Sinking

Robert had made it about halfway up the stairwell he’d vacated to help the little boy when a vibration rocked the entire ship. His hand happened to be on the railing at the time or else he might’ve lost his balance like a couple of other people around him. He caught a woman and helped her regain her footing as everyone in the crowded stairwell let out a gasp and then began to discuss what had just happened.
“Do you think we threw a propeller?” someone behind him asked.
“I don’t know.” The woman’s voice that answered sounded bewildered. “What in the world?”
“Perhaps we’ve run aground,” a man further up the row of stairs said. “We were awfully close to the Irish coast earlier.”
“That’s simply not possible.” Another man, standing in front of him, turned to argue. “We are in the middle of the straight. The ocean is miles deep here.”
“Actually, it’s not all that deep.” This voice came from behind him. An elderly woman, from the sounds of it, but Robert didn’t turn to look. He didn’t care.
What he did care about was getting the hell off that stairwell before the situation got worse, and everyone seemed to have stopped to discuss what might’ve just happened. “Pardon me,” he shouted, already moving forward around the woman whom he’d righted a moment ago. “I need to get up to the deck.”
“Yes, yes,” the ocean depth expert replied. “We all do.”
“Then turn around and walk, or I’ll have to press past you.” While he’d spent the last hour or so helping people, the tiny voice in the back of his head that said something awful had just happened was sounding an alarm, and the last thing he wanted to do was stay down below deck when there was a good chance the ship was going down.
For all the speculating about what that might’ve been, Robert already knew. He was no war expert, nor did he have a lot of experience with emergencies while out on the open ocean. Yet, with all of the discussion of what might be happening, he had no doubt what had actually occurred. The only thing he could think about at the moment was getting out of that dimly lit stairwell and up to the surface so he could have a look around at the situation and decide what to do next.
He’d almost made it past the group of people standing on the stairs and up to the next flight when the electricity flickered–and then went off completely, leaving them all standing in the dark.
“Oh, no!” One of the voices he’d heard before filled his ears. “This can’t be good.”
“No, it really isn’t,” he agreed, more to himself than to the panicked group behind him. While the survival instinct within him had kicked in already, and Robert’s first thought was to push his way up the stairs faster to the daylight he knew had to be waiting beyond the barrier at the top of the stairs, he couldn’t do that.
Turning to face the group behind him, where he could hear squeals and heavy breathing, he said, “Listen, we need to make our way out of here as quickly and orderly as possible. We only have one more flight of stairs, and then we’ll be on the deck.”
“But we don’t even know what’s happening!” an elderly woman shouted.
“Yes, we do,” Robert said, matter-of-factly. “The ship has been hit by a German torpedo. It’s the only explanation.”
His response made several people begin to panic again, but Robert didn’t give them time to fall apart. “Everyone, grab the railing and swiftly make your way up and out to the deck. There will be a lot of people stumbling around behind us, and we must move or get run over. As soon as you get to the deck, make your way to the lifeboats.”
“How do you know that’s what’s transpired?” one of the elderly men questioned, his tone accusatory.
“Because there’s no other explanation. Now, let’s go.” Robert turned around in the pitch black and reached ahead of him until he felt a shoulder. He gave the person a little nudge, and they began to walk up the stairs, carefully at first, but once they saw daylight ahead of them, and the stairs were better illuminated, they picked up speed. A few moments after the electricity went out, Robert emerged from the stairwell. He blinked a few times against the sunlight and rushed over to the side of the boat to see if he could determine what the situation was exactly.
All around him, people screamed, running in all different directions. He saw families, lone children, elderly people, and panicked mothers with their children scurrying about. Even a few lone men were rushing around, pulling at their hair, straightening their ties, looking like they were doing their best to keep it together, even though it was obvious there wouldn’t be a lot of room on the lifeboats for the men–not at first anyway.
By the slant of the boat, it seemed like there wouldn’t be a lot of time to wander and wait. The last time Robert had looked over the railing of Lusitania, he’d been quite a bit higher up in the air than he was at the moment. Not to mention he was tilted completely to his right side as he tried to make his way closer to the spot on the deck that he could see was wet. Something told him that even if he bent over to look down at the ship at that spot, he wouldn’t be able to see any evidence of the torpedo having hit the ship because of how deep in the water Lusitania was now sitting.
When Robert reached the portion of the deck that was wet, he peered over the side and saw the ocean not that far below him. “Oh, my,” he murmured, not sure what else to say. It was quite clear that this boat, and everyone and everything on it, was about to end up at the bottom of the sea.
With that realization, Robert turned around and took in the scene around him. Despite the fact that he’d come to grips with what had to have transpired the moment he felt the ship shutter around him, it all became very surreal as he scanned the chaos around him. While he’d already taken note of plenty of desperate people running in all directions, shouting, looking for loved ones, he hadn’t realized just how far gone most of these people were. The wild, panicked looks in their eyes showed the sheer terror each of them felt as they considered what was about to happen to them, particularly those with children.
Knowing he had to do something to help everyone he could, Robert scanned the deck for the closest lifeboat that hadn’t been lowered into the ocean yet.
About twenty yards away from him, some crew members were loading a lifeboat. Even at this distance, he could see the desperation on the faces of the men who were helping women and children climb aboard. While they were calmly functioning, doing their jobs, he could imagine that, in the back of their minds, they were thinking about what was about to happen to them. He knew he was, and he had a chance to get into a boat as soon as the women and children congregating nearby had loaded.
But he wasn’t about to do that, not when there were so many women with youngsters still crowding the deck. “Ma’am!” he shouted, hurrying over to a woman who looked completely lost. She had a baby in her arms, and a little boy clung to her leg. “This way!”
When he touched her arm, she seemed to snap out of a trance. “My husband! I can’t find him.”
“It will be all right,” he assured her. “I’m sure he’ll want you to get your children to safety.”
She nodded, but as he tugged on her arm, she continued to look around, lost.
“I’ll assist you,” he told her, giving her another pull.
“Mama?” the little boy said. “What’s happening?”
“Come along.” Robert knew they were all running out of time. If he didn’t get her on a lifeboat soon, he wouldn’t have a chance to help anyone else–including himself.
“Yes, yes,” she said, shaking her head, and the two of them began to move, along with the children, toward the lifeboat–just as they began to lower it into the water.
“Oh, no,” the woman muttered.
“It’s not a problem. There’s another one.” Robert pointed further down the boat. “Let’s go to that one.”
Here, the crowd was thicker. Robert didn’t hesitate to lift the little boy up into his arms. “Pardon us! She has a baby!” he told everyone who was blocking their path. Even though they were all in a rush, hearing those words seemed to part the seas, and he was able to move the family forward.
As they approached the next lifeboat, a roar went up behind them. Robert turned his head to see the lifeboat they’d just missed tipping precariously into the water. The occupants, as well as the people who’d just loaded them into the boat, screamed, and as the front part of the boat tipped closer to the water, a few people were dumped into the icy water.
Robert gasped and made sure the little boy in his arms couldn’t see what was happening. “Good God,” he mumbled. The boat continued to spill out its contents as it got closer to the ocean.
It was then that he looked out across the water around the boat and realized only a couple of lifeboats were actually floating upright, and they were pulling away from the boat. Either that, or Lusitania continued to propel her way through the water away from the initial scene of the disaster.
Seeing the boats was one thing, but it was the bodies in the water that made a chill go down his spine. People in life vests waved their arms, begging for help. Other people bobbed on top of the water, many of them face down. He could see several women and children and wondered just how many lifeboats had been dumped. Several of them were floating upside down on the water.
Immediately, his mind went to Carrie. Of course, she was smart enough to get on a boat as quickly as possible. He knew she wouldn’t wait for him because they’d talked about it. But then, what if she got on a boat–and it flipped?
“Women and children!” the crew member in charge of loading the boat shouted, snapping Robert out of his thoughts. Right now, he was helping this woman and her family. “Come on.” He made his way through the group of people standing around the lifeboat, towing the woman with her baby behind him as he carried the small boy. “In you go.”
Robert handed the little boy to a woman who was already in the boat and then helped the mother in, holding her baby for her, and promptly handing her back. He said a quick prayer over the family and then helped another woman with her children get into the boat. Once it was loaded, he stepped aside, hoping these people stayed in the boat.
By the time the lifeboat was lowering into the sea, the water was high enough it only had a few yards to go. Thankfully, it made it into the ocean and began to drift away.
Robert turned and looked around him, wondering if there was anyone else he could help. In the distance, he heard a voice he thought he recognized. Peering through the crowd, he caught sight of a frantic Victor rushing along the deck, mowing over everyone in his way.
“Well, shit,” Robert mumbled.