The freighter S.S. Californian steams along the North Atlantic route, a bit of ways from Titanic, before crews spot ice fields in their direct path.
"Ice ahead, sir!"
Charles Groves, third officer on the Californian, takes notice. Soon, Captain Lord looks over, and tells Groves to stop engines. Soon he joins Captain Lord, as they look out into the dark horizon from the bridge.
"That's field ice, Mr. Groves. I'm not trying to find my way around that until daylight."
"Shall I report it, sir?" Groves asks.
"Yes." Lord says, as he continually looks into the horizon, as he isn't risking running his ship into unforgiving ice fields that were in front of him.
Electrical currents jump a gap as senior wireless operator Jack Phillips sends a message to a place called Cape Race, now within the range of the Titanic. His assistant, junior wireless operator Harold Bride, looks at the piling stack of Marconigrams that are sent in by the ship's purser. He picks up one of the messages, and reads it.
"Look at this one. 'He wants his private train to meet 'im'. La dee da." Bride reads, then continues. "We'll be up all bloody night on this lot." as he puts down the papers.
"You'll be up all bloody night on that lot." Phillips fired back, and smiles, just as the purser comes in with another stack of Marconigrams in his hands. Bride shakes his head, as Phillips yelps, as the freighter S.S. Californian beeps in, which is at a close proximity to Titanic.
"Bloody hell!" he takes his headphones off, and listens, as wireless operator Cyril Evans on board the Californian sends warnings about the icebergs, as they had stopped earlier.
"It's that idiot on the Californian..."
"Tell 'em to sod off." Bride says, as Phillips turns back to his machine.
"I'll do more than that." as he angrily fires off a message, followed by, "Keep out! Shut up! I'm working Cape Race!"
Back on the Californian, Evans takes his headphones off as the beeping of the sparks become deafening.
"Arrogant bastard! I try to warn 'em about the ice and he tells me to 'shut up'. And listen to that spark. He must be right on top of us. Now he's calling Cape Race again."
"What's he sending to Cape Race?" Groves asks.
Evans: "More private stuff. Poker. Business. Good. Al." he sighs. "How 'bout that? Well, its time I signed off and get a bit of shut-eye." he gets up from his chair and soon shuts off his generator, before turning in for the night. Groves makes his way back on deck, as the growlers are nearing the ship.
Titanic steams through the calm, glassy water under a beautiful moonless night sky. Up on the crow's nest are the two lookouts, as they try to brave the cold North Atlantic.
"Its bloody cold! You know, I can smell ice, you know? When its near..." Fleet says, shivering from the icy wind.
"Bollocks!" Lee says, and almost scoffs, but he shakes his head in disgust.
"Well, I can..."
Several decks below, in the cargo hold, Jack and Thomas continue their snuggling in the back seat of the burgundy Renault, but no clothes are taken off. Jack has his feet kicked up on the seat in front of him, and has Thomas' head on his lap, as this time Jack plays and tousles with Thomas' soft hair. Thomas looks up, and puts his finger on Jack's chin, and runs it down his neck. Jack's spine gets tingly, as Thomas slowly runs his fingers down his neck, as if he feels a bit ticklish, and Thomas smiles, as he thought he got Jack's secret ticklish spot. Jack soon bent down, his thick, soft blond hair tickling Thomas' cheek, as he goes in for another passionate kiss. Before long, they are on top of each other, but still fully clothed.
"You're trembling..." Jack says.
"I-I'm fine...its okay." Thomas lays his head down on Jack's chest. "I can feel your heart beating..." Jack hugs Thomas' head to his chest, holding him even closer, as if to protect him at all costs, and that he will do, will all his heart. He strokes Thomas' hair once more, smelling them. This time, it smelled of strawberries and a hint of vanilla. Despite his small body Jack could feel the warmth as it radiated off of Thomas. Thomas could feel the rough hands that Jack also had; hard-working hands, but also, an artist's hands; gentle and caressing.
Cal arrives back to his first class stateroom, before arriving to his safe. He works the combination, and opens. He sees a sketchbook, and proceeds to pull it out, and flip through them. Cal sees mostly French women, in the nude, until he comes to page that Jack had drawn. It made him furious. Inside, was Thomas' portrait, half-nude, and only wearing his Heart of the Ocean, with tousled hair, and his eyes even more intense than before, as if burning through. Cal also sees the note that it had fallen out of the book. It read: 'Now you can keep us both locked in your safe. Thomas.' Cal's face is twisted in a furious rage, as he takes the drawing and the note in both hands as if to rip the offending piece. He almost starts, until he stops himself in time.
"I have a better idea." Cal says.
Back down in the cargo hold a stoker leads two stewards, as he points to where Jack and Thomas had gone to. The stewards move off into the holds, as they shine their beams throughout the cargo hold. One of the stewards see the car's door slightly ajar. He points, and slowly makes their way to the open door. He whips open the door.
"Got'cha!" he shouted, shining the light inside, only to get an empty seat instead.
Theme song: Hard a Starboard-James Horner
Thomas and Jack emerged from one of the crew quarter's door, and they were laughing very hard at the prank Thomas had left for the stewards.
"Did you see the look on their faces..." Jack laughed, until Thomas puts a finger to his mouth. Meanwhile, in the crow's nest, upon hearing the loud commotion coming from below, they peer down to see the two men in the well deck, the same ones they saw from the other day, as they embraced each other. Jack and Thomas stands in each others arms, as their breath blows around in the now cold Atlantic air, but they both don't feel the cold.
"When this ship docks, I'm getting off with you." Thomas says, his arms still around Jack's neck, and puts his head on Jack's forehead.
"This is crazy." he says.
"I know. It doesn't make a lick of sense, and that's why I trust it." Jack pulls Thomas in and kisses him even harder now.
Back up on the crow's nest, Fleet nudges his lookout mate, and points down.
"Would you look at that?"
Lee: "They're a bloody sight warmer than we are."
Fleet pushes his mate away from him, as he tries not to copy the men below them.
"Well, if that's what it takes for us to get warm, I'd rather not, if its all the same to you, alright?" and they both laugh it off, and before long, Fleet loses his happy face, as he looks forward. He takes a double look, and this time, all color from his face drains away. From his point of view, the deadly iceberg looms in front of the ship's prow. Fleet feels for the bell, and rings it three times. Thomas looks up towards the crow's nest, but Jack brings his head back down, while still kissing him with growing passion.
"Bugger me!" He reaches past Lee to get to the bridge telephone, and waits. Inside the bridge, the telephone rings, and the helmsman looks behind him, but is helpless, as he can't leave his post.
"Pick up, you bastards!" Fleet seethed. Sixth officer Moody soon walks into the bridge, with a cup of steaming tea in his hand. He flips the earpiece down and flips the switch.
"Is there anyone there?!" Fleet asks.
Moody: "Yes. What did you see?"
"Iceberg right ahead!" Fleet yells into the mouthpiece.
"Thank you." Soon Murdoch would begin to move, as he runs to the bridge, just as Moody comes out, then tells him' Iceberg right ahead!" and soon they both yell to the helmsman, "Hard a' starboard!" Unfortunately, he turns the giant wheel to port. Murdoch then runs into the telegraph room, and starts ringing to 'Full Astern'. Moody yells from a distance as Hitchens still turns the giant wheel, and slowly, the giant rudder behind the ship slowly moves.
"Turn! Turn smartly!"
Down in the engine room, Chief Engineer Bell is checking on his steaming snack he left on a hot manifold when the bell on the telegraph rings. He looks at the thing, then double takes.
'Full Astern' is pointed. He drops his fresh off the manifold piping hot snack, yelling to all engineers. "Full astern!"
Back on the bridge, Hitchens still turns the wheel, when suddenly, it hits a bump stop.
"Hard over!" he yelled.
"Helm's hard over, sir!" Moody yelled, as Murdoch runs back outside, to check to see if the ship is moving in the intended direction. Soon the telegraphs ring once more. In the engine room, engineers and greasers run like madmen as they scramble to close valves and to slow the mighty propeller shafts to a stop.
"Bring that steam down! Bring it down!" Bell yells from a distance. In boiler room 6, the man that yelled to Jack and Thomas earlier in the evening, Frederick Barrett, chats with an officer, when a red light begins to blink, followed by a STOP indicator.
"Shut all the dampers! Shut them!" Soon, the boiler rooms are in a frenzy, as they dropped coals, and soon, the room is in a rhythm, as stokers close dampers, to extinguish any fires in the furnaces. Back in the engine room Bell yells at an engineer, as he was bringing down the steam pressure, as the giant propellers begin to slow. When the propellers were slow enough, the chief engineer yells. "Engage the reversing engines!" which jolted the ship, neither Thomas nor Jack notice anything amiss. The propellers begin their reverse spin, as they try to bring the behemoth to a stop.
The iceberg continues to loom over the ship, as it turns very slowly to port.
"Why aren't they turning?!" Fleet asks with anxiety. Back below at the bridge Murdoch asks, "Is it hard over?"
"Yes, its hard over! It is, sir!" Moody says, as the ship ever turns so slowly, to prevent a catastrophe. An officer at the bow keeps watch as the berg looms overhead, as the ship seems to turn away from danger, but the officer soon notices something wrong. The ship was still too close, and he runs away, yelling, "Its going to hit!"
Soon Titanic runs into the berg, scraping its sides. Jack and Thomas breaks from their intense kissing.
"What the..." Thomas asks, as he felt the ship continue to shudder under their feet. Thomas soon looks up, and sees the growler sail right past the Titanic. His eyes grew wide with horror, and his mouth dropped, then he sees something rolling down the iceberg, until he realized...
"Get back!" Thomas yells, as he pushes Jack out of harm's way. Pieces of the ice rains down on the deck from the resulting vibration. It strikes a few passengers who were unlucky to be in the path of the incoming ice. Jack was petrified as the ship continued to steam past the iceberg, unbeknownst to them, the damage was done down below.
In the boiler rooms there is a thunderous crash, followed by booms, until suddenly, water begins gushing into the wounded hull. Barrett is nearly swept off his feet as the water splashes throughout the room, and sizzling the boilers, burning some of the stokers in the process. Murdoch soon springs into action, as he runs back inside the wheelhouse, to close the watertight doors.
The large heavy doors begins to come down, along with the alarm ringing, as Barrett soon takes in what is happening all around.
"Come on! Let's go! Get under the doors! They're closing the doors! Get out!" Barrett yelled, as the men sloshed their way through the water logged boiler room.
"Go lads! Go!" he instructed, then he made his escape, just before the large iron door finally closed, leaving only one person behind.
Jack and Thomas runs to the starboard rail just in time to see the berg run along the remaining side of the ship. Other passengers begin to notice the large growler moving past, dangerously close to the ship from their perspective. Back up in the crow's nest Fleet turns back to Lee.
"Oh my God," he panted, as he looks back at the now distant killer berg, hiding back in the darkness, as if retreating to await the ship's final fate, then back to Lee. "That's a close shave, wasn't it?" he asked. Lee grabbed Fleet, disgruntled.
"Smell ice, can you? Bleedin' Christ!" Lee lightly shove Fleet. Back at the forward well deck Jack looks for the iceberg, while Thomas peers dangerously over the rail, as if trying to look for the damage caused by the berg. A passenger grabs Thomas' coattail, to keep him from going overboard. Jack joins him, also trying to look for any signs of damage. Thomas brushes his hair from his eyes, as Jack locks eyes with Thomas, and he had a worried expression.
"Let's just hope its a scrape or something minor." Thomas reassures, but deep down, he could feel something was wrong, much worse.
"I agree. It didn't seem like much of a bump. I'm sure we're okay." he agrees, also brushing his hair away from his eyes.
In the bridge, Captain Smith rushes into the room, throwing on his uniform.
"What was that, Mr. Murdoch?" he asked.
"An iceberg, sir. I put her hard a starboard and run the engines full astern, but its too close. I tried to port 'round it, but she hit..."
"Close the watertight doors." Smith ordered.
"The doors are closed, sir." Murdoch followed Smith to the starboard cab wing, where he peered over the side of the ship, before proceeding to look towards the bow, where Jack and Thomas were standing, as Thomas examines the piece of ice he had in his hand.
"Touch." Thomas says, his hair coyly covering his right eye, and holding the ice in front of him. Jack touches the frozen ball of ice before he quickly withdrew his hand with a yelp. Thomas laughed, then slowly puts his tongue to the ice.
"You're going to get stuck to it." Jack chuckled, as Thomas slowly took the ice off his tongue, before chucking it back to the sea, and watches it float next to the ship.
"Find the carpenter! Get him to sound the ship!" Smith says, still watching as Thomas brushes his hair away from his right eye, then their eyes meet again.
"Yes, sir!" Murdoch says, then he disappeared into the ship.