Infected Waters: A Titanic Disaster

by Alathia Paris Morgan

  Chapter 7

  Friday, April 12, 1912

  The new day dawned with problems haunting only small portions of the passengers and crew.

  Samuel had been vomiting throughout the night, having returned from his wanderings long after his father had fallen asleep on the couch in his mother’s room.

  His head was pounding unmercifully, and there was a horrible smell as the sounds of people in the corridors began to intrude on his deep slumber.

  Groaning, he tried to sit up, but it only intensified the pain, causing him to be sick over the side of the bunk. He was thankful he made it into the bucket he had placed there in a moment of inspiration as he crawled into bed.

  Feeling only slightly better, Samuel rolled onto his back, wondering why his father hadn’t bothered to preach on his behavior.

  “Oh, gracious! Mother must have gotten sicker,” Samuel muttered aloud.

  He suddenly smelled the smoke and liquor coming from his clothing, which would also cause a problem with his mother, no matter how sick she was.

  Clutching the edge of the bed, he stood only to have the room spin.

  Staying still, he waited until the dizziness passed. Unable to shower, he stripped off his clothes, only to use the bucket again.

  A knock on the door threw him into a panic.

  “Can I collect your chamber pot, please?”

  Hearing the steward’s voice instead of his father’s, he threw the door open.

  “Here. Take this and the bucket by the bed, please.” Acting as if he had no knowledge of the contents, Samuel continued his morning shave.

  “Yes, sir.” The steward left quickly, hearing the room next door open with their pots being set outside.

  Thankful that both he and the room smelled better, he buttoned up a clean shirt as he made his way next door.

  “Good morning.” He caught sight of his mother. She was pale, but still breathing.

  “Oh, I don’t see the good in it, but if you say so.” Millie Jean groaned as if the very life were being drained from her.

  “I am very hungry. Can we go to breakfast now?” Lillian asked.

  “If we don’t hurry they won’t have any breakfast left. I’ll take her, Father,” Samuel volunteered quickly, in hopes that his father wouldn’t ask how he had spent his evening.

  “No, son. I think we can all go down together and I’ll bring back a cup of tea to your mother when we are done so it will stay warm.” Richard smiled brightly at his wife, even though his body hurt from spending the night on the couch, watching over her.

  “I just don’t think I can handle anything right now, Richard.” Millie Jean sighed, leaning back against the pillows.

  “That’s fine, dear. You might be surprised when we bring it back for you,” Richard answered, hoping he was right so they could enjoy the rest of their journey.

  ~~~~~~

  Nora rose, leaving a sleeping Judith to her snores as she went to check on her patients.

  Deciding to check on Patrick since he was closer, so that Jonathan could resume his duties, Nora rapped quietly on their door.

  “Who’s making all that bloody racket?” A voice inside growled.

  “I’m sure I don’t know. Why don’t you get your arse out of the bed and see for yourself?” Another answered sleepily.

  Smiling as she listened to the men inside, Nora was greeted with the bare chest of Jonathan’s bunk mate, Brad.

  “Well, hello there, beautiful. What can we do for you?”

  Brad crossed his arms and leaned against the door jamb, filling the view with his assets.

  “Actually, I’m here to see how Patrick is doing this morning.” Nora gestured into the room.

  “Aw, damn it. I forgot he was sick.” Brad quickly moved against the door to let Nora pass.

  Nora kneeled down between the two bottom bunks and laid a hand to Patrick’s forehead.

  “He’s alive, right, Miss?” Timothy asked, leaning over the edge of his bunk to get a look at Patrick.

  “He is for the moment. Did he wake up at all last night?” Nora rose, almost bumping heads with Timothy.

  Glancing between them, she waited for an answer.

  “I really couldn’t say as he was quiet when we came in, tired from having the end watch.”

  “Truly, both Patrick and Jonathan were sound asleep and we didn’t pay them any mind as we were set on getting to sleep and didn’t need to wake them.” Brad answered nervously.

  “If he’d had any problems, Jonathan would have sent for me.”

  Nora approached the door as Brad tried to move out of her way.

  “I’m going to check on the other patient, but I’m going to send a nurse to make sure he’s still asleep in a while. We may need you both to help us move him to infirmary so we can keep a closer eye on him.”

  “Yes, Miss.” They answered together.

  “If anything happens in the next hour come and get me immediately. Is that clear?”

  Accepting their nods for answers, Nora turned smirking to herself. “When confronted with illness men simply have no idea what to do.”

  Sensing Patrick wouldn’t wake from this infection, Nora began to plan how to stop this terrible illness from spreading.

  ~~~~~~

  Arriving in the infirmary to complete chaos, Nora started sorting out the problems from the door working her way inside.

  Several hours later, Judith walked into a much calmer scene only to discover an irate Nora.

  “As of this moment until you set foot on land again, you will only do your work, eat and sleep.” Confronting Judith as she came into the room.

  “Umm, I don’t think so. You’re not my boss.” Judith defiantly crossed her arms.

  Nora’s anger grew at Judith’s attitude, “Well I believe the doctor left me in charge. Since the White Star Line hired you, I believe they have the right not to pay you for an unfinished job. As well as charge you passage on a ship you’ve traveled on.”

  Judith’s face blanched at the thought of losing her job and money she obviously didn’t have to pay for her ticket to America.

  “Very well.” Judith spat out, “What do you need me to do?”

  The words barely left her mouth as another group of people rushed into the room talking all at once.

  “Nurses, you must come quickly.”

  “We need help.”

  “Johnny is so sick.”

  “Hold on now. One at a time, please.” Nora raised her voice hoping to be heard.

  Nora pointed a finger at the boy wringing his hands to speak first.

  “My mum sent me because she’s having the baby right now. She said, ‘Something doesn’t feel right.’ The other ladies agreed with her and sent me to fetch you.”

  “All right. Judith go across the hall and fetch the doctor. If there is something wrong, he will be the one to perform the delivery.” Nora didn’t wait for her to follow orders, but moved on to the next person in line.

  “Sir, you said, ‘Johnny is sick.’ What is wrong with him?”

  Nora pointed to the beds lining the wall across from their other patient. “Place him on this bed over here, please.”

  “He is just moaning and holding his stomach.” The man took his hat off once his son was lying on the bed.

  “When did this happen?”

  “About an hour ago, nurse.”

  “Johnny, I know it hurts, but if I’m going to make it better you have to tell me where it hurts the most. All right?”

  Shaking his little head, Johnny groaned at the movement.

  Pressing around gently, Nora continued the questioning his father.

  “Did he eat anything? Do anything unusual?”

  “No, Miss.” The father answered.

  “Yes, he did papa.” A little girl peeked out from behind his legs.

  “What did he eat?” Nora and her father questioned.

  “A whole bag of chocolates one of the boys found.” She shyly answered their worried questions.<
br />
  “Did he eat breakfast as well?” Seeing them both nod, Nora breathed a sigh of relief.

  In the medicine cabinet, the bottle of ipecac would take care of Johnny’s problems in just a little while.

  Before she could find out what the other lady needed, Judith rushed in with the doctor.

  “Here’s your bag sir. Judith, take this one as well and help the doctor with anything else.”

  Grunting the doctor took his bag, “Where is the mother in question?”

  “She’s in her room with a few women who have birthed babies before. They are saying something’s wrong with this one.” The little boy stood nervously shifting from foot to foot in impatience.

  “They said, ‘to hurry.’” He pulled open the door.

  The doctor seemed lucid at the moment, following the boy to the mother in labor.

  “If there are any problems and you don’t think the doctor can handle it. Send the boy back to get me and we will see what we can do.” Nora whispered cautiously to Judith as she moved to follow them.

  Sticking her tongue out, Judith closed the door on Nora’s words of advice.

  Focusing her attention back to the lady standing there, Nurse Bennett had taken care of her problem.

  Just then little Johnny coughed up the contents of his overstuffed stomach.

  “He will feel a better now, but we will keep an eye on him for the afternoon. If he continues to improve, he can go back with you after lunch.”

  “Oh, thank you so much miss. I need to get back and help the missus, we have four more and they can be quite a handful.” He smiled apologetically.

  “We’ll take good care of him. I imagine he’ll sleep for a good portion of the afternoon.”

  “Yes, Miss.” He placed his hat on his head and took his daughter’s hand as they went back to their berths.

  Surveying the damage of the morning’s chaos, Nora still hadn’t had a chance to check on her patient yet.

  Before doing that she turned to Peggy and Angie. “Ladies, thank you for doing such a splendid job, last night and this morning.”

  Nora smiled brightly at them, “I think you had better go and rest because we will need you back here shortly after dinner tonight.”

  “Our pleasure, Nurse Ryan.”

  “Just doing our job, miss.”

  “I could use a might of food and a bit of rest.” Angie agreed, rubbing her back to ease the sore muscles.

  “Night, or rather morning, Nurse Ryan,” Peggy called on her way out the door.

  The quiet seemed unnatural as Nora was left with her two patients.

  Johnny was doing well, considering the contents of his stomach were now filling a bucket waiting to be emptied.

  As his breathing evened out, she knew he would recover as children usually did.

  The panels blocking her other patient from view moved easily as Nora pulled it closed behind her.

  He was lying utterly still with only the slight movement of his chest to indicate he was still breathing.

  Checking his temperature, Nora gasped when the thermometer reached a level of 105 degrees.

  “This man shouldn’t be alive at all.” Nora thought, “He is only holding on by a thread.”

  Making sure he was still securely held down by the straps on the bed, Nora went to keep an eye out for the doctor’s return.

  He would be needed to confirm that their patient wouldn’t make it to the end of their voyage.

  ~~~~~~

  Millie Jean waited until her family left for breakfast and slowly got out of bed. Looking at her reflection in the small mirror, she saw a massive difference in the woman who had boarded two days ago and the pale figure she had become.

  Collecting a few garments from her suitcase, she opened the door and glanced into the corridor. Feeling her stomach rumble, the only problem was to determine if it was from hunger or unhappy from the ship’s motion.

  There was only one way to find out. Taking a decisive step into the hall, she made her way to the women’s community bath.

  “Could I trouble you to bring a new set of sheets to our room?” Millie Jean asked of the attendant. “I’ve been sick and it would be so nice to have a fresh bed to lie down in.” Putting on her best smile, Millie Jean hoped it would be done before she finished her bath.

  After her frequent vomiting, it felt amazing to stand behind a dressing panel and soak in the warm water provided for the second class passenger’s use.

  Thankfully, the wonderful new ship was truly the ship of dreams.

  Recalling her last voyage across the Atlantic years ago, she could only think of the days running together in a cloud of pain and misery.

  The Titanic’s sheer size had made the motion of the sea a bit more tolerable. While Millie Jean’s stomach had adjusted somewhat to the rolling waves, if a storm happened upon them, she would be back to her previous condition.

  One of the attendants helped her dress before she peaked around the door to make sure her family wasn’t in the hallway.

  Settling in, she realized that her outing had drained her more than she thought. Leaning back on the fresh pillows, Millie Jean was asleep when they returned from breakfast, finally sleeping peacefully.

  ~~~~~~

  Jonathan had been rushing since the first hint of daylight made its way over the horizon. Fixing problems of the first and second class passengers was very time consuming.

  “We need more blankets.”

  “Could you move these tables? They are in our way.”

  “Make sure my pookie bear is walked every two hours and brushed properly.”

  The requests kept coming as Jonathan tried to organize his army of stewards and stewardesses to help the passengers in whatever they required.

  In all the madness, he had no time for breakfast and it looked like lunch might not happen either. While each person had a shift to work, as the chief steward, Jonathan stayed on call to help his crew run the ship efficiently.

  He hadn’t managed to see Nora all day, and while Patrick hadn’t been a problem during the night, he sensed there was something happening on his ship. The thought of an epidemic on board was a problem since the passengers were in close proximity to each other and illness spread much faster than on land.

  Turning a corner on the main deck, Jonathan ran straight into Nora as she raced around a corner, heading for the captain’s quarters.

  “What happened?” Jonathan pulled her closer to help keep them both on their feet.

  “Our patient died. I need to let the captain know so he can decide what to do about the body.” Nora took a deep breath to steady herself and instead inhaled Jonathan’s cologne.

  “I’ll get him for you. Go back and stay with the body until we can get there.”

  Relief flooded Nora as he took charge and went to inform the captain. Being the bearer of bad news was never something a nurse wanted to do.

  “All right, but please, hurry.”

  Nora turned and retraced her hurried steps.

  The wait seemed to take forever before Captain Smith and Jonathan burst through the door of the infirmary.

  Standing over the dead man’s body, no one spoke as the significance of what he might have been carrying aboard sank in.

  “What do you suggest we do with his body?” Nora asked Captain Smith, hoping he had an idea.

  Exchanging glances with Jonathan, he informed them, “I believe we should burn his body. There is no one to identify it, and if we wait until we land, the infection from him might move to some of the passengers. It’s a chance I’m not willing to take. Has anyone else been stricken?”

  “Just one crewman, sir. He isn’t doing so well.” Jonathan affirmed.

  “He was bitten when he and Jonathan tried to hold him down so I could disinfect his wounds. It was a fairly normal reaction from someone who was unconscious at the time.” Nora tried to explain in more detail.

  “It doesn’t seem to be an airborne illness. Only through the exchange of blood
or saliva,” Nora added, hoping to be helpful.

  “Hmm. What does our doctor say about this?” Captain Smith questioned.

  “Honestly, sir, he hasn’t been here very much. Other than to agree this patient wasn’t going to make it, he hasn’t really commented or examined him.” Unhappy to have to give the report about the ship’s one doctor, Nora grimaced guiltily.

  “Where is the good doctor now?” Captain Smith spit out angrily.

  “At the moment, he is delivering a baby with one of the nurses.” Nora rushed to assure him that the doctor was indeed working.

  Pointing to Jonathan, the captain demanded, “When the baby is born, bring him to me immediately. Now, I’m going to send a few crew members in to take our friend to the incinerator as quickly as possible. Most of our passengers are at lunch at the moment, and this will be the best time to take care of a situation that is this delicate. While you seem certain this is isolated, nurse, I want to make sure we don’t have it spreading to others.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll handle it immediately.” Jonathan hurried to find a few suitable men for the task.

  “Nurse, I want you to keep me informed about our crewman or any other things that seem suspicious to you. If this is what I’m afraid it is, it will still manage to affect everyone, no matter how cautious we are in preventing it.”

  “I understand, and will let you know of the slightest change in our passengers.”

  “That is all I ask. Thank you so much for your service.” Tipping his hat, the captain left to return to his duties.

  Jonathan passed the captain as he returned with his two roommates, Timothy and Brad.

  “Okay, boys. We are going to wrap the body up tightly in the sheet so people don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Here’s the stretcher. He’s all ready for you.” Nora stood back as the three men transferred the body over.

  “When you get downstairs, make sure you throw him into the fire, along with the wrappings. We don’t want anything to spread.” Jonathan instructed the men.

  Hurrying to open the door for them, Nora stood to the side. “Do you need me to come with you for anything?”

  “Nah. We got it, pretty nurse.”

  “Nothing we can’t handle.” Brad grinned at her, almost dropping his end of the stretcher.