Titanic by Deborah Hopkinson

Author:Deborah Hopkinson [Hopkinson, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2013-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

(Preceding image) A photograph showing Collapsible B, which washed off the deck of the Titanic upside down. Seventeen-year-old Jack Thayer and others endured a tense night standing on the bottom of this boat.

“ . . . the boat we were in started to take in water. . . . We had to bail. I was standing in ice cold water up to the top of my boots all the time, rowing continuously for nearly five hours. . . .”

— Marian Thayer (Jack Thayer’s mother)

At 3 a.m. in the North Atlantic it was dark and terribly lonely.

The moonless sky was peppered with brilliant stars. But the immense canopy above only reminded the shocked survivors of how small and vulnerable they were.

Their beautiful ship, a symbol of human achievement, workmanship, and technology, was gone. They were alone in their tiny boats on a great sea.

Twenty lifeboats drifted, one upside down.

A little more than 700 people were now in lifeboats; they were all that remained of the 2,208 passengers and crew. All the excitement and anticipation of the Titanic’s maiden voyage had turned to shock and sorrow.

Earlier that night, passengers had been enjoying dinner, music, and conversation. For some, an Atlantic crossing was familiar, but for many this had been the journey of a lifetime, a start to a new life in America. Now many families were ripped apart forever. Some people had lost not just loved ones, but their money and possessions. All they had were the clothes they wore.

As they shivered in the freezing air, the survivors could barely absorb the tragedy that had transformed their lives. Many

were dressed lightly, unprepared for the cold. The lifeboats had few, if any, provisions — no lights, food, or even drinking water.

The disaster might have been easier to understand if there’d been a fierce storm, with pounding waves and howling winds.

But the night remained still and clear. The sea was calm. Dead calm.

Now, in the darkness of that terrible night, even those

who feared they had lost their loved ones forever couldn’t help wondering: Would help come in time to save their own lives?

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