Oh Marvelous Mod (ohmarvelousmod) wrote in oh_marvelous, @ 2011-07-11 10:25:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | z: om1: !complete, z: om1: event: on a boat, z: om1: location: in transit |
Titanic, name and thing-
Characters: Everybody
Setting: The North Atlantic Ocean
Content: Who knows. You've only got two hours to live.
Summary: The Titanic is sinking. As the captain said, every man for himself.
Notes: This and this proved helpful if you want facts about the sinking. As for format, just reply to what you want to, if you want to.
Just before midnight, a strange quiver rippled through the belly of the Titanic. Out of it's starboard windows a massive iceberg, the immobile and dispassionate destroyer of fifteen hundred lives, loomed in the darkness of the frigid night. An inevitable end was at hand but most of the people on board the ship remained blissfully unaware. The ship's collision with the iceberg was nearly silent, no louder than the sound of a shred of fabric ripping. There was no confusion amongst the passengers, no panic. Few of them realized that anything had happened and those who did entrusted far too much faith in this supposedly unsinkable ship. Far beneath them, the Titanic's scraped hull buckled and began to take in icy sea water, quickly filling compartment after compartment. Before the clock even struck midnight, the third class cabins on the boat were beginning to flood. Passengers still safely above anxiously began seeking reassurance but were simply told that there would be a slight delay in the voyage. This was, the officers promised, nothing to be concerned about. They lied.
A half hour after the impact with the iceberg, the Titanic's crew began readying it's lifeboats with the order from the Captain that women and children were to disembark first. On a ship that ought to hold thirty-two lifeboats, there were only sixteen. There would be room for five dozen people on the first of the lifeboats. There were only twenty-eight in it when it was lowered onto the ocean. Twenty-six of these were first class passengers. Despite the very presence of the lifeboats many passengers remained unwilling to leave the warmth and apparent safety of the Titanic for rickety lifeboats when the great ocean liner showed no outward signs of damage.
The scene on deck grew chaotic as more lifeboats were lowered, many with only half the number of people they could carry. Soon, others were overloaded, almost swamped by the water dispelled by pump machinery trying futilely to clear flooded compartments. When the ship began to noticeably tilt, those remaining began to panic. Desperate passengers tried throwing themselves into lowering boats only to be met by frantic resistance. The first and second class lifeboats were quickly deployed while in the depths of the ship many third class passengers found themselves lost in maze-like hallways, trapped behind barred exits, left for dead.
The last of the lifeboats were long gone and the Captain had sent out his final radio message, "Every man for himself." With the deck tilting sharply with each passing second, those still on on the ship were sure to perish. Over a thousand souls remained on board. There hadn't been enough lifeboats to save everyone, but some had given up their seats to save the lives of others. Officers remained and the captain and the Titanic's builder would go down with their ship. A priest, who'd spent his last hours on earth helping passengers into lifeboat, was doing his final duty now hearing confessions and offering absolution. On deck the band played on until the end, out in the lifeboats survivors heard their last song, the notes of Nearer, My God, to Thee. The ship's electrical power, fueled by tireless crewman in the engine room trying keep it running for as long as possible, finally flickered and all was plunged into darkness. Mere seconds later, the mighty ship cracked into two pieces and the Titanic began it's final descent into the freezing water of the North Atlantic.