It all started when I was enjoying a late-night game of poker with some friends of mine, including by best friend, Joe Allen. There was a small rumble and my noticed that my glass of fine wine was disturbed a bit.
"What was that?" Joe said curiously.
"Oh, it was probably just the firemen throwing in more coal to speed this thing up overnight." I replied. The game continued normally until I was out of cash on hand; I wasn't very good at poker in the first place. The end of the game was interrupted by three stewards bursting into the large room and yelling, "Everyone on deck! Secure life belts immediately!" Joe and I sprung up to see what was the matter. "What's the big idea here?" Joe yelled to one of the stewards.
"We have a small emergency situation and everyone needs to be moved to the deck with their life belts with them."
Joe Allen and Ashley Williams of Swansea defend ag...
Looking forward along the deck
Crew and passengers on the wraparound deck of RMS ...He retorted.
I kept my cool because I knew that the first-class passengers like us were always helped first. After finding two life belts, we were herded along with many others up to the deck.
The deck was alive with movement all over. It was total pandemonium as everyone was trying to get aboard a lifeboat. "I have a feeling that the unsinkable Titanic is sinking," Joe said.
"Sinking or not, we have to get on one of these boats. It looks like they're letting first-class on first, so we're in luck." I said to Joe. On the deck below us, I could see masses of people that looked like herds of sheep being rushed in one direction. I noticed myself a little more seasick than I was before, and that the deck seemed slanted. It was obvious the ship was sinking now. A guard nearby was calling for first-class passengers so we went there and climbed aboard.
"Any ideas on what's going on?" I yelled to the guard.
"Yeah, we hit a huge berg and we're taking on water fast down below." He replied. Before I had time to think, the lifeboat was lowered into the water slowly. I felt sorry for the people on that lower deck because the ship was only half full of us rich first-class folk. The same guard had hopped onto the ship to lead it away from the dying giant. After seeing the Titanic from a distance, I could see that its long rows of deck lights weren't perpendicular to the ocean anymore, but slanted way up. The horrifying screams of the men, women, and children still aboard still ring in my hears today, but that day, they were much worse. The great stern of the mighty ship was starting to point at the stars of the dark, moonless night.
After about twenty minutes of being in the lifeboat, the ship was slanted so high, that it finally gave in. A mighty crack and then sounds of metal tearing filled the darkness and there were now two pieces of ship that were going down even faster now. I watched as both pieces sunk under the ocean. At that moment, sounds from floating survivors seemed to fade in from nowhere. A few were brave swimmers and swum out to where the lifeboats were. The oarsman of our boat tried to beat him in the head but I grabbed the oar, disrupting the swing. I grabbed the swimmer's arm and pulled him in, covered with freezing salt water.
That is a day I will truly never forget. I was lucky to have been first-class, or things could've turned out a lot worse. I'm sure that all the people that sunk along with the Titanic will live on forever.
Uncaptioned photograph of a ship deck that was sim...
Some vessels, like the LCAC, can operate in a non-...
English: View from the middle of the weather deck ...