The Titanic Mission

by Dan Gutman

  “You put one foot on that boat and you’ll be a dead man!” the steward warned the man with the cane.

  “I’ll be dead for sure if I stay here,” he replied. But he backed away with his hands in the air.

  Finally, the Flashback Four advanced to the front of the line.

  “That’s sixty-five,” the steward announced. “Sorry, folks. This one’s full. Lower it down, fellows.”

  “What?! No!”

  “Oh, come on!”

  “Where are we supposed to go now?”

  David had a look of panic in his eyes. It was looking more and more like he was going to end up in the water. People were getting crazy. It seemed like there might be a riot.

  “There must be another boat!” Luke whispered to his friends.

  “What’s the use?” Julia groaned. “There are too many people and not enough boats.”

  “Somebody’s gonna get on them,” Luke replied. “We’ve got as good a chance as anybody else. Come on!”

  He pushed his way through the crowd, and the rest of the Flashback Four followed, looking desperately in all directions for another lifeboat.

  By this time, there were a lot of men on the Titanic who had given up on the thought of being rescued and were resigned to their fate. There was a line of them standing at the rail, looking hopelessly at the water as their wives and children were rowed away in lifeboats. Some of them were praying or sobbing.

  John Jacob Astor, one of the richest men in the world, stood next to a third-class passenger who didn’t have a penny to his name. Both of them looked forlornly at the rising water. The eighteen cars that Astor owned were not going to matter now. In the end, there are some things money can’t buy.

  Isidor Straus, the millionaire owner of Macy’s, was sitting on a deck chair holding hands with his wife, Ida. They had decided to stay together, no matter what.

  A group of well-dressed men sat at a table smoking cigars and playing cards as if nothing unusual was going on around them. Their lives were essentially over and they knew it. They’d decided to go out in style. They were drowning their sorrows with alcohol.

  Standing by himself, bent over with both hands on the rail, was Edward Smith, the captain of the Titanic. It was his ship. He had been in charge. There was a lot of blame to go around, but the safety of the ship, the passengers, and the crew had been his responsibility.

  Smith appeared to be lost in thought, and it wasn’t hard to imagine what was running through his mind: If only he hadn’t ignored the multiple warnings of icebergs in the area. If only the lookouts had binoculars with them. If only he had been on the bridge when the iceberg was spotted. If only he hadn’t issued the order to travel at top speed in his haste to get to New York in record time. If only he had insisted that Titanic carry enough lifeboats for all the passengers.

  If only.

  Back home in England, he had a wife and a fourteen-year-old daughter waiting for him. They would never see him again.

  “There’s another lifeboat!” Isabel shouted, pointing up the slanted deck. “Let’s go!”

  There were so many people on the port side of the ship that Titanic had started to lean in that direction. It looked as though it might roll over and throw off everybody who was left on it. The Flashback Four struggled to get over to the lifeboat Isabel had spotted.

  “Another ship will be here to pick you up soon!” a crew member shouted through a megaphone. “For now, we need to steady the deck. All passengers please move to starboard side.”

  But nobody made a move to go. Word had gotten around that all the lifeboats on the starboard side were gone.

  In fact, there was only one more lifeboat left on this side of the ship. A crowd of desperate people converged around it. It was five minutes after two o’clock now. Things were not looking good for the Flashback Four.

  “Please?” a woman begged the steward who was loading the lifeboat. “I have a baby.”

  “There must be a hundred people here,” Julia told her friends. “No way we’re going to get on.”

  She, Isabel, and David looked at Luke, as if he would have some simple solution to get out of this predicament. As it turned out, he did.

  “I have a plan,” he whispered to Julia. “Give that guy the thousand dollars.”

  “What?” she replied. “Are you crazy?”

  “Bribe him,” Luke told her. “If you slip him the money, maybe he’ll put us in front of the line.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” said David.

  “I’m not giving him the thousand dollars,” Julia said. “It’s all the money I have left.”

  “An hour ago you didn’t have any money at all,” Luke reminded Julia.

  “But we’re gonna need that money to live on after we get rescued,” she argued.

  “Look, we’re not gonna get rescued if we don’t get on a lifeboat,” Luke explained. “And we’re not gonna get on a lifeboat unless you bribe that guy! So give him the money, or I will.”

  Luke tried to grab the bills out of Julia’s pocket.

  “What would he want the money for?” Isabel asked. “He’s going to go down with the ship too!”

  It was a valid point. But it didn’t matter whether they bribed the guy or not. Because at that moment, the Titanic lurched downward again. The front of the ship was totally underwater now, and the back had risen up. The enormous propellers, each of them as wide as a house, were completely out of the water.

  “Grab hold of something!” Luke shouted as he slipped and fell.

  The deck was almost too steep to stand on now. Rugs, chairs, and other pieces of furniture were sliding down the surface, crashing into people. Luke ducked as a wooden crate went flying past him, nearly decapitating him. A few people who hadn’t been able to grab on to a rail or something slid off the Titanic and into the water.

  “It’s every man for himself now!” somebody shouted.

  Some people were jumping into the water, hoping to grab on to a piece of debris floating below. Everybody was screaming.

  “I can’t swim!” David shouted over the noise around him as he hung on desperately.

  “This would be a great time to learn,” Luke shouted back.

  “Hold on!” Isabel yelled.

  “I can’t look!” screamed Julia.

  Using what strength he had left, Luke pulled himself along the rail until he reached the girls, who were hanging on to a rope.

  “Please don’t take this the wrong way,” he told them, “but it might be a good idea to take some of those clothes off. It’s gonna be hard to swim after your dresses get wet.”

  Isabel and Julia struggled to pull off their dresses. They were down to their underwear.

  Meanwhile, Luke slid down a few feet until he got back to David, who had a terrified look in his eyes as he held on to a metal pipe.

  “Okay, I need you to listen to me,” Luke said as he threw off his bathrobe. “When I count to three, I need you to hold your breath and jump. Got it? I’m going to grab you as soon as you hit the water. You’re gonna be okay.”

  “What if there are sharks down there?” David asked, scanning the water below.

  “There are no sharks,” Luke insisted. “Are you with me? We can do this together.”

  “Okay, I’m with you,” David said, throwing off his bathrobe.

  “Girls, are you with us?” Luke asked. “On the count of three we’re gonna jump.”

  “Okay,” shouted Isabel and Julia.

  “One . . . two . . . three . . . Now jump!”

  They jumped.

  CHAPTER 13

  THE SHOT

  THE DECK OF THE TITANIC WAS A LOT LOWER than it had been an hour earlier, but it was still a long way down to the water. If you’ve ever jumped off a high diving board, you can imagine what it felt like. The Flashback Four screamed as they fell, flailing their arms and legs in the air.

  David held his breath and closed his eyes tightly. He hit the surface butt-first, making the biggest splash of
the four. The cold water was a shock to the system, but he was so afraid of drowning that he didn’t even notice the temperature at first. David was sure he would immediately sink to the bottom of the ocean like a stone, but of course he naturally bobbed right back up to the surface.

  Luke held the camera up in the air as he fell. He was determined to keep it dry. Somehow, he managed to swim over to David and hold him afloat with one hand. Isabel and Julia, who had both competed on swim teams when they were younger, paddled over to help out.

  “Help!” David shouted. “I can’t swim!”

  “We’ve got you,” Julia assured him, taking one arm. “Relax! Stop kicking! You’re stiff as a board!”

  “It’s cold!” Isabel yelled.

  It was indeed very cold, close to freezing. They could see the breath coming out of their mouths. But for the moment, keeping David’s head above the water was the bigger issue. Luke handed the camera to Isabel so he could take care of David on his own.

  There was really no good reason to protect the camera anymore. Digital photography would not be around for another eighty years, so Luke would not be able to do anything with the pictures. But he was an optimist. He still thought there might be some way to get back to his own time, as unlikely as that might be.

  “I got you, dude,” Luke told David.

  Treading water, he wrapped an arm around David’s chest and held on to him from behind, the way he had been taught in his lifesaving course. It didn’t seem possible for Luke to keep David—a big guy—afloat. But somehow, when life is on the line, you call up a hidden reserve of untapped strength. You don’t feel the cold. You can lift things you never lifted before. You can hold your breath longer than is humanly possible. It’s sort of like having temporary superpowers.

  When David realized he was in good hands and he wasn’t going to sink, he calmed down a little.

  “You sure you got me?” he asked.

  “Trust me,” Luke replied.

  But Luke knew he couldn’t keep both of them afloat indefinitely. His toes and fingertips were already getting numb.

  “I think I see something!” Isabel said excitedly. “Over there. Isn’t that a lifeboat?”

  It was. Sixteen lifeboats were bobbing in the water around the sinking Titanic, and several of them were within swimming distance.

  “Okay,” Luke told David, “I need to let go of you now so you can swim to that lifeboat over there.”

  “What?! I can’t swim!” David shouted, immediately tensing up. “Don’t let go!”

  “You can, dude,” Luke said calmly. “You’ve got to trust me on this.”

  “I’m gonna drown,” David yelled, grabbing on to Luke. “As soon as you let go of me, I’m gonna go under!”

  “You’re not gonna go under,” Julia told him. “Your body wants to float. It doesn’t want to sink.”

  “How do you know what my body wants to do?” David shouted at her.

  “Listen to me,” Luke calmly told his friend. “I need you to tread water—nice and easy—just move your arms and your legs slowly, like this. Okay? You can do it!”

  “It’s easy,” Isabel assured David. “See? Any five-year-old kid can do it.”

  “I’m not a five-year-old kid!” David hollered.

  “Smooth and easy,” Luke said, relaxing his grip on David. “You don’t need to flail around to stay afloat. That’ll just tire you out. Calm down. Fill your lungs with air. They’re like balloons inside your body. They help you float.”

  Luke let go. There was a look of terrified panic on David’s face, but he did what he was told. He took a deep breath and moved his arms and legs rhythmically. When he saw that his head was staying above the surface, a little smile appeared on David’s face.

  “See? You’re treading water!” Isabel told him.

  “The movement helps keep you warm too,” added Julia.

  “Okay, you’re doing great, David,” Luke said. “Now we need you to paddle in this direction. Over here. Can you do that?”

  “Like this?” David asked, as he did a simple doggie paddle.

  “Just like that,” Luke told him. “Follow me.”

  As David inched forward with Luke in front of him, Isabel and Julia swam ahead to catch up with the lifeboat, maybe forty feet away.

  The boat was about three-quarters full. There was certainly room for the Flashback Four, and a few more people as well. But whoever was rowing the boat was making no effort to rescue them. If anything, the boat seemed to be moving away from them.

  But Isabel and Julia caught up with it and hoisted themselves on board. Nobody reached out a hand to help them in, or even made eye contact with them. The women and children on the lifeboat just sat there in shocked silence, shivering and whimpering, wrapped in blankets to stay warm.

  There was just one man on the lifeboat—a big guy who called himself Mr. Strong. Each boat had been assigned a crew member to do the rowing. The women—of course—were considered too weak and ladylike to row a boat themselves. It wasn’t clear if the guy’s last name was Strong, or he just called himself Strong because he wanted to seem tough.

  In the water, Luke was urging David on as he dog-paddled toward the lifeboat.

  “You’re doing great!” Luke shouted. “Keep going!”

  David was panting and gasping for breath, exhausted. He was in good shape from playing basketball and football, but he had never done anything as strenuous as this. Luke grabbed him and pulled him along for the last few yards to the boat. The girls reached out and hoisted David on board, like they had caught a big fish. Luke tumbled into the boat right after him.

  “We made it,” he said to his friend. “I told you we’d make it.”

  “Thanks, man,” David said, his chest heaving. “You saved my life.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Luke told him. “And no charge for the swimming lesson, by the way.”

  Mr. Strong turned around and saw he had four more passengers huddling together in the back of the boat. He had a scowl on his face.

  “That’s all,” he grumbled. “Nobody else. Take your seats and keep your mouths shut and we’ll all get along.”

  The Flashback Four looked at each other.

  “What is his problem?” Julia whispered.

  “Looks like that guy’s having a bad day,” whispered David, causing the others to giggle quietly. David had recovered enough from his swimming ordeal to be cracking jokes.

  Mr. Strong began to row hard, as if he was in a race.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Isabel said. “Do you mind my asking why you’re working so hard? We’re in the middle of the ocean.”

  “Yeah, where are you rowing to?” asked an older woman. “Why don’t we just wait here for another ship to come and rescue us?”

  Mr. Strong stopped rowing for a moment and turned around. He was breathing heavily, panting and sweating. Rowing a heavy wooden boat with sixty people in it is not easy.

  “You see that?” he said, pointing to the Titanic, about fifty yards away. “When she goes under, there’s gonna be a big suction all around her. If we’re anywhere close to her, she’s gonna take us down with her. The farther we get away, the better.”

  “Let us help,” Luke offered. “My friends and I can row.”

  “No!” Mr. Strong barked as he started rowing again. “This is a man’s job. You just sit there and be quiet.”

  The Flashback Four turned around to look at the Titanic. It was slanted down, almost like a wounded animal. The lights of the ship were still on, miraculously. The other lifeboats were floating around it. The water was very calm, like glass. There was something beautiful about the scene.

  At the same time, of course, it was a very sad sight. They were close enough to see many people still on board, hanging on for dear life.

  Isabel handed Luke the camera, which she had been keeping dry ever since they jumped into the water.

  “Here,” she whispered. “You might as well take the picture. This is something you don’t se
e every day.”

  Luke held the camera low so the other people on the lifeboat couldn’t see it, but nobody was paying attention to him anyway. They were all staring at the Titanic.

  “Why bother taking the picture?” asked Julia.

  “Why not?” said David. “What have we got to lose?”

  Luke shrugged and pushed the On button. The screen on the back of the camera lit up. He pointed it at the Titanic and framed the shot carefully, so the ship filled the little screen with a few lifeboats floating in front of it. Then he pushed the shutter release.

  It was perfect. He didn’t even have to take a second shot.

  “That’s it,” Luke whispered when the image appeared on the screen. “That’s why we came here. This is the picture that Miss Z told us to shoot.”

  He passed the camera around for the others to admire.

  “Too bad she’ll never see it,” said Isabel. “Too bad nobody will ever see it, except us.”

  Mr. Strong kept rowing away from the Titanic. Everybody else in the boat was still staring at it. You couldn’t take your eyes off it. The ship looked even bigger when viewed from a distance. The bow was completely underwater, the stern out of it.

  There was a sudden boom, and sparks shot out a funnel. One of the boilers must have exploded when the seawater flooded in.

  It was eighteen minutes after two. You could see the ship tilting now and hear the awful sounds as it moved—popping, cracking, crashing, breaking glass. Sound gets amplified when water cools the air above it and slows down the sound waves. People in the lifeboats could hear every bang, every call for help.

  Suddenly all the lights on the Titanic went out. Then they flashed on again for just an instant, and then went out for good. Only the faint outline of the ship could be seen in the dark now.

  Next came the roar. It was a horrifying, otherworldly rumbling sound as the weight of the tilting engines and boilers caused them to break loose from their moorings and slide along the bottom of the ship, smashing into each other.

  “Oh my God!” exclaimed one of the women on the lifeboat.

  “No!” groaned another. Some women just covered their mouths with their hands, speechless. Even Mr. Strong stopped rowing for a moment to watch with wonder.