The Loss of the S. S. Titanic: Its Story and Its LessonsBeesley, Lawrence
History
The Loss of the S. S. Titanic: Its Story and Its Lessons
Beesley, Lawrence
Shipwrecks -- North Atlantic Ocean; Titanic (Steamship)
And then, as if to make everything complete for our happiness, came
the dawn. First a beautiful, quiet shimmer away in the east, then a
soft golden glow that crept up stealthily from behind the sky-line as
if it were trying not to be noticed as it stole over the sea and
spread itself quietly in every direction--so quietly, as if to make us
believe it had been there all the time and we had not observed it.
Then the sky turned faintly pink and in the distance the thinnest,
fleeciest clouds stretched in thin bands across the horizon and close
down to it, becoming every moment more and more pink. And next the
stars died, slowly,--save one which remained long after the others
just above the horizon; and near by, with the crescent turned to the
north, and the lower horn just touching the horizon, the thinnest,
palest of moons.
And with the dawn came a faint breeze from the west, the first breath
of wind we had felt since the Titanic stopped her engines.
Anticipating a few hours,--as the day drew on to 8 A.M., the time the
last boats came up,--this breeze increased to a fresh wind which
whipped up the sea, so that the last boat laden with people had an
anxious time in the choppy waves before they reached the Carpathia. An
officer remarked that one of the boats could not have stayed afloat
another hour: the wind had held off just long enough.
The captain shouted along our boat to the crew, as they strained at
the oars,--two pulling and an extra one facing them and pushing to try
to keep pace with the other boats,--"A new moon! Turn your money over,
boys! That is, if you have any!" We laughed at him for the quaint
superstition at such a time, and it was good to laugh again, but he
showed his disbelief in another superstition when he added, "Well, I
shall never say again that 13 is an unlucky number. Boat 13 is the
best friend we ever had."
If there had been among us--and it is almost certain that there were,
so fast does superstition cling--those who feared events connected
with the number thirteen, I am certain they agreed with him, and never
again will they attach any importance to such a foolish belief.
Perhaps the belief itself will receive a shock when it is remembered
that boat 13 of the Titanic brought away a full load from the sinking
vessel, carried them in such comfort all night that they had not even
a drop of water on them, and landed them safely at the Carpathia's
side, where they climbed aboard without a single mishap. It almost
tempts one to be the thirteenth at table, or to choose a house
numbered 13 fearless of any croaking about flying in the face of what
is humorously called "Providence."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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