Titanic

{Chapter Ten}

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The ship glowed with the warm, creamy light of the late afternoon. Jack and Fabrizio stood right at the bow, gripping the curved railing. Jack leaned over, looking down fifty feet to where the prow cut the surface like a knife, sending up two, glassy sheets of water.

On the bridge, Captain Smith turned from the binnacle to 1st Officer William Murdoch. "Take her to sea, Mr. Murdoch. Let's stretch her legs."

"Yes, sir." Murdoch moved the engine telegraph lever to All Ahead Full.

In the engine room, the telegraph clanged and moved to All Ahead Full. Chief Engineer Bell shouted the command.

On the catwalk, Thomas Andrews, the shipbuilder, watched carefully as the engineers and greasers scrambled to adjust valves. Towering above them were the twin reciprocating engines, four stories tall, their ten foot long connecting rods surging up and down with the turning of the massive crankshafts. The engines thundered like the footfalls of marching giants.

In the boiler rooms, the stokers chanted a song as they hurled coal into the roaring furnaces. The "black gang" was covered with sweat and coal dust, their muscles working like part of the machinery as they toiled in the hellish glow.

Underwater, the enormous, bronze screws chopped through the water, hurling the steamer forward and churning up a vortex of foam that lingered for miles behind the juggernaut ship. Smoke poured from the funnels as the riven water flared higher at the bow from the ship's building speed. Above the prow stood Jack, the wind streaming through his hair.

Captain Smith stepped out of the enclosed bridge and onto the wing. He stood with his hands on the rail, looking every bit the storybook picture of a captain...a great patriarch of the sea. 1st Officer Murdoch stepped up to him.

"Twenty-one knots, sir!"

"She's got a bone in her teeth, now, eh, Mr. Murdoch?"

Smith accepted a cup of tea from 5th Officer Lowe. He contentedly watched as the white V of water hurled outward from the bow like an expression of his own personal power. They were invulnerable...towering above the sea.

At the bow, Jack and Fabrizio leaned far over, looking down.

In the glassy bow-wave, two dolphins appeared, under the water, running fast just in front of the steel blade of the prow. They did it for the sheer joy and exultation of motion. Jack watched the dolphins and grinned. They breached; jumping clear off the water, and then dove back, crisscrossing in front of the bow, and dancing ahead of the juggernaut.

Fabrizio looked forward across the Atlantic, staring into the sun's sparkles. "I can see the Statue of Liberty already." He grinned at Jack. "Very small...of course."

Jack grinned, caught up in the sheer joy of the moment. Throwing his hands up in the air, he balanced himself precariously on the bow rail, shouting exuberantly. "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD! WOO-HOO!" Framed against the sea, he and Fabrizio roared joyfully, looking west towards America.

The ship rolled endlessly forward. Her funnels marched past like the gods of heaven, one by one. The people strolled on the decks and stood at the rail.

And the Titanic moved on, high and severe in her majesty.

.  .  .  .  .

Leo is the King of My World...