If Tomorrow Never Comes

Nearer My God To Thee

Irv came reeling out of the first class entrance, looking wild eyed. He lurched down the deck and toward the bridge where a collapsible boat was being rolled over. Waltz music wafted across the ship. Somewhere, the band was still playing.

As he walked, a little girl, maybe two years old, was crying along in the alcove. She looked up at him beseechingly. Irv moved on without a glance back. He reached the crowd at the collapsible, pushing his way forward to where Murdoch helped a number of crewmen who were struggling to drag the boat to the davits with no luck.

He tried to signal for the first officer, but was ignored. 

Nearby, Lily and Doug were being pushed forward by the crowd behind. The Purser pushed them back, getting a couple seamen to help him. He brandished his gun and waved it in the air, yelling for the crowd to stay back.

At Collapsible A, Murdoch was no longer in control. The crowd began threatening to rush the boat. They push and jostle, yelling and shouting at the officers. The pressure from behind pushes them forward, and one guy falls off the edge of the deck into the water less than ten feet below.

"Give us a chance to live, you limey bastards!" Doug shouted. Murdoch fired his Webley twice in the air, then pointed it at the crowed.

"I'll shoot any man that tries to get past me." 

Irv took this opportunity to step toward him.

"We had a deal, damn you," he growled. Murdoch took the bills from his pocket and threw it against the chairman.

"You're money can't save you any more than it can save me." He shoved Irv and pointed the pistol at him. "Get back!"

A man next to Doug rushed forward, and he was shoved from behind. Murdoch chose to shoot the first man, and seeing Doug coming forward, put a bullet into his chest.

Doug collapsed, and Lily grabbed him, holding him in her arms as the his life flowed out over the deck.

Murdoch watched, then turned to his men and saluted smartly before putting the pistol to his temple. Chief Officer Wilde rushed forward, trying to stop him.

"No, Will!"

BLAM!

He dropped like a puppet with the strings cut and toppled over the edge of the boat deck into the water a few feet below.

Irv stared in horror at Murdoch's body bobbing in the black water. Meanwhile, the crew rushed to get the last few women aboard the boat. Irv remembered the child crying in the alcove. He ran back and scooped her up before pushing his way toward the boat, cradling her in his arms.

"Here's a child! I've got a child!" He ran up to the Purser. "Please. I'm all she has in the world."

The Purser was skeptical, but nodded curtly and allowed him into the boat. He climbed in, taking a seat with the women. 

"There, there."

...

Andy, Miranda, and the twins ran up a seemingly endless amount of stairs as the ship groaned and torqued around them.

They sped through the first class smoking room. Thomas Andrews stood alone in front of the fireplace, staring at the large painting above the mantle. The fire was still going.

Miranda recognized him suddenly, and noticed that his lifebelt was off, lying on a table nearby.

"Won't you even make a try for it, Mr. Andrews?" the editor asked.

A single tear rolled down his cheek.

"I'm sorry that I didn't build a ship as strong as you, Ms. Priestly."

Andy gently nudged Miranda. "It's going fast, we've got to keep moving."

Andrews picked up his lifebelt then and handed it to the older woman.

"Good luck to you, Miranda."

"And to you, Mr. Andrews."

Andy pulled her away, and they ran with the twins through the revolving door.

...

"Right, that's it then," Wallace Hartley concluded after his orchestra finished another waltz. The others walked away, going forward along the deck, wishing each other luck. Hartley stood in place, raised his violin and began playing the opening notes to the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee". One by one, the band members turned around, hearing the lonely melody. Without a word, they walked back to their places, joining in and filling out the sound so that it reached all over the ship on the still night.

Along the rest of the ship, things were turning to calmed chaos.

A seaman pulled off his lifebelt and caught up to Captain Smith as he walked toward the bridge. He offered it, but Smith seemed to stare right through him. Without a word he turned and entered the enclosed wheelhouse, closing the door. He was alone, surrounded by the gleaming brass instruments. It seemed as if he would inwardly collapse.

In the first class smoking room, Mr. Andrews stood like a statue. He took out his pocketwatch to check the time. Then he opened the mantle clock in front of him and adjusts it to the correct time: 2:12 a.m. Everything must be correct.

In the Priestly parlour suite water swirls in from the private promenade deck. Mock ups become submerged. Shoots transform under the water's surface. Coco Chanel's evening gowns come to life.

Down the hall in another first class cabin, elderly Ida and Isador Strauss stare at the ceiling, holding hands like young lovers. Water pours into the room through a doorway. It swirls around the bed, two feet deep and rising fast.

In a steerage cabin somewhere in the bowels of the ship, a young Irish mother tucked her two children into bed. She pulled up the covers, making sure they were warm and cozy. She then lies down with them on the bed, and spoke soothingly and holding them.

On the boat deck, a wave of water traveled up as the bridge finally sunk into the water. On the port side, collapsible boat B is picked up by the water. Working frantically, men are trying to detach it from the falls so the ship won't drag it under. Colonel Gracie handed Lightoller a pocket knife and he began to saw furiously at the ropes as the water swirls around his legs. The boat, still upside down, is swept off the ship. Men start diving in, swimming with it.

In collapsible A, Irv sat next to the wailing child, whom he had already completely forgotten. He watched as the water rose around the men as they worked, scrambling to get the ropes cut so the ship won't drag the collapsible under.

Lily struggled to remove the lifebelt from Doug's body and placed it on herself as the water rose around her.

Back in the submerged bridge, Captain Smith hovered over the wheel, watching the  black water climbing the windows. Upon his face was the stricken expression of a damned soul on Judgment Day. The windows bursted suddenly a wall of water edged with shards of glass slammed into Smith. He disappeared into a vortex of foam.

Collapsible A was hit by a wave of water as the bow plunged suddenly. It partially swamped the boat, washing it along the deck. Over a hundred passengers are plunged into the freezing water and the area around the boat became a frenzy of splashing, screaming people.

As men began trying to climb into the collapsible, Irv grabbed an oar and pushed them back into the water.

"Get back! You'll swamp us!" he shouted.

Lily, swimming or her life, gets swirled under a davit. The ropes and pulleys tangle around her as the davit goes under the water. and she is dragged down. Underwater she struggles to free himself, and then kicks back to the surface. She breaks the surface, gasping for air in the freezing water.

Wallace Hartley sees the water rolling rapidly up the deck towards them. He held out the last note of the hymn in a sustain, then lowered his violin.

"Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight.