The Titanic
With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic I decided to write a story of an average family taking the Titanic hoping to start a new life in America. There was Thomas who was a carpenter in Southampton, England and his wife Phoebe and their 2 kids, 12 years old Ben and 10 year old Lizzie.
The date was March 1st 1912 Thomas comes home from work and calls his family together. He tells them “We are going to America. I just got 4 tickets for 3rd class passage on the Titanic”. Everyone starts jumping up and down very excited all taking at once. Finally Thomas quiets his family down and explains “The Titanic will sail from here on April 10th. It will be the first voyage of the big ship. Your Mom and I have been talking a long time about going to America so you kids could have a better life. I have the chance to buy the tickets but I have to let them know tomorrow. Let's take a vote all who want to go to America on the Titanic raise your hands”. 8 hands went up. “Okay, we are going to America. I will give them my 2 week notice and quit my job tomorrow. Then I will buy the tickets. We have a busy month ahead . We can each take 1 chest the rest of our stuff we will sell or give away”.
It was a very busy month but they managed to get everything done on time. On April 9th their neighborhood had a big party for them. The party was fun but also sad as all farewell parties are. The next day they took the special train the Titanic provided from the town to the docks. They were in shock when they saw the Titanic sitting there. Ben said “It's as big as a city block”. Thomas said “not quiet it is 269 meters long and 28 meters wide”. Ben just stared and said “Wow!”.
There were all these people in fancy clothes standing around waiting to board. Ben even saw them load a couple of cars into the cargo hold along with all the other cargo. Then it was time to start boarding. They boarded the third class first. Ben thought it was funny he got to board before all those fancy people in the fancy clothes. They were taken down to the third class area and shown their cabin. It was a very nice cabin they were all very happy.
Lizzie asked where the bathrooms were. They were told there were only 2 for the whole third class one for men and one for women. They were also told that if they wanted to wash to clothes they had to do it in the bathroom on iron boards. That did not make them very happy but they decided they would make do. One thing that did make them happy was they were told there was library on board and they could check books out if they wanted.
The Voyage did not start very well when the Titanic was leaving Southampton it almost ran into another ship called the City of New York. They missed each other by only a few feet.
The first few days of the trip were great. They walked around on deck during the day and at night they either read or played games until bedtime.
Late at night on April 14th they were woken up by a sudden bang when the Titanic hit an ice berg. The ice berg ripped a big hole in the ship. People started running to the deck to see what was happening. Thomas told his family to wait in the cabin while he checked it out. When he returned water was starting to enter the cabin. They were all scared. He said “The ship hit an ice berg and is sinking. They don't have enough life boats for everyone. They said that women and children could get in the lifeboats. So if you guys want to go you had better hurry”. Phoebe said “We have been together 15 years I am not leaving you now. We will go down together but you kids better hurry”. Ben said “We are a family I am staying with you no matter what”. Lizzie just nodded her head she was too scared to speak. So the family sat down on one of the beds holding hands and praying for strength in their time of need. By now the water was 2 feet high in the cabin and very very cold. Thomas said “Last chance if you want to go better hurry”. They all stayed together holding hands. Phoebe started singing Amazing Grace and they all joined in. There were a couple more explosions and the water started coming in faster. They were still singing when the water filled the cabin
Last thing Ben felt before he blacked out was the pressure of the water beating down on him. All of a sudden they were warm and dry and they were standing in front of God. God grinned at them and said (my children welcome to your new home).
I said this was an average family. Maybe they were not such an average family.
One more interesting fact the last survivor of the Titanic was an English lady who was also the youngest person on the ship. She was 9 weeks old when the ship left England. She was 97 when she died on May 31st 2009.
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