The time that this post (written by Kaleb) is posted marks the time 100 years ago that the Titanic struck the Iceberg.
Titanic
By Kaleb M. Cadle
On April 14, 1912 A large ship gracefully glided over the rough water of the Atlantic Ocean. It was near a dark and moonless night. The passengers slumbered in their cabins, while the captain and crew navigated the large ice flow before them. The air was silent and the sea was calm.
Then suddenly, the alarm was sounded. The Titanic was heading straight for a large iceberg! Quickly the officer on the bridge ordered that the wheel would be turned as far as it would go. He also sent an order to the engine room to reverse the engines. The iceberg moved closer, the ship started to turn, but it was to late!
The iceberg struck the Titanic’s starboard bow. Several chunks of ice fell onto the ship’s deck while the iceberg slid by. A couple minutes later, the ”unsinkable“ ship came to a halt. Many of the passengers awoke to see what had happened. On deck nothing looked amiss, but in the bottom things were very different.
When the iceberg struck, it left behind a large gash. When this had happened, a large noise like the firing of a canon had erupted through the lower decks. Water gushed in like a whirlwind and in twenty minutes had filled the mailroom, and was pouring into some of the forward holds and two of the boiler rooms.
The ships captain (Captain E. J. Smith) and the ships builder (Thomas Andrews) quickly moved down to the bottom of the ship. They rapidly inspected the damage the iceberg had done, and it was not good.
The Titanic’s hull was divided into many watertight compartments. The ship had been designed so that it could still float while only four of these compartments were full. But water was spewing into five compartments, and would eventually start filling the other compartments.
Andrews judged that the Titanic might last one hour, one and a half of an hour at most.
Then a light was seen in the distance, it could have been the Californian’s. Captain Smith immediately ordered the crew to fire up distress rockets, which would get the attention of the ship in the distance. The order was obeyed but the distant ship did not answer.
The Titanic desperately radioed for help. They reached many other ships, but they were to far away to reach them in time. They franticly radioed one ship (the Carpathia) that was not very distant. The Carpathia radioed back immediately that they were heading to the desperate Titanic’s location full steam. But would they be there in time.
After an hour most of the passengers still did not know the seriousness of the situation. Captain Smith however, knew everything about the situation, and he was worried. There were only barely enough lifeboats for half of the estimated 2,200 passengers. He tried to think up a solution, but he couldn’t find one that would leave enough boats for all the passengers.
He gave the order to start loading the lifeboats with the women and children first. The women and children were escorted to the Lifeboats, and after saying their emotional final farewells, reluctantly piled onto the boats. The boats were lowered down and then disappeared into the moonless night.
By 2:05 a.m. there were still more than 1,500 passengers on-board the sinking ship. All the lifeboats were gone and a stillness overtook the remaining passengers. The Titanic was now listing very badly, and water started to creep up the deck.
While the Titanic slowly sank below the waves John Harper, a pastor and a strong Christian preached to the passengers. The Titanic slowly sunk lower and lower beneath the water. John Harper spoke his last words as the quote ”unsinkable“ ship slipped beneath the waves.
The Carpathia arrived at the scene, but it was to late. Only 705 of the Titanic’s passengers remained in the lifeboats. Most of the men had drowned, or been eaten alive by sharks. The women and children were haunted for the rest of their lives by the memories of their deceased husbands and fathers.
The men who died that night of April 14 were true men. We should never forget these dead men’s stories of Chivalry and Courage. Those men sacrificed their lives, for the women and children instead of saving themselves. Never forget these mens’ legacies. Never forget that Women and Children are first.
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