as weapons of defense, tried to row away from the sinking ship. When it seemed like the boat was full, they tried to drive anyone who threatened to swamp the collapsible away from it by slamming the oars against the surface. Chloé slapped her oar into the water while Sabrina used hers to push the water-bound passengers and crew back into the sea.
"Back off," she screamed. "You will swamp us!"
Men and women swam to the lifeboats, even some that were overturned. The forward funnel dipped into the water, it's large opening draining the water and sucking in Inspector Pierpoint, Margaret Gwyer and Harold Taylor. Moments later, the boiler exploded, ejecting the victims out and it's waves swept away the boats and other victims in the water. Nearby, Alya swam like hell, trying to avoid the suction. She too was pushed by the wave and was going to live, no matter what it took.
On the stern, steerage passenger Elizabeth Duckworth was walking like a mindless doll as she found herself reciting the 23rd Psalm.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death-"
"Could you walk through that valley a little faster, miss?" Marinette asked impatiently.
Elizabeth let the two aside, then she saw three Irish girls singing "There Is a Green Hill Far Away" in thin, frightened voices.
At last, Marinette and Adrien reached the poop deck, struggling aft as the angle increased. Nearby, Charles Frohman was calm and undisturbed as he smoked on a cigar. Around him were Rita Jolivet, George Vernon, and Captain Alick Scott, ready to jump. Others had their minds blank with dread. Frohman, supporting himself with his cane, carried strong words, the words that would immortalize his final moments as he was swept away into the water.
"Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life."
Three miles away aboard the Peel fishing vessel Wanderer, Skipper William Ball and his son Stanley had sighted Lusitania's bow in a downwards position. Agreeing that she was in distress, they called the remaining crew of five to set course for the ship. Wanderer, not built for high speeds due to her being a sailing vessel, went as fast as the light breeze could take her. As the crew rushed to the rescue, they noticed how Lusitania's stern reached higher and higher before she completely capsized. They knew that by the time they would reach her, it would be too late.
From Lifeboat 13, Gabriel and Nathalie stared at the spectacle of the dying ship, unable to frame it or put it into any proportion.
Nearby, on the Old Head of Kinsale, six year old George Henderson and his parents were eating their sandwiches on what seemed like a perfect day until they too, saw the spectacle of Lusitania sinking before their eyes.
Her stern was high in the air, maybe at about forty five degrees from the boy's innocent mind. The propellers seemed to be about ninety feet out of the water. Over a hundred passengers clung to the decks, looking from his point of view like a swarm of bees.
"Cor," he whispered.
A group of schoolchildren from Butlerstown, having heard the explosion from afar, were summoned back to the classroom to write an essay on what they had seen.
Back inside U-20, Schwieger knew he had seen enough. He stepped away from the periscope, offering it to anyone else who wanted a look at the dying steamer. Vogele and some of the others that did, were catatonic with remorse, their minds disturbed over what they had done. Schwieger could avert his eyes, but he could not fire a second torpedo into the crushing crowd of humanity trying to save their lives.
As the ship foundered, water rushed upward from the lower decks. The once-elegant grand staircase was now flooded by the sea. Those trapped in the elevators had little hope as water burst through the forward doors and windows of the boat deck, dragging people inside. Above them, the beautiful glass skylight gave way. Every loose object, no matter how big or small, slid to the side or forward as Lusitania tilted.
Marinette and Adrien made it to the stern rail, right at the base of the flagpole. They gripped the rail, jammed in between other people. Recognizing it as the spot where Marinette pulled him back a week...and a lifetime ago, Adrien sobbed with joy as he tried in vain to lift his spirits.
"Marinette, this is where we first met!"
They held on to each other, neither of them wanting to let go.
Above Adrien's left shoulder, Marinette could see the faces of the people still onboard. Alice Middleton being washed off the deck, Nathanaël looking at her briefly, Katherine Coughlin clinging to her daughter Margaret stoically, Nino slipping as he struggled along the railing and slid away screaming. Ivan was clutching Mylène, who was crying in terror.
"Don't worry," he soothed. "It will all be over soon."
Chief Baker Robert Pinkerton prepared himself for the inevitable as he jumped off the stern. Dr. Mecredy followed him as well from the same spot, even if he wasn't much of a high diver. The Hook family jumped one by one from the railing. Frank was too late to see the falling lifeboat strike his left thigh and the water washed him away from his father and sister. Even Chief Engineer Bryce was able to leave his post, but his chances for survival were slim, for he was overtaken by the water in seconds.
At last, the second funnel submerged and Marinette pulled Adrien over to the rail. Others who didn't climb over plummeted from the listing ship, followed by ropes and lifeboats among other pieces of debris from the impact. It became a surreal moment when the ship started to take her final plunge.
To Marinette, it felt like an elevator as she and Adrien dropped slowly into the sea. The water reached the base of the third funnel as she talked fast, instantly finding a way to save hers and Adrien's lives.
"The ship might suck us down, and when it does, take a deep breath when I say it."
The fourth funnel followed.
"We're going to make it, Adrien! Do you trust me?"
He stared at the water coming up at them, and gripped her hand harder.
"I trust you!"
The poop deck was disappearing, the water engulfed the second class promenade and the docking bridge was half-submerged at the time Marinette prepared herself to hold her breath at the last thirty feet.
"Ready? NOW!"
Adrien swallowed a huge lump of breath, puffing his cheeks as he prepared to go under.
At 2:28, a short eighteen minutes after the impact, the last of Lusitania slowly slided beneath the surface-and struck the sea bed, three hundred feet below. No human eyes or ears could ever erase the very memory of this tragic moment.