Yes, I am still alive, and, yes, The LS will hopefully continue soon too. Please excuse the formatting issues if any.
11:55 AM April 10th, 1912
Southampton, England
Captain Edward Smith of the RMS Titanic has been a ship captain for around 25 years- since 1887 to be exact. In all his years of service he has been on 3 maiden voyages, and the maiden voyage of the Titanic was to be his fourth and final one. After this voyage he would retire. In Smith's eyes, he considered being the captain of the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage as an honor and a fitting end to his naval career. What other ship could claim to be not only the largest ship, but also the most luxurious and the most safe? No other ship of the White Star Line could. In fact, no other ship that Captain Edward Smith knew of could claim that. Why, the Titanic was considered to be so safe that the press had deemed it to be unsinkable, and Smith could hardly disagree. The Titanic has multiple safety measures that would prevent it from sinking, in fact…
"Captain!" a voice said that brought Smith out from his thoughts. He looked over to his left to see his Chief Mate, Henry Tingle Wilde, standing there awaiting his response.
"Uh...please come again Officer Wilde, it seems I was lost in thought,'' Smith said with a slight amount of embarrassment.
"Captain, I asked if you think we should begin the process of firing up the engines to pull out of port. All the passengers have boarded, with Third Class passengers all having been thoroughly examined for any illnesses or ailments, the cargo has been secured, the loading ramps have all been retracted from the ship, and all the entrances have been closed and secured," Officer Wilde replied.
"Hmm," Smith said while rubbing his chin. He looked over at his pocket watch to check the time. "Well, it appears it is 11:55 AM, 5 minutes before our scheduled departure time. With everything else now prepared, I do believe it is time to start the engines. Carry on Officer Wilde."
"Yes captain," he responded before leaving to make the proper arrangements. Just a few minutes later Officer Wilde returned , "Captain, we have begun our departure from the port of Southampton."
"Very well then, I'm off to observe the beginning of our voyage," Smith looked over to Officer Wilde, "I leave you in command for the duration of my absence Officer."
Officer Wilde saluted, "Yes, captain." Smith returned the salute and left the Wheel House. Heading to the Port side of the Navigation Bridge, he gazed down to the lower decks of the ship. He could see passengers waving their goodbyes out to the crowd who were standing at the edge of the port of Southampton. Amongst the crowd he saw a man with a large bulky camera taking pictures of the ships departure, no doubt for the afternoon newspapers. Looking forward beyond the bow of the ship, he could see the faint billow of smoke coming from the lead tugboat helping the Titanic leave port, although the actual tugboat itself was hidden from his view. He stood there for a while, admiring the view and feeling the gentle swaying of the deck beneath his feet.
So far everything was going according to plan. He looked ahead to the English Channel and saw that it was slightly overcast, and judging by the small waves on the water, also windy. No doubt the wind would be quite cold, but even then Smith considered it to be fine weather to be setting sail. With such good thoughts in his head he headed back into the Wheel House. Smith had a feeling that his final voyage would go extremely well. Besides, what could go wrong?
3:30 PM April 10th, 1912
1216 Rue François, Cherbourg, France
"What could go wrong? In a family this big, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I call it the Loud Effect; the more family members you have, the larger the chance that something will go wrong, and with 9 sisters chances are something is going to go wrong on this trip," Lincoln monologued to himself as he was packing his things, "Of course, they don't call me the Man With a Plan for no reason. I've come prepared for this trip. I've planned for every and any eventuality that could occur on the trip. Heck, I've even learned how to swim just in case the ship starts to take on water, although I'll doubt I'll need to swim since the Titanic is unsinkable," Lincoln said with pure confidence. It was at this moment that Lisa came into Lincoln's room.
"That's nothing but marketing hogwash Lincoln. No ship is truly unsinkable. While I must admit that the safety features the Titanic has- such as watertight bulkheads that separate the ship into 8 compartments, the watertight doors on the lower decks, and the hard steel that makes up the hull of the ship- make the Titanic very safe, it is not unsinkable as you, the press, or the White Star Line claim it to be. In fact, I have already formulated three different ways the so-called 'unsinkable' ship could be sunk," Lisa said with a smug tone.
Before Lincoln could attempt to respond to Lisa's claim his father yelled from downstairs. "I hear a lot of yakking and not a lot of packing! Remember kids, we've got to be at the harbor before 5:00 PM, so keep packing!"
"Okay Dad!" Lincoln responded back. He continued to pack his things. He turned back towards Lisa and asked, "So is there a reason you're here in my room when you're supposed to be packing?"
"As a matter of fact there is, I was here to ask if you have seen my Martes Foina test subject. I was using it to study the effects that radioactive energy had on biotic matter, and I wanted to examine the subject one more time before our departure. Have you seen it?" Lisa asked Lincoln, who was looking through his drawers.
Now Lincoln didn't consider himself well versed in what he termed 'Lisa-speak', he didn't know what a Martes Foina was or what radioactive energy is, but he still got the gist of what Lisa was saying: she had lost something she was using as a test subject and was asking if he had seen it. "No, I don't think I've seen your… what was it again?" Lincoln looked questioningly to Lisa.
"Martes Foina," Lisa responded nonchalantly.
"Right..." stuffing in the remaining articles of clothing he had into his suitcase. After a few seconds, Lincoln finished packing everything in his suitcase and attempted to close it. "Well Lisa, I have not seen your Martes Foina," he said, straining to close the suitcase filled to the brim with clothing and personal belongings, "but if I do, I'll be sure to tell you."
"Then I suppose I won't be able to examine my subject one more time before we leave," she said with a sigh as she adjusted her glasses, "Well as the French say, ' C'est la vie' ." Lisa quickly left the room. With Lisa gone, Lincoln continued to try to shut his suitcase.
After a few tries of attempting to shut his suitcase in the traditional way, Lincoln decided he had to use more unorthodox methods. He tried jumping on it, sitting on it, doing push-ups on it,banging it against the wall in frustration, and other methods. He would do anything to make it close properly so that he wouldn't have to take all his belongings out and pack it all over again neatly. Minutes later, Lincoln was able to finally shut his suitcase, although it was so tightly packed that it looked as if it would burst open any second.
"Phew, that sure was a workout!" Lincoln wiped off some sweat from his forehead. He checked his clock. "Wow, and it's only 3:50, I have the next 30 minutes to just," he paused when he saw something move near his desk. He went over to investigate.
As he approached his desk he heard the sound of tiny feet scurrying along the carpet floor. Right before he reached his desk, a small animal jumped onto it, startling Lincoln. He yelped in surprise, backing away from his desk and the animal. It appeared to be a deformed beech marten. Almost all of its hair was gone, only small tufts remained in select areas of its body. Not only that, but it appeared to have multiple growths all over its body, along with a red rash. He grabbed the closest, and only, hard thing in his room- his suitcase- and hit the animal without thinking. He sent it flying from the desk, through the small circular window of his room, and out to the bushes below . Of course, doing so had sent the suitcase flying open,spilling all of his belongings.
"Damn it," he said before quickly covering his mouth. He looked out of his room to the hallway to see if anyone else had heard him curse. It would be bad if his parents or one of his older siblings heard him curse, but the absolute worst would be if one of his younger siblings had heard him, and, God forbid it, repeat what he said. He couldn't imagine what he would do if that ever happened. Memory of the previous time he had been caught cursing resurfaced in his mind. He remembered how his father had washed his tongue with soap in order to "wash the bad words away". He could taste the soap on his tongue just thinking about it. He thrust those uncomfortable thoughts out of his head and continued monitoring the hallway. The only sounds he heard were the rest of sisters packing their own things.
He could faintly hear the sounds of Lori and Leni arguing in their room, most likely a disagreement over who owned some dress or some other trivial matter. From the room that Luna and Luan shared he could hear Luna singing and Luan chuckling at her own jokes (since no one else did). In Lynn and Lucy's room he could hear Lucy sighing while she packed and Lynn jumping around, probably because she was packing her things in the most athletic way possible. In the room to his right he heard Lana saying goodbye to all her pets and Lola talking to herself (or perhaps one of her stuffed animals?). It appeared no one had heard a certain white haired boy curse.
"Now that I know I'm in the clear I can go back to packing my things again," he said halfheartedly, "but first I need to talk to Lisa over that...animal." He shivered just thinking about that horrendous thing. Turning to the door on his left, he opened it and entered the room.
"Hey Lisa, just wanted to let you know that if your Martes Foina was a diseased beech marten, then I found it."
"You did? Splendid news Lincoln! Now I can conduct my final examination on the irradiated subject," she grabbed some papers and a pencil. "Now, where is it?" she asked.
"Well you see Lisa, the thing is," he scratched the back of his head, "the thing is that I kind of, how should I describe this… hit it with my suitcase and launched it outside," he said sheepishly. "I hope you aren't too disappointed."
"While I can't say that I don't have a slight amount of disappointment, I know that I can always just perform the experiment again once we get settled in the United States. I do hear there are large deposits of uranium ore in the southwest. Now if you excuse me, I must finish packing the remaining papers of my research," she said as she began to gather the papers scattered around her room.
"Okay, well later Lisa," Lincoln said before returning to his room. Once there he looked at his scattered belongings all over the floor. "Well this might take awhile." He walked over to where his suitcase was and brought it over to where the majority of his belongings were on the floor. He began his endeavor by separating his belongings into 2 piles: one for clothes and the other for... the rest.
Once he finished folding and packing his clothes away he looked at the remainder of his belongings, which weren't much. He only owned 3 books,his journal, and his drawing materials. In a family as large as his it wasn't easy to own a lot of things. Most of Lincoln's things were actually hand-me-downs. Of the 3 books he owned, 2 of them-The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Call of the Wild- were handed down to him. His drawing notebook was also a hand me down from Leni, who had filled the opening pages with her fashion designs. Even his own journal was a hand me down from Luan, who had used it as a place to write down her jokes. Did it bother him slightly that he didn't really own anything? Yes, it did. But in the end he decided there was nothing he could do about it, so he just decided to focus on packing away his things.
Once done, he looked around his room to see if there was anything else he forgot to pack. There was nothing in his room now except for the desk with empty drawers, the clock on the wall, and his bed frame with a plain mattress on it. It looked as if Lincoln was done. He took his suitcase out of his room and into the hallway.
"Well guess I'm finally done packing," he said as he went back into his room to check the time. "Hmm, it's 4:10, only ten more minutes until we leave," he said while he thought over how he should spend the last 10 minutes in the house he grew up in. In the end, he decided to just have one last look around the house before he left forever.
He started off his final tour at the bathroom. Even though his memories of the bathroom consisted of waiting in long lines, the water pressure going faulty all the time, and a hole in the floor, he would miss it. Usually the bathroom was full of his sister's belongings, but not today. Today it was completely free of any makeup, creams, and hair brushes. All of that had either been used up, thrown away, sold, or packed into one of his sister's suitcases.
He left the bathroom to look into Lori's room. Inside he saw that his two eldest sisters had stopped bickering and were finishing up packing. Their room, like his, was bare. The only things left in there was the dresser Lori and Leni shared and Leni's bed. Lori's beautifully crafted bed frame made by Leni had been sold.
With nothing much more of interest there, he closed the door and headed to Luna and Luan's room. There he found Luan packing her things while telling jokes to Luna, who had apparently already finished.
"You know Luna, I hope the ship takes the sea-nic route. I hear the Atlantic is Ferry Boatiful this time of year. Fin fact, I'm shore this trip will go swell! I just can't wait to reach the land of op-port-unity. The Schooner we go, the better! I won't go into Pacifics, but...," she saw Lincoln, "Hey Linc, want to hear some puns?" she asked him.
"No Luan, I think I'm good," he replied while slowly closing the door. He sighed in relief as he headed over to Lynn and Lucy's room. He looked to the reader, " You know for a second there I thought Luan was going to force me to listen to her bad jokes." As he said this Luan spoke from her room.
"You know I heard you Lincoln! You better pier-pare for the amount of jokes I'll be telling you on the way to the harbor."
"Dang it."
He reached Lynn and Lucy's room and opened the door. Going inside, he saw Lynn bouncing a ball against the wall and Lucy writing in her journal. Like all the other rooms, it was empty. He stood there for a moment before Lynn noticed him.
"Oh hey Stincoln, how's it going?" she asked him while she continued to bounce the ball.
"Nothing much, just checking out the house one more time before we leave," he turned to Lucy, "Hey Lucy, what are you writing about?"
She looked up from her journal and responded in her usual monotone voice, "Oh, I'm just writing a poem about our house. I call it Home, but I need a rhyme for the word place, any suggestions Lincoln?"
"Hmm," he thought for a few seconds of every word he knew that rhymes with place, " Well, there's ace, base, brace, case, chase, face, grace, pace, race, space, trace, vase, and embrace. Any of those good?"
"Yes, thank you Lincoln. I've finally got it," she scribbled down a few words in her journal before she looked back up to Lincoln,
"Okay, here it is:
Home
10 girls and one boy, all crammed into one place,
Inside this house, there was never enough space.
Home
What do you think?"
"I liked it, I think it really captures how crowded our home is," Lincoln said, "now if you excuse me, I'm going to see how Lana and Lola are doing."
"Okay, bye Lincoln," Lucy said before going back to writing in her journal.
Lincoln exited Lynn and Lucy's room and walked down the hallway towards Lana and Lola's room. As he opened the door, he noticed the emptiness of the room that was usually one of the most chaotic ones. What was once a room filled with dolls, pets, tea sets, animal food, and a mix of toys was now completely vacant, most of those things had been sold. In a way it was kind of depressing, and the sounds of a child weeping did not help to lighten the mood. He looked over at Lana's side and saw her crying while Lola attempted to comfort her.
"Hey Lana what's wrong," Lincoln asked, although he had a feeling he already knew why she was sad.
She looked up towards Lincoln, her eyes red and puffy from crying, " I don't want to leave our home. I want to stay here, with my we move, I am never going to get to see them ever again! How am I just supposed to leave Izzy and El Diablo here without anyone to take care of them?" she said as she blew her nose with a handkerchief Lola had given her. "It's just not fair! I have a good life here, I don't know why we have to move away when I already have everything I ever want right here!" Tears were running down her cheeks, "I just don't want to leave. Why do we have to leave, why?" she asked Lincoln.
If Lincoln was completely honest with himself, he had asked himself that same question many times over the previous weeks. Of course, he knew the answer to that question. He was old enough to understand the financial situation his family was in. While they weren't poor, they weren't exactly living a comfortable life. A look at their home, with all of it's cracks in the walls and its broken doorknobs and locks, was enough to tell that the Loud family wasn't in great financial shape. It didn't help that only Lynn Sr. was able to find permanent work as a mere assistant to an English trader based in Cherbourg. Even though the older kids could occasionally help pay some of the expenses, it simply wasn't enough. And so when Lynn Sr. had heard of the possibility of traveling to America on an Olympic class vessel for the fee of 15$ per person he decided to risk it all- selling nearly everything the family owned to have a chance to make it in the land of opportunity.
WIth all of this in his head, Lincoln quickly formulated a response to Lana's question that she would be able to understand, "Look Lana, I know it's hard to leave and say goodbye to all of your pets, but you remember what Mom and Dad told us. We don't have a lot of money here where we are, but in America we actually have a chance to make money, maybe even own our house. We could never have a chance to do that here in France or in England, but over there we do. You understand that we're moving to have a better life, right?"
Lana looked down at her feet, " Yeah, I know."
"Just don't worry about it, you'll see. Once we're over there you'll have lots of pets and make lots of friends. Just you wait," he finished off his statement with a hug to course their Mom had to choose this moment to yell from downstairs, cutting Lincoln's hugging time.
"Okay kids come on downstairs with your things, it's time we load up the old family wagon and get this show on the road!"
One by one, the Loud siblings went downstairs to the living room with their belongings. All the pictures that had hung up on the wall had been taken out of their frames and packed, with their frames being sold to help pay for future expenses. The living room, like the rest of their house, was completely empty, now only the indents of where the furniture layed on the carpet remained to show that there had ever been anything there. While he waited for the rest of his sisters to come down, he went over to the dining room and kitchen. Once again, empty. It was strange seeing the place where his family had always ate be empty. He had fond memories of having food fights with his younger siblings, and of the time he had attempted to join the "grown up" table. Of course he had failed, since he had no idea on how to act like a grown up. He walked over to where the door to the basement was, but then decided that the basement could be left out of his final tour, seeing as how he had always hated going down there. With his final tour of his childhood home complete, he headed back into the living room.
Once all of his family members were all gathered there, Lynn Sr. told them to load themselves up onto the family wagon he had rented just for the day. When everyone was finally onboard the wagon, Lynn tugged on the reins of the 2 horses,Van and Zilia, and off they went.
As the wagon pulled away from his childhood home, Lincoln watched as it slowly left his line of sight forever.
5:00 PM April 10, 1912
Onboard SS Traffic, Cherbourg Inner Harbour
Lincoln was sitting on the edge of the deck, looking at the water that filled Cherbourg harbour. He and his family were aboard the SS Traffic. It was a small ship: only around 175 feet in length, one smokestack, and boasting a meager 5 decks- 2 below decks and 3 above. While small, it still served its purpose, which was to ferry all 3rd class passengers and cargo from Cherbourg to the Titanic. The ship was still moored while waiting for the Titanic's arrival so that the ferrying process could begin. Supposedly the Titanic was supposed to have arrived at the outer portion of the harbour by now, but so far there was no sight of her.
"Uhh, why is this taking so long? I thought the transfer was only supposed to take a few minutes." Lola complained to Lynn Sr.
"Lola is right, what's taking those guys so long?" Lynn asked.
"Yeah this is utter rubbish, we're supposed to be onboard the Titanic by now, not this dingy boat." Luna agreed.
"Wait, this isn't the Titanic? I was wondering why it was so small," Leni chimed in.
Everyone looked at Leni for a few seconds. Sometimes Leni really surprised them with how naive she was. Their parents and Lori had said that she hadn't always been like that, but after suffering from a high fever when she was 6, she became a little slower in the head than most people. By this point in their lives, everyone was accustomed to the occasional remark by Leni. But sometimes Leni could be so airheaded that she just got on everyone's nerves, which really wasn't fair to Leni, but sometimes it just couldn't be helped. Of course, the remark made by Leni on the boat happened to be one of those moments.
It did not help that everyone else was already slightly irritated with the delay. Add to that the amount of work and time it had taken to haul their belongings onto the ship, then go through a thorough medical examination to make sure none of them were diseased, and finally that they had done all this just to board a ship that still hasn't even moved from it's dock, it was no wonder that tension was running high through the Loud family. Leni's comment was simply like throwing a burning match into a pile of dry leaves, it would be the spark that could begin a fire of anger.
"Ugh, of course you're dumb enough to think that this was the Titanic Leni," Lynn said in a harsh tone.
"Says the girl who could barely pass the 6th grade and needed my help for Writing class," Lucy spoke up.
"Oh please, the only reason you know writing and reading is because you have no friends, so you stay inside all day reading Edgar Allan Poe and the Book of Revelations," Lynn retorted.
Luan attempted to defuse the situation, "Hey guys,why don't you two just forgive each other and Poe-get that this ever happened? Get it?" Her "joke" only served to increase tension between the siblings.
"Of course you would think of joking around right now, since that's all you can ever think about," Luna said to Luan.
"Well at least my jokes actually require some wit, unlike your singing," Luan shot back.
One by one the Loud siblings began to insult one another and start and Lucy argued against each other, as did Lola and Lana, while Lori,Luna,and Luan had a threeway only siblings who weren't participating in these verbal bashings were Lincoln,Lisa, and Leni. Lincoln wasn't in the mood to argue and preferred to just keep staring at the water, Lisa had no time for such trivialities as arguing with her siblings over unimportant matters, and Leni didn't have the mental capacity to ever win an argument or create good insults. As the arguments wore on, they began to turn a bit more physical, with the occasional push or shove.
Usually their parents would let any verbal arguments be resolved by themselves, but once it began to get physical Lynn Sr. drew the line. He decided to try to calm his kids down before they got out of hand and got into a physical fight.
"Kids, I want this fighting to stop at this instant!" He yelled at his children. They all stopped arguing with each other and looked at their father.
"Fighting at home is one thing, but right now we are not at home. In fact, we don't have a home, and we won't have one if you get us kicked off this ship because you were all fighting. So stop fighting, and don't be rowdy. I know it's frustrating, but I know that any minute now we'll be under way." Finished with his little talk, he looked to see his kids all bowing their heads in shame. They apologized as one and either sat down or went over to the edge of the deck where Lincoln was.
Five minutes later, the sailors on the boat told the passengers that the SS Traffic would begin to set sail towards the Outer Harbour of Cherbourg. Knowing that the ship would begin to set sail heightened the mood of the Loud family considerably. A few minutes after that the family felt the engines turn on and saw smoke begin to billow out from the ship's singular smokestack. The ship slowly began to move towards the edge of the harbour, where it would transfer all of it's passengers and cargo to the Titanic.
Staring across the harbor towards the English Channel, Lincoln saw a small blip appear on the horizon. He called to his sisters in excitement.
"Hey guys, I think I see it!"
"See what?" Leni asked in her usual bewildered manner.
"The Titanic! Look to the horizon!" His sisters all gathered around him and began to eagerly scan the horizon. One by one, the sisters, and the rest of the passengers, were able to spot the incoming ship. As the ships converged, the Louds were able to get a look at how large and majestic the Titanic truly was.
"You know, seeing it up close… it's huge." one of his sisters said.
"Yeah. You can say that again" another agreed. Lincoln himself was dumbstruck by the sheer size of it.
Maneuvering to the side of the Titanic, the SS Traffic was dwarfed by the larger ship. Once the 2 ships were close enough, the lower deck entrances on the Titanic were opened, and gangplanks were set up to allow the passengers to board the Titanic.
"Okay kids, grab your things. If you leave anything behind your not getting it back," Lynn Sr. sternly said. The Loud family grabbed the few belongings they had and began to shuffle in line towards the gangplank. Crossing the narrow walkway, the family made their way onto the Titanic. A crew member was there near the entrance to direct the newcomers.
"Single male or coupled Third Class passengers, make your way to the right and on towards the stairways near the bow of the ship. Single women and families go forward and turn left at the Scotland Yard corridor and go towards the stairways near the stern of the ship."
A few of the less savvy passengers had to ask for clarification on which way to go, but for the most part the directions were clear enough for the incoming traffic to know which way to go. Lincoln and his family made their way towards the corridor that would take them towards the stern of the ship. Reaching it, they found it was a long, wide hallway with wood plank flooring and white walls that seemed to stretch impossibly long. Carrying their belongings with them, they hurried along towards the stern.
They passed through multiple watertight doorways and several stairways before finding the ones that would take them down to their section of ship. Going down the stairs, they went from E Deck, passed F Deck, and finally arrived at G Deck. After reaching it, they found that G Deck was the bottom deck, as there were no more stairs leading down.
"Okay everyone, try to find our room numbers, G215 and G216. They should be around here somewhere."
Passing through the small cramped corridors, they scanned the room numbers before finding G215. They then found G216 at the other end of the corridor.
"Okay kids, remember what we decided upon earlier. Your mom and I will take Lucy, the twins, Lisa, and Lily into our room. The rest of you will sleep together in the other room," he looked at Lori, "Are you sure you're responsible enough for this? There's no shame in saying no. We could always rearrange things."
"Don't worry, Dad," she coolly replied, "I think I'm old enough to handle the older kids. Besides, we're literally a walk away. I doubt anything will happen that's out of my range to handle."
"Okay then. Take care. Make sure to have the other kids sleep at an acceptable time."
The Loud family then split into the 2 groups and headed towards their respective rooms. Lincoln, along with his older sisters, followed Lori to G215. Opening the door, they entered a room with 3 bunk beds and a sink. Lori quickly took charge of the sleeping arrangements.
"Me and Leni will take the beds near the sink, Luan and Luna take the beds by the front wall, and Lynn and Lincoln will take the beds closest to the doors."
Settling their things down, they all began the small argument of who would bunk on top and who would bunk on the bottom. In the end, Lori, Luna, and Lynn took the top bunks of their respective beds.
"So… what do we do now?" Leni asked.
"I think we should go explore!" Lynn eagerly said. Lincoln and Luna voiced their agreement with her.
"Absolutely not." Lori mandated, "Now is not the time to go explore. I don't want any of you to get lost on the first night here."
"Oh come on sis, just a little stroll on the deck?" Luna pleaded. The rest of the group chimed in agreement.
"Ugh fine, but we'll be back fast. Got it?"
Lincoln and his sisters cheered and quickly filed out the door. As one, they went up the same stairway they came from and went on past F,E, and D deck. Reaching C Deck, the stairways ended. There, they found themselves in a room with multiple doors with small, circular windows on them. Peering through them, Lincoln could see that some were entrances to large spacious rooms with tables and chairs filled with other 3rd Class passengers. Most likely the 3rd Class General or Smoking Rooms. The other doors had rays of golden sunshine pouring in from outside.
"Looks like we've reached the open deck," Lynn cheerfully said as she opened the door that led outside. Coming outside, Lynn ran out towards the edge of the ship.
"Lynn be careful!" Lori warned, "You might fall overboard!"
"Oh please, Lori. You don't have to coddle me. I'm not Leni, you know!"
"Fine, but be careful." Lynn simply rolled her eyes and went towards the ship railings to look out to the great expanse of the ocean. The sun was setting to the west, painting the sky in a beautiful array of reds, yellows, and blue. The ship's lights reflected off of the water, glittering like a sea of stars. The rest of the sisters joined her in admiring the view.
"Wow, it really is pretty," Leni remarked.
"It sure is, sis," Luna replied.
"I told you that the sea-nery would be nice," Luan joked, and for once she received a warm reception of chuckles.
"Not even your bad puns can ruin this…" Together they watched France fade from view.
Sighing, Lori interrupted, "I hate to say this, but I think it's time to head back down. It's probably already around 8."
As much as they wanted to protest, the group could hardly disagree. The sun was already setting, and they had come to see what they had come to see. Off they went the same way from which they came. Returning to their room, they changed into the nightclothes and one by one fell to sleep.
Lincoln himself was the last one awake. He had done a lot of thinking over the past months over what was to come. So far, everything had gone exactly as it should- from the packing to the loading to the boarding. Up next was a shortstop in Queenstown, Ireland tomorrow, and then a straight shot to New York City, USA. He laid awake pondering what could go wrong. Perhaps something at the immigration check at Ellis Island? Or maybe they'd get separated and lost in the big city of New York? The Loud Effect would come into play at some point; he knew that for sure. Something was bound to go wrong.
There's more to come, obviously. Pardon the slow start and poor direction. I would suggest using the Titanic deckplans available at Encyclopedia Titanica to help you understand the positioning of things and whatnot if need be. So far, I've done what I've could to keep things as accurate as possible. I've researched the rooms, floor plans, schedule, etc. to help ensure this. Pardon if I made any glaring mistakes.