'TICKETS PLEASE, TICKETS EVERYONE' the staff where screaming as I boarded the ship. They were rushing all the passengers on board as swiftly as possible. I didn’t know the reason for this but to be honest it didn’t bother me at all. As I walked onto the ship I heard a young woman describing the ship as a palace on water. I took my first look at the interior of the ship and I have to say that it did indeed look as if it was a royal palace. I began my journey to my room, which was on the B deck of the 2nd class part of the ship. The luxury seen by my eyes on this short journey was overwhelming: glass chandeliers, leather chairs in the spacious dining room, softly cushioned walls, a beautifully designed carpet with a wonderful floral pattern and superb artwork was just a small example. This ship would have impressed any one of any culture or background. I made it to my room, it was on the 6th of 11 floors. I opened my door and walked in. The room blended well with the rest of the ship although it was not quite as luxurious as I had hoped but I suppose it was better than an average 2nd class room. I set my bags on the floor and decided to rest.
I woke at 7.30pm. I thought it would be quite interesting to explore the ship and so I did. I set off into the first class section as I thought this is where the most interesting things would be found. I wandered around for about 30 minutes and didn’t find anything of interest until I found a staff only door at the end of one of the 1st class hallways. I thought that this was an odd place to have a room for the staff so I decided that I would explore. As I walked up to the door it suddenly opened and a man came out of the room,
“Can I help you Sir?” he asked in a deep voice.
“No, I was just walking around the ship and found myself here?” I replied as I started to get increasingly worried about what was actually in the room.
“Alright then just make sure that you stay away from this room you may get yourself into trouble.” The words sent a chill through me and I swiftly left the area and went back to my room.
If you asked me now why those words gave me such a chill I would not be able to tell you. The room could have just been for staff only. Basic instincts I guess. But basic instinct was a good enough reason to go back to that room.
The next few days would be mainly of no interest to you due to me coming down with a rather bad cold. The only notable event of this time was my dinner with the captain when I decided that I would interview him for the newspaper, it wasn’t part of my job but I thought it would make an interesting read. I won’t bore you with the details of this conversation but I will tell you one thing which slightly worried me. When I asked him if any improvements could have been made in the ship he told me that there is one element of the ship that needs a lot more investment. He said that due to the confidence of the people that built the ship, there were not enough lifeboats aboard the ship. I couldn’t help but see this as a mistake that will cost the passengers of the titanic dearly, no matter how much the captain reassured me that the ship would never sink. I still too this day see this as the very jinx that caused the disaster.
I woke on the morning of April 14th. I wasted little time on that morning and I went back to the staff only door that I found a few days before. When I got to the room I found that the door had been left open so I went straight in. I found myself in a long corridor which I followed until the end. I was shocked when I saw what was in front of me, it was a lifeboat. The best lifeboat that I had ever seen, it was better than the ones that were on the side of the ship for the passengers use. I was desperately trying to think of a reason why the staff would hide they’re own lifeboat on an unsinkable ship. Maybe the ship wasn’t as strong and sturdy as they wanted us to believe or at least the staff didn’t think so. On the other side of the lifeboat was a huge door leading to the side of the ship, this must be the staffs quick and easy escape route if there was any trouble on the ship. I decided that I better leave incase I got caught in this area of the ship; I dreaded to think what the staff would do happy if they found me there.
Later that night at about 8 O’clock I was resting on my bed when I heard an ear numbing ‘SMASH’ the ship jolted relentlessly. I flew from one side of the room to the other as my ribs cracked against the wall. My worst fear had come true the unsinkable ship was going to sink and I wasn’t about to go down with it. I knew that for me to survive I had to be quick. I decided my best escape route was the staff lifeboat so I dashed to the room as fast as humanly possible. The staff were already in their lifeboat as I ran up beside it. They didn’t see me. I couldn’t believe it. This was my only chance of survival and it was slipping out of my hands. As an impulse reaction I leaped through the air …………………………… ‘CRASH’ I hit the side of the ship with an enormous thud. The noise alerted the staff and they opened the door for me. I crawled in slowly; hitting the side of the boat took its toll on me physically. A member of staff steered the ship out into the open ocean as I turned around to get a glimpse of the carnage behind. It was horrific to say the least. Dead bodies scattered all over, floating, as if they were just planks of unwanted wood. Women and children crying on lifeboats, they had lost there family. As I turned back the ship snapped in two pieces. I felt lucky to have escaped. My prayers went out to the passengers caught on the ship when it went down, I couldn’t imagine what it would have felt like. To be honest I didn’t want to be able to, just watching the ship was enough to scar me mentally for the rest of my life.
