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The Final Hours

When I finely got on the Carpathia I felt very relived, I could hardly believe I had survived such a horrendous ordeal it seemed impossible that only a few hours before I had been eating the finest food in the Titanic’s most luxurious dining room My ordeal started as I was lying in my cabin waiting to drift off to sleep when I felt a juddering and heard a horrendous ripping sound. At first I thought I may have dreamed it but then I could hear people running in the corridor and the steward knocking on doors telling people to put on their life jackets and make their way to the upper deck. At this point I wasn’t particularly worried because we had been told the ship was unsinkable and everyone was calm and I could hear the band still playing. I put my life jacket on and grabbed my money and a few possessions and headed up on deck. I could see large crowds around the lifeboat stations and it became obvious to me that they were only allowing women and children on at first. Everybody seemed calm although I was worried the first signs of panic were starting to show people were running about and shouting. I walked round the deck and slowly began to realise that there were not enough lifeboats for everybody, by this time I was at lifeboat station number 2 were I was helping people on to the boat. By now the boat was settling in the water the bow was starting to sing below the waves. Some one pressed a baby into my arms I climbed into the boat to return it to its mother when there was a shout “boat away!” and we dropped like a stone until we smashed into the icy sea. The officer in charge of the boat thrust an oar into my numb hands and said you must row hard so we can get away from the ship or we will be pulled down with her I take my seat shipped the oar and we started to row. Unused to such exercise my back was soon aching. After a while the officer told us to rest and we slump over our oars. I lifted my head and looked back at the doomed vessel it was an amazing yet horrifying sight the titanic was vertical in the water and started to slide into the depths with an almighty groan the stern separated from the bow and half the ship went crashing back onto the surface while the bow continued its journey to the bottom of the sea. As we watched in horror the stern once again rose up we were sickened to see the people falling to their deaths and their screams, which will haunt me forever, and finally we watched as the sea swallowed it and from this distance it was like it had never been. Several of my companions said we should go back to save the survivors but the officer said it was pointless as the cold will have killed them long before we could make it back he continued we should remain in the area to await rescue. We spent the remainder of the night mainly in silence shocked and numbed by what we had been through thinking about our friends and companions who had not been so lucky. The cold and wet dampened our spirits and a feeling of gloom descended upon the boat we were beginning to despair when a fog horn sounded and we realised rescue was at hand never have I been so relived to see anything as I was to see the Carpathia on that cold grey day. Everybody started shouting and waving their arms then we boarded the Carpthia and were rewarded with hot chocolate and a biscuit nothing had ever tasted so good. Soon we will be in New York preparing to start a new life but I will never forget that terrible night as long as I live