In 500... (or less)

Redemption

Private Landry sat with his hands on his head, slumped and deep in thought.

"How can I return home? How can I face my father?" he thought as he swayed back and forth on the ship.

Not so long ago, he had been an officer. His well-connected father had secured the appointment for him. He was full of excitement, ready to earn glory and accolades on the field of battle.

But bullets and death, those things took his nerve. War was not the glory he had imagined. He left his men on the field, in the heat of the fighting, to save himself. Those connections are the only thing that kept him from being shot as a deserter. Word had yet to reach Britain of his deeds.

"I said, 'What does the coward over there think of it?'" Cpl. North yelled at Landry. He hadn't been paying attention to the other soldiers.

"I beg your pardon," Landry responded, trying not incite the soldiers into another session of mockery toward him. He had endured much, traveling in chains for the first part of the journey. 

"We was merely asking if the hardtack suited a rich boy," North scoffed. "What do you think of the rations?"

"I have no opinion," he answered. "I eat it the same as you."

The answer did not satisfy North, who was seeking more of an opportunity to mock the young man now under his charge.

"You haven't the stomach for battle," he laughed at Landry. "I had supposed you wouldn't much like the rations either."

Landry thought to protest, but he had enough of the ridicule and merely nodded.

"I can't wait to get you out on the battlefield under my charge," North continued. "Why I'll..."

His sentence was interrupted by a sudden heave and mighty cracking sound.

"We've run aground!" a sailor yelled down to the troops. "Get up on deck before the ship floods."

The men scrambled, mostly had yet to get dressed since it was still early. The ship was slowly backed off the submerged rock.

"You said '12 fathoms'!" Landry heard one of the officers yell at a sailor. "Clearly it is not that deep!"

Orders were being barked among the sailors. Some of the soldiers were pressed into service manning the pumps, others were sent to assist loading the boats. Landry and the others were ordered to the rear of the boat, to shift the weight and slow the speed at which the ocean rushed into the boat.

The boats were filling up quickly, Landry watched with distress as room in the lifeboats was running out. 

"Every man for himself!" someone yelled, and the soldiers began to scatter, pushing toward the boats. Landry stood fast.

"Landry!" North hollered. "Into the water!"

"No sir," the young man replied. "My fate lies with the ship. I could not live with the idea that I saved myself while women and children were deprived of my spot on the lifeboat."

Many stopped as they heard Landry's reply. They formed up and stood fast, as the HMS Birkenhead plunged into the deep.