Ice & Iron (Titanic)

Chapter 20

15th – 22nd May 1912

RMS Olympic pulled into the Halifax docks. I had flashbacks of standing on the docks in Southampton gazing up at the Titanic in awe. The Olympic was the spitting image of the Titanic, and while it did bring bittersweet memories, I was glad to be going home. Boarding the Olympic would have been daunting for some, but I already knew that this voyage would be exactly like the small voyage aboard the Carpathia.

The next couple of hours I felt like a robot on repeat. Walk on board the Olympic, given our room keys. Luckily our room was next door to Ellen's family. I had seen what the Second Class rooms looked like from visiting Ellen's room aboard the Titanic the day she hit the iceberg. I paused for a moment to remember that today marked one month since the sinking of the great Titanic. One month since Murdoch and many others died. But I also remembered that Murdoch had once been the First Officer aboard this same ship. Joe had been a passenger on this same ship, the voyage where she had collided with the HMS Hawke, which Murdoch had been First Officer.

This time when we walked into our rooms, Mother and I only had the bag we'd taken off the Titanic plus a small suitcase that Lightoller had bought for us to carry clothes and supplies that we had bought in New York. After the ship started moving again, Mother and I walked up to the bow to say hello once again to Lightoller. He walked down off the bridge and greeted us. Then we went back to either our rooms or to the dining saloon to eat.

Later that afternoon, I decided to sit on my bed and begin writing in my journal. This is what I wrote on the voyage from Nova Scotia, Canada to Southampton, London.

Today is the 15th of May in the year 1912. My name is Stacey Ada Banks Murdoch. I'm sixteen years old and a survivor of the sunken RMS Titanic. My mother's name is Ada Florence Banks Murdoch and my stepfather's name was William McMaster Murdoch. He was the First Officer aboard the Titanic and only thirty-nine years old when he died. My mother and him had been married for nearly five years.

I'm writing this on board Titanic's sister ship, the RMS Olympic on the way back to Southampton. Have a look at the date, it's been exactly one month since the Titanic sank and claimed many lives, including my stepfather, friends and family. My mother and I, along with some friends who also survived, have spent the past two weeks in Nova Scotia, Canada where bodies that were recovered from the sinking had been taken. Unfortunately, the body of First Officer William Murdoch was not found and is most likely buried at sea.

Let me tell you more about me and my family. My mother was born in New Zealand, on the other side of the world. She works as a school teacher at the high school I go to. At that school, I'm in a writing club, so I'm going to write this journal as if I am having a face-to-face conversation with the reader. In that writing club, I also met the two girls I call my friends, Irene and Grace. Back to my family, I also never met my biological father as he left when I was a baby. I don't remember him at all, so I grew up without a father. Until she met and married Murdoch. She was on a voyage from Sydney, Australia in 1903 when she met Murdoch on a ship from Australia to Southampton. I was born in Southampton and Mother was only in New Zealand to visit her family. She and Murdoch corresponded through letters for about a year before I met him. As soon as I met him, I felt an instant connection. Maybe it was because I spent my childhood without a father. He was really nice as well. Murdoch was born and grew up in Scotland, so our family is from all over the place. My mother is Kiwi, my stepfather is Scottish and I'm English. At the time of the Titanic sinking, Murdoch had sixteen years of maritime behind him. For his age reaching First Officer was an achievement. I'm writing this on the Olympic, a ship Murdoch had also been on as First Officer. As this ship is Titanic's sister ship, there is just this feeling everywhere. Everything will remind me about either the Titanic or Murdoch. But I'll still call Southampton home, no matter what happens now or in the future. How much will change when we arrive home, I don't know.