Chapter 12

Titanic cuts through the eerily smooth sea at a breakneck speed of 22 knots. The sea is smooth, eerie smooth. There is no moon tonight, so the sea is darker, but the night starry sky is much too beautiful to take in, as it is only the Titanic's source of light. The watch in the crow's nest have changed shifts and are trying to brave the biting cold night, after being ordered from the bridge to keep a lookout for any bergs or growlers.

Down below decks Jesse makes his way back to steerage, adjusting his jacket for it was mildly cold down here, and there were no heating ducts. He heard the familiarity of engines rumbling deep beneath his feet, and various ethnic voices coming from their cabins; some laughing, others roughhousing it in their rooms. Suddenly he heard footsteps echoing throughout the corridors that sounded like they were coming to his direction. It was Rose and Jack. They thanked him for a brief time for drawing their portrait before telling him to take cover somewhere as they are trying to evade Lovejoy, who had caught the couple as they tried to leave Rose's state room. Jesse could hear metal dishes clatter followed by laughter as the couple were trying to evade Lovejoy, who ran past without even noticing Jesse, as he was right there in plain view. He peeked around the wall, as Lovejoy disappeared around the corner. Jesse continued down the corridor, back to his cabin.

"Pretty tough to valet with this 'fella'," Jack says after he and Rose ran past Jesse, quickly thanking him for drawing their portrait, and running into a man pushing a cart full of dishes as he was making his way back to the kitchen. "Seems like a cop."

"I think he was," Rose says again, before stopping short to catch her breath, then continues, "Jesse said the exact same thing about him earlier." Jack managed to stifle a chuckle, then they watched carefully behind a door as Lovejoy tried to look for them. He looked like he might turn back around, back to the upper decks, but unfortunately, he saw the couples' faces through a tiny window in a door.

"Oh sh-!" Jack began, and before long the couple are being chased once more, until they arrived into the roaring fan room, after locking out Lovejoy. They soon climbed down a ladder, leading them down to Boiler Room 6. There Lead Stoker Frederick Barrett told then to get out of there, as it is no place for passengers. Inside the boiler room the 'black gang' watched the couple race around, and Jack telling them "Carry on, don't mind us. You are doing a great job." Eventually they come to a cargo hold, the same one he and Jesse were in a few days prior. There, they go to the burgundy Renault.

"Ah, look what we have here, huh." he says to Rose. Jack nearly tears up, and a lump soon formed in his throat, as he remembered seeing Jesse working on the thing, they both even got it to run for a short time. The flashlight still remained nearby, on top of the boxes, exactly where they had left it. Jack looks at the car passionately, until Rose fakes a clearing of her throat. Jack snaps out, then opens the door for her. He helps her in like a gentleman, and Rose replies "Thank you". Jack climbs in the front, then trying to find the ignition, then Rose slides a window down behind him. He instead playfully honks the horn "Where to, Miss?"

"To the stars." With that Rose drags Jack into the back seat, while he kicks something in the process. They look at each other for a long time, finally Jack asks "You nervous?" with voice quavering. After a while, in a quiet yet barely audible voice Rose says "No." Then she kisses Jack's hands, then saying, "Put your hands on me, Jack". They go into a very deep passionate kiss, and into a steamy bliss.

Jesse finally arrives back to his cabin, just as his friends were turning in for the night, like any other. The Norwegian man takes off his heavy boots before crawling under his covers. Eric and Karl were long since sleeping, and Eric snoring loudly as ever. Jesse sits in his bunk, then pulls out his sketchbook between his bed and wall, and settles in his bed to start drawing.

…

The Californian, long since stopped, now acts as an ice patrol, which was still warning unsuspecting ships in the area to be on the lookout for icebergs. In Titanic's Marconi room, Jack Phillips tell the Californian operator to shut up, as they are interfering with incoming and outgoing messages meant for the passengers to Cape Race. The radio operator continues to listen as Titanic's radio operator continues to send messages to Cape Race.

"Well, its time I got a bit of shuteye." he says, before turning in for the night, and shuts down his equipment, a huge mistake that would be made that night.

A few minutes later, Groves keeps eye out for any impending bergs, until something catches his eye of the Californian's starboard side. He grabs his glasses, then sees twinkling lights in the distance.

"Hmm." he says, before putting the glasses away. He makes his way to the captain's quarters.

"Yes." The captain says, after Groves acknowledges his presence at his cabin door, then enters.

"There's a big ship coming off the starboard, sir." The captain straightens out in bed, groans, then says, "How far away is she?"

"Maybe ten miles." says Groves.

"Well, better find out who she is, I suppose. Contact them with a Morse." the captain says, before turning over back in bed.

"Right, sir." Groves leaves the captain's quarters once more.

…

After their steamy relationship in the car, the couple knew sooner or later they had to get out of that car, as Jack saw two stewards poking around in the cargo hold, but luckily for them, they were still near the boiler room entrance. They quickly got dressed, quietly got out of the car, and hid out in the cargo hold, carefully hiding among the boxes and crates. There they see two stewards, one pointing to the back window, as he saw the handprint, then he knew where to proceed. They quickly but quietly took off running, after hearing a "Gotcha!" behind them. It turns out the stewards were trying to catch the couple, only to get an empty seat of the car instead. They only hung back long enough to get the stewards' reaction to an empty seat.

Up in the captain's bridge officers were trying to look for the binoculars, but they had no luck finding them.

"Did you ever find those glasses for the lookouts?" Moody asked as he walked in, then pouring himself a warm cup of tea.

"No, we haven't seen them since Southampton." Another officer says.

"They were in a box, but its locked, and I don't have a key to it." They suddenly remembered White Star had shuffled officers the last minute back at Southampton, and that particular officer had mistakenly took the keys, along with his personal belongings, during his last minute removal before Titanic's maiden voyage. While his officers tried to look for the key, Murdoch walks from the bridge and goes outside, rubbing his hands and trying to breathe into them, trying to keep warm, until the couple bangs open a door below, as they emerged laughing. Murdoch decides to keep watch as the happy couple below exchange warm embraces and kisses. Back inside the wheelhouse, the helmsman kept his composure, holding the wheel. Moody looks over the ship's vitals, making sure everything is still in order. The other officers kept a sharp lookout through the windows, as if to help the lookouts too.

After the lookouts were engaged in the couples' escapades, they turn their attention back to the sea, only to find something truly horrifying. There, in front of them, a giant growler; with three finger-like ice jutted from the massive berg, it looks like a hand from the ocean, as if it might grab the Titanic and take it down (instead of James Cameron's generic iceberg). The lookouts ring the bell, then phones the bridge.

"Pick up, you bastards!" he seethed through the mouthpiece. Murdoch suddenly goes to attention. Inside the bridge, Moody flips the earpiece.

Fleet: "Is there anyone there?"

"Yes, what did you see?"

"Iceberg right ahead!" Frederick Fleet yells.

"Thank you."

Murdoch runs inside, nearly bumping into Moody as he was having his tea, as they both yell at the helmsman. "Hard-a starboard!" The helmsman turns, to port, a fatal mistake. He runs over to a telegraph, to reverse the engines. Down at the engine room, the telegraph rings. Joseph Bell and another officer were about to have a snack when they look over at the thing. He drops his fresh-off-the-stove snack.

"Full astern!" he yells, not aware of the actual situation that is unraveling at this point. There is confusion as the men run around. Earlier they were at full ahead, now they need to reverse engines, not knowing they were in the middle of the Atlantic, ready to hit an iceberg. One cranks a wheel, dropping steam pressure, and as he does, a light blinks in Boiler Room 6, as it gets Barrett's attention. He immediately yells out, "Shut all the dampers! Shut them!" The 'black gang' all immediately drop the coals to close the doors to the fires, using their shovels. Meanwhile back in the engineering room, the person continually drops the steam pressure, until the engines slow to a stop.

"Hold, it. Hold it." the Chief Engineer tells him. "Now! Engage the reversing engine!" Another engineer pulls a lever, jolting the ship as he does, and the reciprocating engines slowly spin the opposite directions, while the turbine engine stops. The giant ship was headed for an even bigger disaster against the biggest berg seen. Murdoch whispers to himself "Turn. Turn. Turn." as the giant rudder slowly turns the ship. Beads of sweat dot his brow, heart pounding, his breathing increasing, hoping that the ship would miss it. Inside, a few people mingle about in the reception room, while another takes a glass to pour himself some wine. Jack's friends were already out for the night, and in Jesse's cabin, his friends were also out for the night, with a loud snore coming from Eric, but Jesse was up, still intent on his sketching. Back up on deck, an officer is on the bow, where Jack usually hangs out at times, keeps track as how far the iceberg is. To his horror the iceberg looms.

"It's going to hit!" he yells, then jumps out of the way. Titanic suddenly runs into the berg, scraping it sides and tearing holes into its hull well below the waterline. There is a sudden jolt. Jack and Rose break from their kissing, wondering what is going on. Down below decks Fabrizio and his friends wake up, as does Jesse's friends. Jesse looks up as the ship's shuddering messes up his drawing. He furrows his brow. "What's going on?" he asks, as his friends all sat upright in their bunks, looking around and at each other.

"Did we lose a propeller blade again?" he began to wonder, as he was reminded about the time he was on the Olympic again. They were leaving New York, just a couple months prior, when suddenly, the same shuddering was felt, as the Olympic lost a propeller blade, somewhere in the Atlantic, and they vibrated along to Southampton. This was just two days after leaving port. Meanwhile, a steward setting the table in one of the dining rooms when the ship began shuddering, as he looks around, and to the stacked glasses clinking each as the ship continually scrapes along the iceberg. Back on deck Jack looks up, horrified as the 'finger' of the iceberg looms above him. Pieces of the ice soon rain down from the resulting vibration.

"Look out!" Jack yelled, moving himself and Rose out of harm's way, as more pieces of ice rains down on the men in front of them, who were unfortunate to be in harm's way, followed by a series of booms. As the ship continues to scrape the berg, Mr. Andrews looks up, his light fixture jingling as he felt the ship shudder also. This shuddering was enough to wake the captain from his slumber.

"Hard to port!" Murdoch yells. The helmsman turns to starboard, porting around the iceberg.

…

This is just a historical background on the watertight compartments, and the unfortunate damage the ship suffered.

Murdoch then goes to a panel to close the watertight doors. He turns a handle, and cranks a lever, causing the 15 massive, one ton doors to close, which are controlled from the bridge, so that any four front compartments (at the time), if filled with water, assuming the ship doesn't go too fast, will stay afloat. Meanwhile, Barrett yells at his firemen, "Get under the doors! They're closing the doors!"

Unfortunately, the iceberg caused further damage, resulting in 6 compartments flooding, including Boiler Room 6 and a coal bunker. The coal bunker defeats the watertight process, as the water leaks through the delivery chute between Boiler Rooms 5 and 6.

These doors take 30 seconds to fully close, 30 seconds the Titanic no longer had, as water comes gushing in from the wounded hull.

…

Captain Smith walks in, asking what had happened. Murdoch told him they tried to avoid hitting the berg, by attempting to port around it. Instead, they were a little late and brushed the side, resulting in damages to the ship. The captain's eyes grew wide in horror at the news, his face flushing. It was during this time the captain orders a damage assessment be carried out to see if the ship could still be sea worthy. Mr. Ismay walks in, in his night pajamas, robe and slippers, wondering what has happened as well. He had been awakened by the ship's shuddering, and the noises of the engines soon stopped. The captain informed him they had hit an iceberg and may not be able to carry on as expected. Thomas Andrews soon enters the room with his plans, then unrolls one of them on the captain's desk, showing the full plan of the ship.

"Four compartments can flood, right? But here we have 6 flooded, including Boiler Room 6, and the coal bunker. I have been told that Boiler Room 5 has been flooded, but I cannot confirm. This ship doesn't have much time. As she goes down by the head, the water will spill over the tops of the bulkheads. At E deck. From one to the next. Back and back. There's no stopping it."

"But this ship cannot sink…" Mr. Ismay began.

"She's made of iron, sir! I'm sure she will. It's just a matter of time, a mathematical certainty." Mr. Andrews fires back. Mr. Ismay and Captain Smith soon talk in private. He urges the captain to continue on course, despite the damage. Eventually, Smith caves in, and proceeds to stand by to alter the course.

Back down in steerage Jesse pokes his head out the door, as the commotion wakes the people up, while others began wandering the corridors, and shouting in their languages. He could hear the mighty engines down below slowly wind to a stop. Eric jumps down from his bunk, while Karl keeps tabs with Magnus, as to the status of the ship, as he listens to Jesse and Eric.

"Do you think we've lost a blade again?" he asked, as if reading Jesse's mind. Meanwhile, Karl translates to Magnus, while he listens to his friends talk by the door.

"Could be. I mean it felt the same as being back on the Olympic again. Even the engines have stopped. Its probably just a precaution, perhaps. But in the meantime, let's just sit back and see where this goes." Jesse says, as he closes the door. Eric felt uneasy, but he managed to jump back to his top bunk, and exhales deeply while Jesse went to the sink to wash up.

Unbeknownst to him, down below the ship was taking in water at an exponential rate, thus sealing Titanic's fate.

A/N I've seen K-drama slowly sneak their way into Titanic's stories, so here's my impression of my character 'Jesse' might look in the picture. Credit goes to whomever took the beautiful picture. And thanks for reading. Please read and review.