❝ If you look in your dictionary you will find: Titans - A race of people vainly striving to overcome the forces of nature. Could anything be more unfortunate than such a name, anything more significant? ❞ - Arthur Rostron, Captain of the rescue shi...
canonical character death drowning building collapse religious themes
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Edward J. Smith, master of the "almost unsinkable" Titanic, is forced by the hand of Fate to adhere to an old maritime tradition: The Captain Must Go Down With The Ship.
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IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO END LIKE THIS.
The foredeck lights were underwater now, and the forward mast looked more like a bowsprit. She must be flooding rapidly belowdecks. Captain Smith's stomach churned at the thought, and he averted his eyes, only to be met with another horrific sight.
Wilde and Murdoch were on the roof of the officers' quarters, working together with Clinch Smith, Archibald Gracie, and several others to free one of the lifeboats imprisoned within. Lightoller, Moody, and several sailors were forming a ring around the other. Ted was rendered painfully aware of the crowd waiting behind him; their tension and anxiety was palpable even amongst the frigid air of that fateful April night. Two chubby children — not much more than babies, Ted surmised — were screaming as a man passed them across the ring to a stewardess. Another woman picked up the younger one, and the little lad let out one long wail of distress that pierced Ted's heart like a thousand knives.
It wasn't supposed to end like this．
The two children and that woman, his officers, and every single one of his passengers — they deserved to make it to New York with their families intact. Instead, this family and countless others were to be ripped apart, just as his ship had been by that godforsaken collision.
A lump formed in Ted's throat, unshed tears pooling in his eyes.
He would be made to answer for this tragedy, and he deserved no less than capital punishment. His status as captain of the noble vessel now foundering beneath his feet determined his fate; per the tradition of the sea, the burden of guilt was his alone to bear. From the very moment that Edward J. Smith was named master of the RMS Titanic, his soul became tied to the ship's own. Invisible chains kept his soul tethered to Titanic; it was only at the discretion of the White Star Line that this imprisonment would end and he would be set free.
