The Titanic Mission

by Dan Gutman

  “All passengers on deck, with life belts on,” he announced. “Repeat. All passengers on deck immediately with life belts on.”

  The passengers in the lounge were not happy that their meals had been interrupted.

  “What’s going on?” a white-haired man asked.

  “It’s just an exercise, sir,” the steward told him. “Nothing to be alarmed about.”

  “An exercise at this hour?” somebody else grumbled. “That’s preposterous!”

  “It’s outrageous!” a matronly lady said. “I’m going to write a strongly worded letter of complaint to the White Star Line. They can’t treat us like this.”

  “I paid good money for this trip!” somebody else said as they stormed out of the lounge.

  “It’s happening,” Isabel whispered to the others as they got up from their seats. “We’d better get out of here.”

  While the stewards were reassuring passengers that everything was fine, telegraphers in the radio room were furiously tapping out this message . . .

  . . . – – – . . .

  . . . – – – . . .

  Three dots represents the letter S. Three dashes represents the letter O. SOS. Save Our Ship. Or sometimes, Save Our Souls.

  By this time, Captain Smith had assessed the damage. He knew the Titanic was going down, and he knew it wouldn’t be long. He gave the order to signal other ships in the area to come quickly. But he didn’t want the passengers to panic.

  The Flashback Four left the lounge and went out on the deck. There was a flurry of activity out there now. People were milling around, some of them wearing pajamas and many of them wearing life jackets. Just about all of them looked sleepy and confused.

  “Nothing to be alarmed about,” a member of the crew announced. “We’re just taking a few safety precautions.”

  “You woke us from a good night’s sleep for this?” complained a woman holding her crying baby.

  Just then, another cloud of steam blasted out of the ship’s funnels. One of the boilers down below had flooded with ice-cold salt water.

  Suddenly, a small rocket shot high in the air and exploded with a bang and a burst of bright blue light. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare up at the sky. Even the babies stopped crying to get a look.

  But this wasn’t the start of a fireworks show for the amusement of the children on board. It was a distress rocket, fired in the hope that somebody, anybody, on another ship would see it and come to the rescue.

  There was no hiding the truth now. Titanic was sinking, and everybody on board knew it.

  “Get on your life vests!” shouted a steward urgently. “There’s trouble ahead!”

  CHAPTER 10

  ALL HANDS ON DECK

  IT WAS APRIL 15 NOW, AND ALMOST ONE O’CLOCK in the morning.

  For the first time, passengers on board the Titanic could tell the ship was tilted. They could feel something was crooked as they walked along the deck. They could see it, too. The bow was dipping forward and to the right ever so slightly as seawater filled the lower levels and kept rushing in. It was like when you pour water into an ice cube tray and watch it spill over into the other little squares as it tilts.

  A whistle above blew. People were streaming up on the deck by the hundreds now. Some of them were dressed in their evening gowns and fancy finery. Others had on bathrobes or were wrapped in blankets. Some wore boots, and others went barefoot. Nobody had time to get properly dressed. Some carried little dogs or half-asleep children in their arms.

  But all the passengers had one thing in common as they stepped out on the deck—a look of confusion in their eyes. Those who had slept through the initial collision had no idea why the stewards had rushed from cabin to cabin, banging on doors and yelling for everyone to come up on deck right away.

  Gradually, the realization was setting in that something was terribly wrong. But there wasn’t a full-scale panic. Not yet. It was just too hard for people to comprehend that the “unsinkable” Titanic was actually sinking.

  The musicians had been quietly instructed to leave the first-class lounge and go out on deck to play happy music and keep the passengers calm. They set up their instruments and began playing “Oh, You Beautiful Doll.”

  “Everyone up on deck with life belts on!” the stewards hollered through cupped hands. “Hurry! Hurry!”

  “Why do we need to wear life belts?” a grandfatherly-looking gentleman complained. “I thought they said this ship was unsinkable.”

  “Are we sinking?” asked a frightened lady.

  “Of course not, ma’am,” a steward assured her. “Everything will be fine.”

  “You disturbed my sleep for this?” another man complained. “I have a mind to report you, young man.”

  The Flashback Four elbowed their way through the crowd on the deck, trying to move toward the front of the ship.

  “This is it,” David whispered to the others. “This is when it all goes down.”

  “In more ways than one,” Luke whispered back. “Let’s get to the meeting spot, take the picture, and blow out of here. Isabel, maybe you should tell Miss Z what’s happening so she’ll be ready to get us.”

  They moved off to the side for a moment, where passengers were already being escorted into lifeboats, which were lined up along the rail. For a second, the thought crossed Isabel’s mind that maybe they should get into a lifeboat. If anything went wrong with Miss Z and the Board, at least they would survive.

  On the other hand, if they got into a lifeboat now, they could forget about ever going back home to Boston. They would have to live the rest of their lives in the wrong century.

  STARTING TO FILL LIFEBOATS, Isabel texted.

  While she waited for a response from Miss Z, the Flashback Four watched the crew members struggle to maneuver the lifeboat in front of them, which was hanging from thick ropes over the deck. The boat was surprisingly large, about thirty feet long. The White Star Line emblem was on the side.

  There were sixteen lifeboats, eight lined up on each side of Titanic, plus four “collapsible” lifeboats that had canvas sides. Each boat could hold sixty-five people.

  The ship’s designer had recommended that Titanic carry forty-eight lifeboats, which would have held more than three thousand people. That would have been plenty to save all the passengers and crew.

  I don’t need to do the math for you. Twenty lifeboats was not nearly enough. Most of the people on board would not make it, including fifty-two children.

  Why didn’t Titanic carry enough lifeboats? Because somebody—and nobody knows who—decided that forty-eight lifeboats would make the deck of the ship look too crowded. The first-class passengers would not be able to promenade down the deck so easily in their fancy clothes. That would go down in history as one of the dumbest mistakes ever.

  Finally, Miss Z sent a text back . . .

  WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T GET ON A LIFEBOAT.

  “If we get on a boat, she won’t be able to bring us back,” Isabel reminded the others.

  A few people had lined up in front of the nearest boat with their life jackets on. There was no mad dash, no panic. It almost looked like they were lining up to take a leisurely boat ride.

  “Women and children first,” shouted one of the crew members. “Ladies, you may board at this time. Watch your step.”

  This was the age of chivalry, when men opened doors for women and placed jackets over puddles so “the fairer sex” would not have to get their dainty feet wet. As a result, most of the women on the Titanic would survive. Only one out of every five male passengers would be alive the next day.

  “We’ll see you later,” a few husbands said as their wives stepped into the lifeboat and kissed them good-bye. But they never would.

  “Plenty of room,” hollered the steward who was helping to load the boat. “Who’s next?”

  Some people were standing around watching, but only a few of them stepped forward. The lifeboat was only about half full.

 
“Hey, you kids,” the steward shouted at the Flashback Four. “There’s still room for you in this boat. Right up front. Hop in. Quickly.”

  “No, thank you,” Julia told him. “We have other plans.”

  “Suit yourself,” he replied, escorting a few more ladies on board. He tossed a sack of biscuits and emergency supplies into the boat, and then shouted, “Okay, boys, let this one go!”

  For reasons that were never quite explained, many of the lifeboats on the Titanic were launched with less than the maximum capacity of sixty-five passengers. The crew members were in a hurry to get the boats into the water before the ship sank, of course, but there was really no excuse for releasing lifeboats that were just half full. One boat only had twelve people in it. Hundreds more lives could have been saved if all the lifeboats had been filled to capacity. It was one of those many mysteries of the Titanic.

  Hanging from a rope at each end, the boat was lowered in a jerky fashion, first one side and then the other. Each time a part of the boat jerked down, the women and children in it would scream. It looked like the whole thing might flip over and throw them all into the water.

  “Okay, cut the rope!” a crew member shouted once the boat was low enough. Somebody produced a knife, and after a bit of sawing, the boat splashed into the water below.

  The Flashback Four were not the only ones who turned down the chance to get in a lifeboat. As they made their way up the deck past the next boat, many of the women and children standing there were refusing to climb into it.

  “I’ll stay where I am, thank you very much,” said a well-dressed lady. “I feel a lot safer right here than I would be on that little wooden dinghy.”

  Another woman was about to step into the lifeboat when she suddenly changed her mind. “I’m afraid of boats!” she screamed, crying and struggling to climb back on the ship.

  “Madam, what do you think Titanic is?” asked the steward who was trying to assist her.

  The crew was faced with a very difficult job. They were trying to keep everyone calm, but at the same time get everyone off the doomed ship as quickly as possible. And of course, they had their own lives to worry about too.

  “Where is my husband?” begged a crying woman in the lifeboat as she grabbed the sleeve of a steward. “Will there be another boat for the men?”

  “Don’t worry, ma’am, everything will be fine,” he assured her. “We’re using the wireless to contact other ships in the vicinity right now. One will be along very soon to pick up your husband. And Titanic can float for several days, even if she is badly damaged.”

  It was a lie, of course. The truth was that Titanic would be completely underwater in less than an hour. The nearest ship—the Californian—was two hours away, and it wasn’t responding to the distress signals anyway. The nearest ship that did reply to the signal—the Carpathia—was fifty-eight miles away. That may seem quite close, but the Carpathia had a maximum speed of just seventeen miles an hour. It would take more than three hours to get there.

  As the Titanic tilted forward inch by inch, the musicians continued playing popular tunes of the day . . .

  “Glow little glow worm,

  glow and glimmer

  Swim through the sea of night,

  little swimmer . . .”

  Only one more lifeboat stood between the Flashback Four and their meeting spot at the bow of the ship. A steward was trying to convince an older woman with an enormous hat to get into the boat, but she was resisting.

  “Leave me be, young man!” she yelled at him, pulling her arm away. “I will not be separated from my husband.”

  Her husband stood at the rail helplessly, shaking his head from side to side. His name was Isidor Straus, and while you probably don’t know that name, he was quite well-known in his day. Straus was the co-owner of Macy’s, the famous department store in New York. His wife, Ida, pushed the steward away and climbed back on deck.

  “As we have lived,” she said, “so will we die—together.”

  The Flashback Four watched Mr. and Mrs. Straus, fascinated.

  “That’s the most romantic thing I ever saw,” Julia said, wiping away a tear.

  The steward didn’t give up easily. He knew who the Strauses were, and wanted very much to save their lives.

  “I’ll make room for you too, Mr. Straus,” he said. “One seat for each of you. You can be together.”

  “I will not go before the other men,” Mr. Straus replied gallantly, and then he turned on his heel and walked away with his wife, arm in arm.

  The couple would perish together.

  At that moment another couple hurried over to the lifeboat. It was John Jacob Astor and his young wife, Madeleine. This time they had their little dog with them, an Airedale terrier named Kitty. The steward helped Mrs. Astor onto the boat, but put his hand up to prevent Mr. Astor from taking the seat next to her.

  “My wife is in a delicate condition,” Astor explained to the steward. “Perhaps I should be with her.”

  “I’m sorry, sir,” said the steward, who obviously didn’t recognize one of the richest men in the world. “No men or dogs are allowed in these boats until the women and children are loaded on first.”

  Astor flashed a look of anger for a moment, and then resignation.

  “Don’t worry about me, dear,” he called to his wife. “I will get a seat in another boat. I will meet you when we get to New York.”

  Before leaving, Astor pulled off his fur-lined gloves and tossed them, underhand, to his wife.

  “These will keep you warm, dear,” he said.

  “Good-bye, sweetheart,” she replied.

  They would never see each other again.

  As he was walking away with tears in his eyes, John Jacob Astor spotted the Flashback Four off to the side and went right over to them.

  “Tell me again how you knew,” he asked the group. “How did you know the ship was going to strike an iceberg? How did you know it would sink?”

  “We told you,” Luke replied. “We came here from the future with a smartboard that can send people through time.”

  “I didn’t believe you,” Astor said. “Now I do.”

  Mr. Astor was about to walk away, but then he stopped and turned around one more time.

  “So the Boston Red Sox really are going to win the World Series, aren’t they?” he asked.

  Luke nodded his head.

  “Tell me something,” Astor said. “Is this my last night on earth?”

  Luke didn’t know what to say. He looked at David, Julia, and Isabel for advice, but they just shrugged. How do you tell a man he’s going to die in an hour? Luke didn’t want to answer, so he just kept his eyes on the floor.

  “Mr. Astor, we wanted to thank you for the money you gave us,” Julia said, changing the subject. “We had quite a feast, thanks to you.”

  “It was nothing,” Astor said with a sigh. Then he took his wallet from his pocket, pulled out a wad of bills, and handed them to Julia. “Here. I guess you won this fair and square. I won’t be needing it anymore.”

  Then he turned around and walked away slowly.

  Julia almost fainted as she counted the money. Twenty bills, each one of them a hundred.

  “It’s two thousand dollars!” she said. “Do you have any idea what two thousand dollars could buy in 1912?”

  “It’s not going to buy anything if we don’t get out of here,” Luke said.

  “What time is it?” Isabel asked, fully aware that none of them had a working watch. And with the ship about to sink, it didn’t seem appropriate to stop somebody and ask the time of day.

  “Come on,” David urged. “It doesn’t matter what time it is. We gotta get to the meeting spot.”

  Julia stashed the bills in her pocket. In Isabel’s pocket, the TTT buzzed. There was a message from Miss Z . . .

  HOW DOES IT LOOK? ARE YOU READY TO TAKE THE PICTURE?

  Luke took out the camera and looked around. The deck was definitely tilted. People were hustling aro
und in the background. It wouldn’t be a great picture of the ship actually sinking, but it would have to do. If they waited until the last minute to snap a picture, it might be too late.

  “Tell her I’m about to shoot it,” Luke told Isabel as he got down on one knee to improve the angle and steady himself.

  This was the whole reason they had accepted the mission—to take a photo of the Titanic as it was sinking. It would be the only photo of its kind in the world. Luke had to get it right.

  But as he was about to push the shutter, two stewards grabbed David and Julia by their arms.

  “You kids!” one of them yelled. “What are you standing around here for? You should be in the boats!”

  “Where are your life jackets?” shouted the other one. “Every cabin has life jackets. Where are yours?”

  There was no time to fool around. David punched one of the stewards with his free hand and Julia kneed the other one in the groin. Isabel started kicking and Luke got up to help his friends.

  “Leave us alone!” Julia screamed, poking one of the stewards in the eye. “We’re not getting into a lifeboat, so buzz off!”

  The “fight” didn’t last long. If people don’t want to be saved, you can’t force them.

  “Have it your way!” one of the stewards shouted. “You can die here if you want to!”

  The Flashback Four ran away, rushing toward the meeting spot at front of the ship. Time was running short now. The water was starting to lap across parts of the deck, so it was getting wet and slippery. And the water was cold, below freezing. Patches of ice were forming here and there.

  “Don’t stop and talk to anybody,” Luke said as they ran. “We’re running out of time!”

  As they neared the front of the ship, it became obvious that choosing the bow as their meeting spot had been a mistake. The front of the ship filled with water first, so it was tilting down. It would have been smarter to pick a meeting spot at the back of the ship, which was tilting up.

  “Whose bright idea was this?” asked David after he almost slipped on some ice. “The meeting spot might be underwater at this point!”