Survival Tails_The Titanic

by Katrina Charman

  “Goodbye, Mutt,” Cosmo called back as they trotted after their human.

  “Like Miss Clara said,” Jack added with a grin. “You’re not so bad… for a dog.”

  “I’ll miss you,” Violet said with a sigh before following her brothers.

  I’ll miss you, too, Mutt thought as he watched them leave.

  “We should go, too,” Alice said, placing her hand on his head. “Time to meet the New World.”

  The ship’s whistles sounded, and Mutt and Alice gazed out over the big blue as they sailed past a huge statue of a lady holding up a torch to the sky. The bright light from her lamp shone out over the water into the darkness, like a beacon calling them home. The ship docked, and they found the master and lined up with the other third-class humans. They shuffled along the walkway, back onto the safety of solid land. Despite everything, Mutt couldn’t believe he had made it! He was alive, the kittens were safe, and he was with his girl and his master. Mutt couldn’t help but feel a surge of hope in his heart, and a bud of excitement in his belly for what the future might hold for them in the New World.

  A man wearing a uniform similar to that of the crew on the Titanic made a note of the survivors’ names, one by one, as they disembarked. Finally, Alice and the master reached the front of the line. This time, though, Mutt didn’t have to hide or find a way to sneak around the man. Mutt was with his Alice. Nothing could hurt him now.

  “Names?” the man asked.

  The master gave their names and the man scribbled them down, then he glanced at Mutt and paused. “This is your dog?” he asked.

  Alice nodded and placed her hand protectively on Mutt’s head, drawing him closer to her. “His name is Mutt,” she told the man, nodding at his clipboard.

  But the man didn’t write down Mutt’s name.

  “He was on the ship with you?” he asked, frowning. “On the Titanic?”

  Alice nodded again. “He found us, he followed us all the way to the ship, and then he—”

  The master cut Alice off before she could say any more, and Mutt started to grow uneasy.

  “He was with us on the ship and he stays with us now,” the master said firmly, looking back at Mutt with a determined expression.

  “Sir, I know you have been through a terrible ordeal, but here in the United States of America, we have strict immigration laws,” the man told the master. “Any animals coming in from foreign countries must go through quarantine and have the correct paperwork, and—”

  “But what about that one?” Alice cried as farther down the quayside, Fifi and his mistress strolled past.

  “That one is different, miss,” the man said.

  “How?” Alice asked loudly, attracting the attention of the humans around them.

  The master placed a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “Because they are first-class passengers, Alice,” he said. The master stared down at Mutt, then turned back to the man. “Sir,” he said. “I know that you have rules that you have to follow, and I know you are only doing your job… but… this dog saved my daughter’s life. And mine. If it weren’t for him, we would both be lost at sea with the countless other poor souls.”

  The master reached down to pat Mutt on the head, and although he wouldn’t be able to tell because he was a human, Mutt smiled back up at him.

  “He is the very best of dogs,” the master told the man. “And my daughter and I are going nowhere without him.”

  The man considered Mutt for a moment as more humans gathered around them, having heard the master’s plea.

  “Let them keep their dog!” a man called out from somewhere in the group.

  Mutt looked over, and his heart soared. It was the kind man from the mailroom. Billy! He caught Mutt’s eye and winked. Mutt barked back at him in greeting, his tail wagging.

  “Yes! Let them keep their dog—haven’t they been through enough?” other humans called out. Some of the voices came from passengers of the Carpathia, others were fellow Titanic survivors. At one point, Mutt thought he saw the Carpathia’s captain adding his voice to the rising protest.

  “All right, all right!” the man said, relenting. “But you still need paperwork.” He pointed the master toward an office at the edge of the quayside, then let them pass to walk down the gangplank with a small cheer from the crowd as they went.

  The master ruffled the fur on Mutt’s head and gave him a grin. “Good dog, Mutt,” he said. “Good dog.”

  EPILOGUE

  Mutt sat at the window of their new home in the New World, keeping the master company. It had been almost a month since they’d arrived in New York. Not on the Titanic with the grand fanfare they had been expecting from humans eager to catch a glimpse of the now-infamous ship, but on the Carpathia.

  The reception had still been chaotic—newspaper reporters had surrounded the survivors, desperate for a quote for the front-page story they were all running with one question at the forefront of everyone’s minds—How could this have happened? It was a question Mutt had asked himself every day since, and one he would likely ask for the rest of his life. That, and why he had been saved when so many others had perished.

  Each night, the three of them would sit by the hearth, the master and Alice talking about their day and all the wonderful things they had discovered in the New World, Alice singing songs and the master telling them stories as Mutt lay by their feet. While Alice slept, the master and Mutt remained together in a comfortable silence, the master patting Mutt’s head every so often as though checking to be sure he was still there, and telling him he was a good dog.

  The silent companions gazed out the window at the stars, until they dozed off into a restless slumber. Often, Mutt found that he would forget about the Titanic for the briefest of moments and would wake with a sudden jolt, his heart racing with the sense that he had to find someone—had to save them—before remembering all over again, the knowledge crashing into him with the force of a thousand icy waves.

  He had survived.

  In the days that followed the sinking of the so-called unsinkable ship, Mutt learned that more than fifteen hundred people had gone down that night with the Titanic. Many animals were also lost, but most of those would not be counted or missed by the humans.

  Only a lucky few like Mutt, and the kittens, survived to grieve for those who would likely not be otherwise mourned or remembered. Like brave Clara, the captain’s cat: the noblest (and fiercest) animal Mutt had ever met. And King Leon, the rat, who had changed Mutt’s mind and heart as to what friendship was. Mutt knew now that even a stinking rat and a scruffy dog could be the best of friends. Mutt still held on to the smallest bud of hope that King Leon might somehow have made it and was back with his family on the streets of Brooklyn.

  As he gazed up at the sky, Mutt would imagine that somewhere far, far away among the stars, his lost friends were looking back upon him. He made a silent promise that he would never forget those brave souls—animal or human—who had been lost on that fateful night in April.

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  Author’s Note

  The Titanic sank more than one hundred years ago, but people remain fascinated by the story of what took place on that fateful night. Books about what actually happened on April 14, 1912, are still being written; movies, television shows, and documentaries are still being made. There are so many extraordinary tales of heartbreak and courage and bravery from that terrible night, along with many unanswered questions. Most significantly: Why did the so-called unsinkable ship sink?

  The ship had sixteen watertight compartments with doors that could be opened or closed remotely from the bridge. Even if four of the compartment
s were damaged, the Titanic would remain stable.

  When the iceberg was spotted, it was too late to miss it completely, so the quartermaster turned the ship hard left so as not to hit the iceberg head-on. Instead, the hull of the ship scraped along the iceberg. The thing about icebergs, as Clara notes in the story, however, is that often what you see above the surface is only the tip. What lies beneath is much larger. The iceberg ripped long gashes across six of the compartments, dooming the ship.

  The immense strength of the ship meant that if they had actually hit the iceberg head-on, the Titanic likely would not have sunk. But as soon as those six compartments were breached, the water rushed in, rising up and over into each compartment, until the entire hull was flooded.

  There are many theories about why the crew didn’t spot the iceberg sooner. During the day of the sinking, the Marconi operators received messages from passing ships about icebergs being spotted along the course they were traveling, so the lookouts knew to be cautious.

  Some people believe that the lookouts didn’t spot the iceberg until it was too late because there were no binoculars on board. Others, that large objects such as icebergs would be much easier to spot with the naked eye, so binoculars would have made little difference. Another theory suggests that an optical illusion on the horizon hid the iceberg until the ship was almost on top of it.

  Throughout history, wherever there have been humans, there have been animals. Along with the hundreds of humans who perished that night, there were also animals on board—beloved pets belonging to the passengers, livestock being sold or taken to a new country, where their owners hoped to begin a new life. It is difficult to know precisely how many animals there were on the Titanic, as there are no definitive records, but three dogs are recorded to have survived the sinking: two Pomeranians and a Pekingese owned by first-class passengers. One passenger, Ann Elizabeth Isham, reportedly refused to leave the sinking ship, as her beloved Great Dane was too big for the lifeboats.

  So I decided to look at the story not from the viewpoint of a human but of an ordinary, slightly rough-and-ready mongrel who cared more about his girl than anything else in the world, and to what lengths he would go to stay with her; a loyal captain’s cat who put her duty toward the passengers and her master before her own life; and a stowaway rat. (Rats usually get a raw deal in stories, often being seen as dirty or unpleasant animals, and I wanted to show a different side of them.)

  Mutt, Clara, King Leon, and the kittens are fictional characters. None of them were actually on the Titanic, and I have taken some liberties with certain elements of the story. For example, Captain Smith did not have a cat, though he did have a dog—an Irish wolfhound that did not accompany him on the voyage. I have Mutt describe colors, when dogs are said to have limited color vision. And when Mutt, Clara, and the kittens hide out in the cargo area, the doors would have been closed for security, but they needed a way to get in and out easily, so in the story this room remains open. But with the larger historical details, such as the timeline of the sinking and the description of the ship’s layout, I have tried to be as accurate as possible.

  Some of the humans mentioned—Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews, and J. Bruce Ismay—were on the ship. But characters such as Alice and her father, Fifi’s mistress, and Billy, the kind mailman, are all fictional. Although that is not to say that there weren’t people on the Titanic who had similar experiences.

  There were approximately 2,222 people on board, yet there were only 20 lifeboats that could accommodate a maximum of 1,178 passengers. Many of the lifeboats were released quickly for fear of the deck being flooded with people. One lifeboat had only 12 people on board, and altogether, only 705 people survived. Sadly, many more third-class passengers died than first class, because there were gates separating the third class from the lifeboats on the upper deck. And even if they had reached them, there was not enough room for every passenger.

  After the tragedy, an inquiry was set up in the United Kingdom and the United States to find out what had gone wrong, to make sure that it never happened again. As a result of the inquiries, changes were made to ensure that such a tragedy could never occur again. Most important, that ships must have enough lifeboats to accommodate the passengers on board, and the crew should be properly trained on how to deploy them.

  Marconi operators were to be stationed at the radio twenty-four hours a day. Improved watertight decks were added to stop any flood from rising further, and speed was to be reduced in foggy and icy conditions.

  Had these measures been in place on the doomed Titanic, many more, if not all, of the passengers and crew of the Titanic might have been saved.

  Timeline

  Wednesday, April 10, 1912

  9:30 AM: Passengers arrive to board the Titanic in Southampton, UK.

  Noon: The Titanic sets sail on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic to New York.

  6:30 PM: The Titanic reaches Cherbourg, France, to pick up and drop off a few passengers and more mail.

  Thursday, April 11, 1912

  11:30 AM: The Titanic reaches Queenstown, Ireland, for more passengers and mail, then continues on toward New York.

  Friday, April 12, to Saturday, April 13, 1912

  The Titanic continues the journey across calm waters.

  Sunday, April 14, 1912

  Morning: Captain Smith cancels a lifeboat drill for reasons unknown, and takes part in the Sunday church service.

  11:39 PM: Lookout Frederick Fleet spots an iceberg in the distance. From the crow’s nest, he uses the telephone to alert the officers at the bridge.

  On the bridge, the officers signal to the engine room to stop the engines, and they turn the ship’s wheel hard port to try to avoid the iceberg.

  11:40 PM: The Titanic scrapes along the iceberg on the starboard side, ripping a gash in the ship’s hull. Water has already begun to pour in.

  11:55 PM: Workers prepare lifeboats to evacuate passengers.

  Monday, April 15, 1912

  Midnight: Water continues to flood the lower decks, and the ship begins listing downward as the compartments fill with water.

  12:15 AM: The lifeboats are being swung out, ready to load passengers. Women and children only are called to the lifeboats first.

  12:25 AM: Thomas Andrews, the ship’s architect, has inspected the damage. Six compartments have been breached. He informs Captain Smith that they have less than two hours before the ship is lost. The Marconi operators begin sending out distress calls to any ships nearby.

  12:40 AM: The Carpathia receives the distress signal and sets off immediately to the Titanic’s aid, but the ship is hours away.

  12:45 AM: The lifeboats are being lowered into the water, many only half full, as the officers send out flares and use the Morse lamp to try to get the attention of what they believe could be the Californian, a nearby ship.

  1:00 AM: The band has assembled on the boat deck and is playing jolly tunes to keep the passengers’ spirits up.

  1:45 AM: The lifeboats continue to be lowered into the water. The bow of the Titanic drops farther into the ocean, with the propellers now hanging out of the water at the stern.

  2:05 AM: The sea begins lapping over the deck of the Titanic. The last lifeboat has been lowered. The great ship begins to break up.

  2:15 AM: The lights go out for good. The stern of the Titanic raises up to the sky, then falls back down to the ocean as it splits into two.

  2:20 AM: As the bow is dragged underwater, it pulls the rest of the ship down with it, until it disappears beneath the waves. The survivors must now wait for someone to come to their rescue.

  3:30 AM: Flares from the Carpathia are spotted by survivors in the lifeboats.

  4:10 AM: The Carpathia reaches the first lifeboats and starts bringing people onto the ship.

  8:50 AM: All passengers on the lifeboats have been recovered and the Carpathia sets sail for New York.

  Thursday, April 18, 1912

  9:00 PM: The Carpathia arrives in New York.


  A Ship of Luxury

  The Titanic was one of three Olympic-class ocean liners owned by the White Star Line. Along with her sister ships—the Olympic built in 1911, and the Britannic built in 1914—the ships were intended to be the largest and most luxurious ships the world had ever seen. There was no expense spared and even the third-class accommodations were said to be the equivalent of second class on most other ships. Still, there were only two bathtubs, one for men and one for women, for the entire third-class population, and only families had their own rooms. There were shared bunks in separate quarters for single men and women. The first-class rooms ranged from single rooms to suites with their own private promenades, and were decorated extravagantly with wooden furniture and paneling.

  The Titanic was made up of ten decks:

  BOAT DECK—The uppermost deck where the lifeboats could be found, along with the first-class promenade, gymnasium, bridge, and wheelhouse, and the captain’s and officers’ quarters. To the rear of these was the Marconi room, where operators used wireless radio to contact other ships and people on shore when they were close enough to land. The radio operators were also given messages by the passengers to send out to friends, family, and business associates on land. When the Titanic began sinking, they used Morse code and tapped out the distress signal commonly used at the time—CQD—but as time passed, they used SOS instead. After the sinking of the Titanic, the code became commonly used, replacing CQD.

  A DECK—This deck had the most luxurious first-class rooms and suites, the first-class lounge, ladies’ reading and writing room, and the first-class smoking room.

  B DECK—This deck had most of the first-class accommodations, a restaurant, and the popular Café Parisien, which was decorated with lots of wicker furniture and plants. At the stern of this deck was the second-class smoking room.

  C DECK—The C deck had more first- and second-class accommodations, as well as the second-class lounge, library, and promenade. And to the stern, the third-class promenade and smoking room.