Titanic: An Amourshipping Story

Chapter 15

When Captain Drake went to the telegraph operation room, Jack had just finished sending messages to the Vista Lighthouse in Sunyshore City in the Sinnoh region. He was working to clear a backlog of passengers' personal messages accumulated when the wireless had broken down, and Clemont had to fix it the day before. Clemont had just gotten out of bed to take over for Jack when Captain Drake entered the Marconi Room. Both operators were confused to see the captain out of bed and grim-faced. Captain Drake wrote the coordinates of their location and the letters CQD on a notepad.

"CQD, sir?" Clemont asked.

"That's right, QCD. It's the distress call, and these are our coordinates," Captain Drake said, handing the notepad to Clemont. "Tell whoever is responding that we're going down by the head and need immediate assistance."

Clemont and Jack looked at Captain Drake and then at each other, with the weight of the situation hitting them like a ton of bricks. Clemont rushed to the desk, put on the headphones, and began sending the distress signal. Captain Drake left the room and took a moment to collect himself before he went back outside.

The captain walked down the port side, where the crew prepared the boats. By this point, first class passengers have gone outside, having noticed through the windows that the crew was preparing the lifeboats. Captain Drake looked to the bow and saw that Titanic's nose was coming close to entering the water. The officers kept the passengers away from the forward deck to keep them from discovering that the ship was beginning to sink, but it was only a matter of time before they discovered the truth. Siebold, Kanoa, and Orson noticed Captain Drake coming out and walked over to him.

"We are swung out and ready, sir," Siebold said. "Hadn't we better get the women and children into the boats?"

Captain Drake looked past Siebold to look at the passengers, who continued to speak amongst each other, still wondering what was going on. Children were staying close to their parents with some rubbing their eyes and complaining that they wanted to go back to bed. With little time, the crew needed to fill up the boats quickly and without people panicking for as long as possible.

"Yes. Put the women and children in first," Captain Drake said.

It goes without saying that one of the things the sinking of the Titanic was famous for was the decision to have women and children board the lifeboats first, but few people know why exactly Captain Drake made this decision. As a kid, I thought it was cruel that he would have loved ones separated from each other when death was on the line. However, when Aunt Sonia and I researched for this book, we discovered that, while having women and children board first wasn't part of maritime law, it was an unspoken rule. A chivalric ideal that was used as far back as 1840.

The reason behind it was women and children were less likely to survive a shipwreck. In fact, Macro Cosmo's previous shipwreck disaster was the S.S. Atlantic in 1873, where the ship hit an underwater rock, and of the 156 passengers who were women and children only a 12-year-old boy survived. Granted, the passengers only had minutes to try to escape, but the fact that only one child survived while the rest of the survivors were men still showed how women and children were unlikely to survive in that situation. As tragic as it was that women and children were separated from their loved ones, Captain Drake's decision was the most logical move he could make, especially when limited boats were available.

"Very good, sir," Siebold said.

Siebold and Kanoa saluted and began spreading the word to the other officers and sailors on the port side. Orson also saluted and began to follow when Captain Drake took him by the arm.

"Mr. Orson, spread the word to the starboard side, then find the music band, excluding the pianist, and send them to me. Make sure the bassist brings a chair, then aid the others in loading the boats," he commanded.