April 15th 1912 : A Night Mare

I was on the boat, searching for bodies, there were screams in the night, the ship, unsinkable according to men in black suits. Also according to these same men, there was also enough life boats.

Bodies were floating, we were the rescue team.

Jimmy was 18, first time out, screening the sea for bodies, survivors, in that icy water.

Cries.

I pulled a 19 month old child from the scene.

Her mother was clinging her, asking me to save her.

She was already dead.

"I don't know!!" a mother's voice cried out.

Twenty three folks; a woman in a silk dress, clinging, she tried to smile, I smiled back.

Terror in her eyes; the unsinkable ship sank.

Many lives, from rich to poor, all found the same fate.

A matriarch trying to make it to New York; she died like the rich man in that black suit, not enough life boats, women screaming for their men, "Jump!! Forget the rules, our children need their father!!"

Walter, his wife on the raft, their son, 3 years old, grasping at his mother's breast, cried out to the man, he stood their, crying, a last regret, he would not see the morning last.

He died that night; no body found, his son would grow up, become a father himself, tell his children about their grandfather, a great man, who died that night, not enough life boats to save them all.

There I was, a senior mate on the rescue team, searching, those dark waters, the ship had sank, already heading to the bottom of that ocean, men crying, women screaming, children shivering in that cold early morning.

We were the rescue team, on the site, feeling our way through the night, finding bodies, clinging to whatever they could find.

Marilyn, a woman of ill-repute, a survivor, 3rd class passenger, clung to a doll, she found in the water.

I cried. She held onto my hand. Jimmy pulled her up.

She met a man, 23, a gambler, who clung to her, as they drifted through the water, soul mates on that day, to be mates, who would die days apart in 1963.

Their life raft was a door.

He was first class.

It didn't matter that day.

They found each other; a life created that day, married on July 12th, that year, a true love indeed.

We were their saviors, their last hope, in that icy water, that dark night, unsinkable ship, my ass, I yelled at the night.

I saved twenty three, our ship was their dying hope, their only hope, as they clung onto broken boards, drifting up from the sinking ship.

We were the first on the scene; mother, child, father, a priest, anarchy in that bitter night, a girl, Sarah, who would become a nurse, if it hadn't been for us, 123 would not have lived in 1923, her courage saving them from a dastardly disease, epidemic in a mining town.

We were the unsung heroes as well that day; our eyes scanning that dark water for survivors, bodies, souls lost to that sinking ship.

April 15th, 1912 - I was playing poker with some fellow ship mates; it was a gentleman's game, five cards. Captain approved, he was third man from the point, a cold night, ice bergs seen, be on alert.

Full house, aces over queens, I would win that night, then the call was heard, our sister ship was failing, faltering in the night, could we make it there, before she sank?

Two hours late, had we known a few before that day, we may have saved!

Truly our fellow man, we could not, she sank that night. I was the first mate there on site, the first man to pull a body from the waters edge, that child, her face still haunts me to this day.