Titanic 1912: A Lovecraft Mythos Novel Page 9

  “We saw and heard them. Be glad you never saw the things,” Jenny said.

  “Yes Ma’am. I am. The water nearly trapped me, and I was so afraid of what might be in it, so I climbed a ladder to D and then ran up here. I do not know if I can get a seat.”

  “Go try. Make haste.”

  Murdock had finished loading the women and could find no more waiting. Several men stepped forward and asked if they might have a seat. Berk Pickard asked as well, “I can row a boat, Sir.”

  Murdock motioned them to board. To the officer’s relief, a few more women came forward to join the group on boat nine. Other women declined and walked away, in a daze.

  A steward settled Cissy Maioni into a lifeboat as she wept bitterly, begging him to join her. He said he could not go and handed her his White Star badge and kissed her forehead.

  He went down with the ship and while she told the story later, saying they met onboard, fell deeply in love, and planned to marry, she never revealed his name. One of the most interesting parts of her story, aside from her love affair, was that she came under the direction of the Countess of Rothes, who took command of the lifeboat and had every woman rowing for her life. The women worked so hard at rowing and did so for so long that Cissy’s long, beautiful hair caught on the sides, broke off, and tore from her scalp so that she was all but unrecognizable.

  Mr. Guggenheim brought his mistress and her maid to the boat and saw her seated but declined to join them, “I shall take it as a man, not a beast. My valet and I shall take off our life belts, dress in our finest, have cigars and brandy, and behave like a gentleman. I won’t be a coward. Tell my wife I was a man.”

  “Sir, please….” Murdoch offered.

  “I will have none of it. I am a gentleman, Sirs. Allow me my honor.”

  He gave them all a wave and walked away.

  “Why must a gentleman give his life when he can save it? If there were no room, I understand, but there is room for him,” Jenny complained.

  “It is part of their code of honor, Jenny,” Peter Cavendar tried to explain, but he knew she did not understand because neither did he.

  “That is all? We must load any women who will go. Ladies?” Murdoch yelled, “Please, come get aboard.”

  Two more women approached, demanding their male escorts go with them as well.

  Murdoch shook his head and said, “We need only women, now. I am sorry, Dr. Pain.” He could not fill the boat with men after Mr. Guggenheim had said what he had. The women got into the boat but cast Murdoch dirty looks.

  “Why can’t they go?”

  Haines, in charge told them, “They cannot. If I allowed it, they might shoot me, and then someone else would be in charge, and they still would not allow those fellows aboard.

  Arguing and cursing, some men demanded to get aboard, and Jennie saw the difference in manners and understood a little more. Running across the ship to the port side, the men tried to board there, but Lightoller waved them away with his pistol, calling them cowards as he lost his temper and felt helplessness envelope him.

  Suddenly, everyone wanted aboard a boat.

  When a crowd of crewmen tried to rush boat fourteen, one of Lightoller’s men, Lowe, fired into the air, and when a man ran aboard and hid under a seat, he was dragged out, punched, and left upon the deck.

  Another man, desperate, hid beneath a woman’s shawl and slipped into the boat.

  It was almost 1:30, just shy of two hours since the ship had hit the iceberg.

  “Have you noticed that every boat is filled now? The first ones were less than half full, and these are at capacity or over,” Stead said, “and look around at how many are on the boat deck now. It is getting crowded.”

  “They should have been up here getting into the boats,” Howard remarked, “but no one seemed concerned.”

  “I think if Captain Smith had asked them to come along, they would have. I think he is close to going mad. Maybe he already is.”

  “Auntie Annie, Auntie Delora,” Howard called, seeing them, “hurry and get aboard. I thought you had already gone. Hurry now.”

  “This is silly. It is cold out here, and the boat is over-full,” Annie complained.

  Delora reached for Howard, “You will be with us?”

  “I cannot. Its women and children, but you go ahead. Ummm, I shall be along shortly with the others.” He used the same lie the other men had used.

  “Poppycock. Just come along now,” Delora said. Her eyes were large with fear, “and we will all be together. I am so sorry I teased you for your morbidity and dread as your worries have come to pass. I am frightened, Howard.”

  “Oh Auntie, here at the last hour, I have found I am not a coward and can make a difference, but I’ve also seen…things…horrible things, and if I were to write about them and tell the world, I would make a change in men’s thoughts. It is a shame all is found at the final hour.”

  “You are being dreary, Howard. I cannot believe you still talk of writing silly things and refuse to get on the boat,” Delora said, and she turned her face away, refusing to look at him again since he would not come with them.

  Annie nodded and kissed her fingers to her lips and held out her arm, waved the kisses to his cheek in her mind.

  Joseph Laroche settled his wife and two lovely daughters into a boat, tucking blankets about them.

  “Go with us, Joseph,” Juliette begged. She was pregnant, scared, and worried about the girls. They had not been able to book an earlier ship to Haiti where Joseph was from because the ship line did not accept children as passengers.

  “You know I cannot,” he said as he smiled. They were second-class passengers. “We are fortunate second class can get a seat, Juliette. Think of the girls.”

  “But there is room.”

  “Room for more women and children,” he reminded her. If nothing else, he was a well-educated man with a degree in engineering from France, “So just go, and be safe. I shall catch a later boat and meet you aboard our rescue ship.”

  Juliette looked around, “They will let you….”

  Sadly, Joseph got to the point, “No men. And love, certainly a black man will not be given a seat as rich white men are staying. You know this. Now go and take care, and I shall see you….” He stepped away and forced himself to turn his back and walk away until he was lost in the crowd and could no longer hear her calling his name.

  In one seat sat a woman named Alice who had been brought to the boat by the family chauffeur, Mr. Swane. When the trouble began, Alice went below decks to get the family maid, cook, and chauffer, carrying the youngest of the family’s children, Trevor, who was but eleven months old. Mr. Swane made sure the cook and maid got aboard a life boat and then helped Alice and Master Trevor Allison aboard Boat 11, tucking them in warmly.

  She did not know the child’s parents were desperately searching for Trevor and would never leave the ship.

  Daniels saw a young girl with a blanketed bundle. “Oh, the child must go.” He took the bundle and tossed it to one of the women in the lifeboat.” Get aboard, too.”

  Edith Rosenbaum stomped her foot with fury, “I don’t want to get into that terrible boat. You’ve taken my pig!” She climbed into the boat to retrieve her toy pig, but Murdoch had the boat lowered before the woman could get out with her stuffed toy.

  Daniels chuckled and shrugged at his friends.

  Stead patted his back, “Good show.”

  “It seems we are almost out of time.” John Astor approached the small group.

  “Oh Sir, we will find room for you,” Daniels began.

  “I fear it is too late. Mr. Lightoller has a gun, and he and his men will shoot any man trying to board,” he chuckled. “When this occurred, I made light of it and said being on the ship was safer than getting into a life boat, silly things that they are.”

  “No one could believe it, Sir,” Howard said.

  “Oh, but you warned me. My folly, it seems,” Astor said.

  “Maddy an
d I sat on the mechanical horses in the gym, and I opened a life belt with my little knife to show her the inside and how it was made. She was quite interested,” Astor said.

  “Where is Mrs. Astor?” Jenny asked.

  “I saw her to boat four but was declined in my request to join her. She is in a delicate condition, you see. Ah, but I told her I would see her when we were rescued, and thus, I lied most admirably to her.”

  “Come with us to Murdoch’s side. He will let us all on,” Howard said. He had said that so many times now, and no one had accepted the invitation.

  “I think not, the public opinion and all. I will be a gentleman and maybe catch a later boat, but you young people must go on and board.” He paused. “I saw a man hand over two children but not board.

  And when the boat was on the water, do you know that eight men, in a panic, jumped into the water. Seven swam over and were taken in, Poor, cold devils. But the eighth one, you won’t believe me….” Stead cocked an eyebrow,

  “I bet we will, Sir, as we’ve seen many impossibilities this night.”

  Astor listened for a moment to the band that had moved to the upper deck to play gay ragtime tunes.

  “Lovely. Oh, I saw these rope-like things appear only they were greenish and at the end of each appendage, there were seven or eight…they had a toothy mouth like that of some dog, all canines and biting force. It was terrible, and the poor bastard was pulled under as the boat was rowed away. From my vantage, I could see the pool of blood that rose in bubbles.”

  “Oh,” John Morton said.

  “Yes. Impossible and monstrous, and I hope not to meet the owners of such appendages, but it was very curious. I think now to forget such a thing; I shall go have the finest whiskey I can find.”

  “But, Sir….” Howard began.

  “Sir, I fear some of my writing long ago do indeed have a place in reality. I hope within your writing that you shall warn and educate, but do not let them cross over.”He tipped his hat and walked away calmly.

  “I fear I should never meet another gentleman like John Astor,” John Morton declared.

  “I agree,” Stead remarked.

  The group hurried over to Murdoch who was shouting at a group of determined stewards and gritty third-class men who had decided to rush the boat and try to take it.

  Seawater rushed over A deck.

  Fifteen hundred people were still aboard. Two men, Howard, and his friends who did not know ran to help. With all of them working together, they held the men back so women could board the boat. The pair of unknown men pulled stewards and other men out who tried to crawl under the seats and punched them in their faces. “Let the ladies get aboard.”

  One of the officers began firing his gun; he hit his targets a few times, and those wounded scuttled away. Most of the cowards ran away from the loading area. Murdoch thanked those who had helped him and asked them to stay in case it happened again.

  Bruce Ismay, the owner of White Star Shipping, appeared again, still in his bedclothes, but he brought blanket-wrapped children in his arms, and more women and children followed him like a pied piper. He climbed aboard, holding the children, and sat down with the women. He looked to be in shock.

  Howard and John wondered what the poor man had seen as he rescued the women and children.

  “Any more women? Anyone?” Murdoch called out. No one responded, and he motioned the group to climb aboard, “You can row. I need rowers for this boat, and I have no Able Seaman to put into the boat.”

  Howard, John, Jenny, and Peter, along with the other two men who could help, settled into the boat named C.Howard got in because he had to write about all he had seen; he had to tell the world.

  John Morton went aboard because he had waded in the icy water, and he knew he would suffer being called a coward and live without respect, but he would not go into the horrible below-freezing water again.

  Peter Cavendar went with his daughter, knowing that she would never go without him.

  “Wait. What is this? Get in the boat,” John demanded of his other friends.

  The Perry brothers, Edward and James declined with proud looks. “We have got to see if we can get any more women up here and make sure that when the ship goes down, we have something to float upon. We have a lot of work, yet.”

  “It is not your job,” Howard said.

  James shrugged, “We can do it well, though. We will get deck chairs and more life belts, and maybe we can help save more people. We are good at these things.”

  “Stead, come on,” Peter Cavendar called out, “you have no call to stay. Come with us and be done.”

  “I can’t. I have to see the rest from here; I am curious, and I may be of help. You go write stories, Howard. It is your turn to labor at writing, and I think you have quite a bit to tell, now. Go write, publish, and be great at it.”

  “Don’t be silly, Stead.” Peter Cavendar clenched his jaw.

  “We shall get tables and use them as little rafts, and you shall see us floating, and in a bit, the rescue ships will arrive. I shall see you then.” He waved and walked away before they could argue with him further. He paused and turned back with a wicked grin.

  Jenny wept against her father’s shoulder.

  Stead held his arms wide and said, “My destiny.”

  Daniels shook his head. “I have a ship. I am a steward, and my job, I shall do. An hour ago, I was weak and simple, but my adventures with you have made me sure of myself and ready to do my job expertly. Thank you, Sirs, but I never expected to leave the ship.”

  The boat was lowered.

  Chapter Seven: Facts

  The men, who stayed with the boilers to keep the lights on, drown in the bottom decks.

  Five grand pianos, a marmalade machine, 3,500 bags of mail, a Renault automobile, thirty crates of Spaulding equipment, a copy of the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayym embedded with 1,500 precious stones set in gold, and four cases of opium, all were lost in the lower decks.

  Those in third class and second class, who were unable to get to the boat deck because of creatures or locked gates, drown in their rooms, some curled up on the beds, holding one another. Some of crew did as well.

  Thomas Andrews, the architect of the Titanic sat in the smoking room and stared into space as he met his end. He was sorely disappointed in the outcome of the voyage.

  Captain Smith relieved the men in the Marconi room and told them, “It is every man for himself.” His eyes were far away. He stayed on the bridge.

  John Astor and a few of his friends dressed in elegant eveningwear, some alone and some with their wives, enjoyed spirits, and many of the men smoked cigars. They sat in chairs on the deck and listened to the band play.

  None of the orchestra survived.

  Eight thousand cigars were lost.

  As A deck flooded at the bow, everyone ran to the stern on A or to the stern on the boat decks.

  There were 1,500 souls left on the ship, and hundreds were on the upper decks running, pushing, falling. Some were crushed under hundreds of feet. The bow dipped into the water. The band stopped playing.

  Boats A and B slipped off the hooks and fell into the water as the forward funnel broke off, crushing all who were forward of it. Massive, it fell and sent A and B boats adrift, and it washed the lifeboats that had just been lowered, away from the ship. A few people who had fallen into the water or had not run to the stern, were mashed. Blood and flattened people were tossed about on the oil-slicked water.

  The unusually calm and mild weather had caused the glaciers to break apart, and that was why there were ice fields. On the other hand, the calm water was better for those in the lifeboats as they were not tossed by rough waves.

  Less than one-third of all who were aboard were survivors.

  One of the most tragic events was that Bessie and Loraine Allison were on Boat Six and left when Bessie heard her husband, Hudson, was on another boat. As she searched, she found him. Together they searched all over for their son, Trevor, feari
ng he was lost in the crowd.

  When the last boat was lowered, and just before the waters rushed over the deck, Hudson and Bessie came upon their chauffeur, George Swane who told them he had taken care of the maid and cook and then sent the nurse, Alice, in boat eleven. Trevor was safely in her arms.

  “Oh my, we are not aboard a boat, and it is too late,” Bessie said softly.

  “Oh, Bessie,” Hudson soaked her cheek with his tears. His wife and young daughter would die, along with him.

  “Thank you, George. My handsome son is safe,” Bessie said, “and, Hud, we are together. God grant us peace as we make this journey together.” In her husband’s arms, Bessie stood, holding Loraine. George Swane stood on Bessie’s other side protectively. She nuzzled her baby daughter and looked out onto the sea with a smile.

  Loraine was the only child from First Class to perish; Bessie was one of only four women from First Class to lose her life.

  Several chickens and a rooster were lost, as well as a pet canary. As many as ten dogs drown, and when the boats gathered the remains of those who died, they found a drowned woman still holding on to her dog; she had stayed with her pet until the end.

  The Titanic’s mascot, a cat named Jenny, was lost, along with her week-old litter of kittens.

  The US and British inquiries agreed that too few lifeboats were onboard, but put the blame, mostly on Captain Smith, citing the excessive speed of the ship, a failure to heed ice warnings, and insufficient training for the use of life boats.

  Within twenty minutes, almost all of the survivors who floated on the ocean water were dead. However, oddly, three men were rescued almost an hour after going into the water, making for a true mystery of how this was possible. By crawling up on some wreckage, they survived.

  One was a Japanese man who had tied himself to a door. Waves washed over him, and he was almost frozen solid. The officer in charge, Lowe, remarked that it was only a ‘Jap’ and was not worth the effort, but he changed his mind, and they pulled the man into the boat.

  As soon as the man was out of the water, he rallied himself, and seeing that one of the oarsmen was weak and injured, he pushed him aside and took the oar himself, rowing expertly.