by Kim Izzo
Panic-stricken, the men and women began to jostle and fights broke out. Sydney was shoved back down several steps before resorting to shoving and pushing herself. She had fought her way through the protest in Washington Square and she could fight her way through this lot. With elbows held up she carved a path until she at last reached the landing of D Deck. But unlike the other third class passengers who continued to crowd the staircase she took off down the passageway toward the first class dining saloon. The main staircase was steps away when she heard a ghastly sound. It seemed to be coming from below. The elevators! Men and women were trapped between floors without electricity to move the iron cages up or down. She watched horrified as they attempted to claw their way out of what were certain to be their tombs.
“Help us! Pray God help us!” one woman shrieked.
Sydney closed her eyes. There was nothing she could do. She continued upward. The main staircase was less crowded and she ascended with dozens of passengers all of whom had to climb with the pitiful cries of the trapped lives growing dimmer beneath them.
At last she arrived at B Deck and, gasping, she raced for the doors to the Promenade. All she wanted was to breathe fresh air after suffocating amongst the pushing and shoving limbs. But what she saw when she stepped onto the portside deck horrified her.
The peaceful Promenade where she had spent countless hours walking in the sunshine and fog, played shuffleboard with Walter and Fred and, most of all, where she had fallen in love with Edward was no longer recognizable. The deck she stood on was covered in ash, black soot and debris. Passengers were covered in the stuff and struggled to stand against the list that had to be nearly fifteen degrees by now, either too stunned to move or patiently awaiting orders like they were students on a school trip. She walked over to a seaman who addressed her before she could utter a word.
“Get up to the Boat Deck, Miss,” he said urgently. “In case we need to launch the lifeboats.”
“In case?” she asked, stupefied. “I can’t think there’s a doubt?”
She looked out across the ocean; its surface was littered with flotsam, torn-up wood and other unidentifiable items. The placid sea had become a battlefield.
In the midst of the chaos she recognized Staff Captain Anderson from Brooke’s party in the Regal Suite. He was ordering people out of the boats so that they could be safely lowered into the water first. But that proved impossible and Sydney stood by as two of the portside boats crashed into the sea empty. The sight of such catastrophic failure sent a roar of fear into the air. Panic had set in amongst the passengers.
“What good is ‘lifeboats enough for all’ if you can’t work them?” someone shouted.
“Your men are incompetent!” screamed another.
Staff Captain Anderson maintained calm throughout the ordeal but it was obvious that he had no solution to the crisis.
One of the crewmen struggling with the ropes spotted a few passengers who seemed paralyzed. “You best find a lifebelt!” he shouted to them.
“Land’s just there.” A passenger pointed to the green hills incredulously.
“The captain tried to make land but he’s lost control of the ship,” the crewman explained in hushed tones. “All the systems are dead. We got no rudder and no electricity.”
His words numbed Sydney. How was that possible? How was any of this possible?
“Will she really sink?” someone asked, echoing her thoughts.
“We don’t have the men to launch all these boats in time. A lot of them were trapped below in the baggage room when the torpedo hit. Save yourselves.”
She couldn’t move. She stood in a daze until someone grabbed her arm. It was Walter. “Thank God, you’re all right.” Sydney couldn’t answer him. “Frederick’s gone looking for lifebelts but I told him we had to stay on deck,” he continued just as the ship seemed to right itself momentarily. For the first time since the torpedo had struck they stood evenly on both feet. This caused more confusion amongst the passengers. The crew seemed unsure too and for a brief time the previous chaos quieted with the righting of the ship. Captain Turner appeared on the bridge and shouted to his men.
“Don’t lower any more boats! Get those people out of them now!”
Was the danger really over? The answer came as the ship abruptly keeled over once again to her starboard side and in the same instant began to go down by the nose. This was it. There was no more time to think. “Walter, what do I do?” she asked, finding her voice.
“Go up to the Boat Deck and find a lifeboat,” he said.
“What about you?”
“I’ll be fine,” he said, and she watched as he ran down the port side toward the stern crashing into people and debris along the way. He wasn’t the only one with the same idea, as dozens of others knocked into him struggling to reach the highest point of the ship as her forecastle broke the surface.
“Sydney!” A voice called her name, jostling her. “Here!” She looked up and saw Brooke on the Boat Deck with Sarah. Her sister was wearing the bright daffodil-yellow dress she had worn when they had sailed from New York. There would be no difficulty spotting her. Both were wearing their life jackets. She sobbed with relief. She’d never been so happy to see her sister. But where was Edward? She feared the worst—that in all the chaos he had gone below deck searching for her. What if he were trapped below like those poor people in the elevators?
“Hurry!” Brooke yelled at her.
“I’m coming!” she shouted, and with renewed energy darted and pushed through the mass of people and up the final flight of stairs to the Boat Deck. As she ran she was knocked off her feet time and again by the steepening list. Everywhere women were screaming for help and babies wailed in terror. But Sydney kept getting to her feet and scrambling for balance until she saw a familiar face in the crowd—Alfred Vanderbilt. He was wearing a lifebelt and was standing beside his valet, Ronald; both men were calmly instructing women passengers on how to fasten the lifebelts. The women were mostly hysterical but no matter how they flailed and cried, Alfred’s voice soothed them into submission.
“Don’t cry. It’s quite all right,” he told a woman who was clutching her infant to her chest. Seeing that she had no lifebelt he quickly removed his and tied her inside it. “Carry the baby in your arms. Now go to the starboard side. I doubt they’ll get many boats launched here.” The woman was silent but she nodded like she understood and left.
It was then that Alfred saw Sydney. He smiled. His composure and warmth made her cry and she stumbled toward him, a beacon of hope in a world gone mad.
“Sydney,” he said urgently. “Your lifebelt is upside down.”
She looked down. He was right. “Oh heavens, Alfred,” she said, and began to unfasten it but found her fingers were tied up in worse knots than the strips of cloth that held the lifebelt to her waist.
“Allow me,” Alfred said, and expertly untied the lifebelt and lifted it off her shoulders, turning it around and gently placing it back over her head in the correct way. “If you were to have entered the water like that you’d have drowned instantly. The damn thing would have turned you on your head.”
She grinned stupidly. “I can’t swim, Alfred.”
“Neither can I,” he said, but as he answered his smile vanished for a moment. “There. You’re good. Now I suggest you get to the starboard side of the ship.”
“I heard the captain order people out of the boats,” she said.
“I think he’s changed his mind,” Alfred said. “The Lusitania is sinking and fast.”
Her face went white. “How fast? Surely it can’t go down faster than the Titanic. They had a couple of hours.”
“We don’t,” he said grimly.
She shook her head, disbelieving. “There’s land just there,” she said hopelessly, her eyes darting to the Irish coast that seemed so close she could touch it. “We can see it.”
“Be a good girl and come with me. We need to get the hell out of here.”
He grabbed her arm to steady her and led her down the deck.
“But Brooke!” Sydney shouted.
“She’s straight ahead,” Alfred explained. She looked up and saw the unmistakable silhouette of her sister and the little maid floundering along.
“We won’t lose sight of them,” Alfred said. She was carried along far more easily with his strength. But she couldn’t help wishing that it were Edward’s strong shoulders and arms that bore her along.
“What about you?” she asked. “You gave your lifebelt away.”
“I will be fine. Ronald and I will help ensure the women and children are in boats, then we will find one.”
She was touched by the man’s bravery. If he was terrified he showed no sign of it. As they picked their way along her eyes darted around. But she saw only strange and terrified faces. “Alfred? Have you seen Edward?” she asked. “I’m afraid he went searching for me. And now he’s trapped below and it’s my fault.”
Alfred smiled. “My dear,” he began, “never underestimate the quiet heroism of an English gentleman.” He pointed. “He’s right there.”
She looked up and saw him at last. He and Maxwell were by a lifeboat filled with passengers, mostly women and children, and they were helping the crew to free it from the davits. She watched him utterly captivated.
“Go to him now,” Alfred said. “Godspeed.”
She turned to her friend. A haunting feeling swept over her as she looked into his eyes. “Good luck, Alfred,” she said, and kissed his cheek. She watched him stagger forward along the deck, not fully able to comprehend that it might be the last time she would see him. She turned back to the lifeboat and Edward. The crew seemed to be having difficulty with the launch. The lifeboat kept swaying back toward the ship instead of out to sea, its occupants yelling at the men to do it right.
“Edward!” she shouted above the din. “Edward! I’m here!”
He turned and ran toward her but to her surprise he grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
“You have to get to the starboard side of the ship. They can’t launch the boats on this side. The list is too great,” he said urgently.
As if on cue the lifeboat was released from the davit and the men attempted to lower it but the list was too steep and instead of lowering downward the boat swung back in with such force that it smashed backward across the deck, just missing Sydney and Edward. It landed with a thunderous crash, crushing dozens of people who had been standing against the ship’s wall and spilling its occupants along the deck and into the sea.
Everywhere people ran screaming. At least those who could still run. Those who were crushed lay dead or injured beneath the remains of the lifeboat while the agonizing cries of the people in the water, bobbing and waving to stay afloat, carried up and over the port side. Sydney felt herself being lifted to her feet by Edward. She covered her face with her hands and he held her.
“Don’t look, darling,” he said. “Whatever you do, don’t look.” He turned her away from the horror of broken and dismembered bodies, of people crying in agony to be saved. Placing his hands on her shoulders he forced her to look at him. “I’m going to get you on a lifeboat,” he said, and led her back the way she’d come. It was a longer route to the starboard side but now that the deck was under siege from mangled bodies and the wreck from the lifeboat they had no choice.
They didn’t speak as they moved in silent terror through the panicked throngs. They pushed their way through the first class entrance to get to the other side. Sydney’s eyes darted around her, noting the furniture askew and palm trees knocked to the floor as other passengers rushed up the ornate staircase, while others stood awaiting orders. She wondered where Brooke was in this mess of humanity. When they at last reached the starboard side Sydney gasped. The list had lowered the side of the ship so far that she felt as though she might topple into the ocean. The smell of the sea was stronger than ever and it made her nauseated all over again, just like on the first day. Worse than the hideous angle and the proximity to the sea was the obvious fact that the ship had descended into utter bedlam. It was a mob scene. Edward dragged her along as she watched a young mother fling her child overboard into the arms of a man in a lifeboat. Then another and another. The poor wee things were tossed over like rubbish as their anguished mothers shouted to the people in the lifeboats below to save their babies.
It was then she caught sight of First Officer Jones shouting orders at lifeboat 17. She looked at the passengers and saw Brooke and Sarah on board. “There, Edward.” Sydney pointed. “There’s my sister.”
Edward clasped her hand even tighter and they swayed and fumbled through the crowd until they reached it. First Officer Jones held his hand out to her.
“Come on board, Miss,” he said firmly. “No time to waste.”
She turned to Edward. “Come with us.”
Edward cast his eyes about the ship. There were still several lifeboats to be filled and launched, women and children to be saved and with hundreds of crewmen already killed or trapped inside the ship there was a dire shortage of manpower to help.
“Not now, my darling,” he said, and kissed her on the lips. “I must return to Maxwell and help all I can.”
She was sobbing too much to feel fear or anything but anguish. How she longed to tell him how happy she was that they were free to be together, to marry and create a life. But there was no time. She felt his lips pull away and she opened her eyes.
“We will see each other soon. I promise,” he said. “I love you, my darling Sydney.”
“I love you, Edward,” she said. But before she could hold him one last time she felt herself being hoisted into the air and placed on a makeshift gangway cobbled together by deck chairs. “The lifeboat is too far out to jump,” Officer Jones explained calmly. “You’ll be all right.”
She crawled across the bridge of deck chairs and flopped into the lifeboat at her sister’s feet and immediately scrambled to stand. It was then she noticed the Papadapouloses from their dinner with the captain. The wife, Angela, nodded to her solemnly as her husband looked terrified. Sydney watched Edward help Officer Jones and other crewmen dislodge the lifeboat from the davits so it could safely be lowered into the water. Why won’t he look at me? I must see into his eyes one more time.
“Sit down, Sydney,” Brooke barked. “You want to flip us over?”
She felt her sister tug on her skirt, forcing her to sit. She kept her eyes on Edward. Maxwell had joined him too. Sydney realized she had never properly met the valet. She prayed there would be time enough for that once they survived this ordeal.
“We’re going to be fine, Miss,” offered Sarah feebly.
“What makes you so sure of that?” Brooke snapped in panic, and began to fiddle with her life jacket. “This confounded thing is on too tight.”
“Leave it be,” Sydney told her. “It’s supposed to be tight.”
“I can hardly breathe,” Brooke argued.
“We’re clear!” a man shouted from the ship.
“Begin to lower lifeboat 17, men,” Officer Jones called out, the muscles in his neck and face straining as the weight of the boat pulled on the taut ropes. “Easy now,” he continued.
Edward and the other men followed his instructions and foot by foot lifeboat 17 drew nearer to the sea. Sydney watched as Edward began to fade from view as the starboard side came into sharper focus. She could touch the steel hull if she reached for it. She had never doubted the enormity of the Lusitania but seeing her lying wounded like this made her seem mammoth, like a harpooned whale.
“Miss, you shouldn’t do that.” It was Sarah’s voice. Sydney turned to see Brooke, her lifebelt completely undone.
“Just for a moment,” Brooke said. “I need to catch my breath. Besides we’ve been saved now.”
The sisters locked gazes for a moment. What came to Sydney was a memory from their childhood when they had both fallen off their ponies during a hunt. They had been racing but Brooke’s pony bolted an
d was galloping out of control. They were heading for a ditch that was too big to clear and Brooke had begun to shriek. Sydney tore after her on her pony and somehow managed to steer him toward her sister and they galloped side by side until Sydney got hold of the reins of the other pony just as the ditch came upon them. “Grab my hand,” she’d called out to Brooke who took it and held it with all her might. Sydney tried to stop the ponies but the running animals had seen what was ahead and knowing they couldn’t jump the ditch they stopped abruptly and the girls were tossed over their heads and into the filthy watery hole. Yet somehow they were still holding hands. The girls had sat in shock, covered in mud, and stared at each other until they burst out laughing.
But no one was laughing now. The lifeboat was about twelve feet from the surface of the ocean. She knew that Brooke was frightened but didn’t want to show it. Sydney held out her palm. “Grab my hand,” she said. Brooke took it firmly and they continued to look into each other’s eyes until Sydney smiled. Brooke raised an eyebrow; no doubt she recalled the pony incident too and smiled back.
“I will tie it up again,” she said like a naughty child and began to do just that.
Sydney was about to offer to tie it for her when a sudden loud whooshing sound obliterated all others and the lifeboat plummeted through the air and flipped over.
Edward
There was no sign of Sydney or Brooke. They had vanished. The surface of the ocean was swarming with bodies struggling for survival amongst mangled corpses. Edward couldn’t bear to see Sydney torn to pieces or drowning in the frigid water. He tried to jump in after her but someone had him by the arm. It was Maxwell.
“Don’t do it, sir,” he barked. “You can’t help them.”
“I can try!” Edward shouted, and broke away from him. He pulled himself along the railing searching the water. Almost in a trance he staggered and crawled toward the stern, which was lifting up to the heavens. It wouldn’t be long before it was completely clear of the water. He looked back at the bow and saw it was submerged. The ship rocked in a sickening motion, listing ever farther starboard as she simultaneously dived nose first. Had Edward not been so filled with grief he would have been terrified. Every few feet he looked over the edge, always hoping for a sign of Sydney, but there was none.