Engl 358 Final Titanic Article

Armocida Archives Price Ten Cents 12 Pages

Vol. 16. No. 152

Boston, Massachusetts, Saturday, April 14. 1956

Title

Titanic, April 11, 1912

For twenty years, I have entertained you with tales of excitement, heartache, and tragedy. This next piece is my most promising because it holds something the others do not. Truth. Truth, my devoted readers, is what makes a story grand. A personal touch, such as mine, serves as a golden lining to a narrative. I have listened to your pain, your dreams, your lives. And so I am giving you all something that I have deprived you of for far too long-honesty. This shall be read as a memoir, with time breaks and flashbacks. Nothing in this piece is exaggerated or imagined. Everything I am going to write about, I have endured. I came from Ireland at the age of

16, which many of you know. I landed in New York and lived with my brother, Connor, until my fiancé, Joseph, could make the journey. What only a few choice people know is that I came to New York on April 18, 1912. I came the day the survivors of Titanic landed. I am a survivor of that fateful night. So it Begins I was sixteen then. Sixteen, alone, and cold. That was how I felt the night of April 14, 1912. The ocean gulped the energy out of my body as if the other 1500 souls weren’t enough to quench its thirst. Hundreds of bodies: young, old, male, female, bobbed along the surface.

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My whole body was paralyzed, but not my ears. My ears heard every cry escaping the mouths of the dying. Every scream was captured, every tear hitting the water left an echoing beat pulsating in my cochlea. We huddled together, wondering where our savior was. Wondering if he was in the water, or had been lucky enough to make it to a boat himself. I looked over at the red-haired girl named Ellie sitting beside me. Her breath seemed to freeze into tiny droplets of ice the instant it hit the air. This was how it was going to end. I was never going to make it to America. I was never going to see my brother greet me in New York. I was never going to be reunited with my family. And I was never going to marry Joseph. I was never going to survive. It was nothing like the way the movies portrayed it to be. No individual, no matter how great their creative mind, can imagine how terrifying that night was. I survived because of one man, but that story will come later. I must start at the very beginning, before Titanic met its fate at the bottom of the Atlantic. Before I even got on board. Life Before Titanic I was Colleen Quinlan then. A vivacious girl with too much spirit for her own good, my ma said. I was neither beautiful nor plain, with fiery emerald eyes and brown locks that were blessed with a bubbly curl. My brother, Connor, had moved to America three years before, when he was sixteen, and when he had enough money saved, he sent for me. I fought my parents about leaving Ireland. It meant that I would have to leave them, my four younger siblings, and my love, Joseph. I had never before in my life

parents insisted that I go, that I was meant for America. “You are to do great things, lass. You have too much spirit for Ireland. America will let you do what you need with your spunk. You will be a suitable lady,” my ma said. It was a four month battle that I inevitably lost. My da came home one day with a ticket for the R.M.S. Titanic. I had a third class passage on the grandest ship in the world. “You’ll board in Queenstown, Collie. That’s it, no more argument,” my da ordered. We never spoke of my departure until the morning I left. Until then, I helped Ma with the little ones and snuck away as much as I could to see Joseph. We would laugh, talk, swim, or just run through the fields. No matter what, I knew that I could always be happy with Joseph. We talked about our life together. About the kids we would have and what jobs we would do in New York. He was the only person I ever told I wanted to be a writer to. “You must go Lee,” he told me reassuringly, using my nickname as a method to console me. “America offers so much. Why just twenty years ago they were giving away land for free! Can you imagine? Free land! And I’ll be there soon, I promise. Once we’re together, we can marry, have our own family, and you can write whatever you please.” When Joseph talked, it felt like a dream. A dream created for the two of us, waiting to come true in this new land. But when I thought about it alone, all I could feel was the terror and sadness about leaving everything I had ever known to go to a country I knew

left Ireland and I never wanted to. My

nothing about. I never cried in front of Page 3

Joseph, but once we bid each other good night and went unwillingly back to our separate homes, the tears would skid down my cheeks and caress the blades of grass below me as if the motherland knew my pain and was crying with me. On April 11, 1912, my ma, da, and four little brothers and sisters walked with me to Queenstown. Da said that Joseph couldn’t come. His reason was that this was an occasion meant for family only, but I knew it was really because he was afraid that if I had to walk onto the boat directly out of Joseph’s arms, I would jump overboard to be with him again. As I obediently followed them to Queenstown, I felt as if my ankles were bound by irons, slowly trudging towards my prison, sailing to my doom. If I had only known then. The Ship of Dreams Titanic had one duty to my family and me; take me to America, and that was how I thought of the ship. But when I saw it patiently waiting for me climb aboard in Queenstown, I will admit that I was beyond speechless. Never

before in my life had I ever seen anything so magnificent. There are no words to describe how I felt at that moment because even today I am unsure. My ma, da, and siblings gawked in wonder as did every other Irish man, woman, and child around us. They said Titanic was unsinkable. Never before had I looked at iron the way I looked at Titanic. She was a ship, which I had seen a few of in my sixteen years, but she was different. Titanic glorified the idea of America. She symbolized what the land of opportunity was holding out to us. “My Collie will arrive in America in style,” my da announced. “Have you ever seen a ship like this? No. Do you know why? Because only an American would be able to sail on a fine boat like this. And my Collie’s going to be a bonafide American.” I don’t know if it was his lustrous smile or my captivation with the ship, but I found myself eager to go aboard and see if the interior of Titanic was as alluring as her figure. Of course I was checked for lice and other diseases. White Star Line

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would never allow its third class passengers to contaminate their wealthy, elite, and immaculate upper class travelers. As the service man poked through my hair like a monkey searching for food, I could not help but begin to struggle with feelings of guilt. I knew my ma and da wanted me to go, but I had promised myself to Joseph and I was leaving everyone behind. And now, standing there looking at that ship, I could not help but begin to anticipate everything America had to offer. Connor had written me about how dreadful the conditions were when he sailed to America. But I would not have to endure such a horrible experience. I was beginning my new life before I had even touched American soil. I was starting over aboard Titanic. “You’re a real lady now Colleen,” my ma whispered in my ear as I bid her farewell. I kissed baby Katie, who squirmed in my brother Steven’s arms. Evelyn and Patrick hugged me, but I don’t think they realized that I was leaving forever. And then there was my da. He was the biggest man I knew, standing 6’4” and a burly one at that. But right then, he looked like a child

wished I was again. And I was off. Off to my new life, leaving behind my presence in the old, but never my heart. My heart would always be in Ireland until my family and Joseph joined me in America. The Journey I wish I had some sort of elaborate story about my first few days at sea, but I don’t. I spent the day of April 11th walking around the ship. Well, walking around the ship in the designated areas that third class was given. But to me, class didn’t matter. The so-called steerage accommodations were breath taking. The sheets were fresh and the blankets soft, indicating that no one had slept in my bed before me. I had never slept in a bed by myself. For my entire life, I had slept with at least one of my siblings. I roomed with three other women. Two of them were Swedish and didn’t know a word of English, but the third was Irish. Her name was Molly Connolly and she was from Dublin. Molly was an orphan who had a sister in Boston, Massachusetts. She had left Molly four and a half years earlier and had just saved enough

who needed consoling from a parent. His green eyes no longer sparkled, but dropped like a pup who had lost its way. “You be good Collie. Make us proud and tell Connor we love him,” he managed to say before having to clear his throat. “I love ya lass. You know that, aye?” “Aye, da. I know,” I murmured as I clung to him. I hadn’t been in a little girl in a long time, but right then, I

money to bring her little sister over. Molly was a year younger than myself and she was as Irish as they came. Eyes so perfectly circular they looked like the communion I received each Sunday. And her hair. Molly’s hair was a blinding red that was as untamable as her temper. I knew Molly no more than two hours before I learned that her vocabulary consisted of cuss words and negative remarks. She was a corker that Molly Connolly. I didn’t Page 5

know then, but that fireball of a tomboy would become my best friend on Titanic. Molly was ambitious and a troublesome girl. It was obvious that no one had cared about her well-being for quite some time and she took this as an invitation to act as she pleased. First and second class promenades meant nothing to Molly. I watched in amazement one morning as she climbed over the railing and began prancing behind a wealthy couple, mimicking their motions and silently mocking their speech. I nearly wet myself with laughter, but the employees of the White Star Line did not find Molly as amusing as I. They immediately grabbed her and told her that if she left her end of the ship again, they would have her enter America as a convict. But when Molly heard this, she cocked her head sideways, narrowed her round eyes and told the man to get his bloody hands off her or she would have him enter America as a convict. We met a good amount of people in steerage, but were never given the chance to interact with first and second class, and that was what White Star Line and the wealthy

and I was a little shy in the beginning. But as I began to get to know all of my new friends over the course of three days, I began to feel more comfortable. We were all planning on settling in New York, except for Molly, and it was reassuring to know that I would not be alone in my new home. Women and Children Only Despite what reporters wanted to hear, all surviving passengers will attest that when Titanic struck the iceberg, it was only a faint shutter, not a debilitating impact that they all hoped the ship felt when she met the beginning of the end. I was putting on my night clothes when I felt the floor below me stall in small, close intervals, almost as if the Morse codes alerts were being typed the instant we hit the iceberg. The engines stopped within minutes, but I was not worried since this was my first ride on a boat and I knew nothing about their procedures. But Molly knew that something wasn’t right. She shot out of bed like a firecracker just being lit. I feared for whoever first floated into her path because her fuse would explode directly in their face, stinging them with profanities and

wanted. There were passengers from America, Russia, Sweden, Britain, Ireland, and many other countries. Molly and I became close with three other girls from Ireland, Nora, Shannon, and Eileen who slept in the room two down from us. We also met Shannon’s brothers Sean and Brian, and a few other boys on the ship. I had never sat and talked with more than one boy at a time in my life

noise. Molly stormed back in the room a few minutes later, her cheeks blazing as if her hair had torched them. Her head moved in spasms as she looked around the room. “Where are they?” she yelled, getting on her hands and knees to check under the bunks. “Where are what?” I asked, trying to peer around and see if I could locate something she may be looking Page 6

Third Class Dining Room

The Third Class General Room where I spent most of my time

One of the cabins in Third Class like the one

I slept in

A First Class State Room, showing the obvious difference between the wealthy and the poor, which later proved to determine who was put into the lifeboats first

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for. She kept pushing around suitcases and throwing stray garments around the room as if she were a rabid dog ravenously searching for its next prey. “Where are our bloody life jackets?” Molly yelled, as she stood up and spun around the room as if that would help her locate them sooner. No sooner had she finished spinning did she see four life preservers resting on the top shelf of the room. She jumped in the air and knocked the jackets off of the shelf with the tip of her index and middle finger. They tumbled to the floor, dispersing neatly at her feet. “Molly, the ship can’t sink. Haven’t ya heard? Titanic’s unsinkable!” I exclaimed, trying to ease her nerves. “That’s bloody rubbish, Colleen. This boat ain’t unsinkable. It’s just like every other ship, but prettier. I don’t care if you wanna stay here and wait to see what’s happened, but I heard we hit an iceberg and I’m willing to go up top and look like a right hoor in front of everyone, even first class folk, if it means I survive.” I was not stunned at her outburst, but amused at the fact she was willing to look like a right hoor because she already was one to many. A right hoor is a dislikeable person and Molly Connolly had a personality

we had no way of communicating with one another. We left our cabins and got Nora, Shannon, and Eileen and told them to come with us. Eileen said that she wanted to stay in bed and for us to come and tell her what was going on. Molly tried to get her out of bed, yelling at her, calmly coaxing her, and at one point grabbing the blankets and trying to tear them off the bed and bring Eileen down with them. But she refused and Molly angrily stormed out of the room, as Nora, Shannon, and I followed. We decided that we would go up top and see what was going on before we went back and got Eileen, Shannon’s brothers, and the other boys. Our cabins were on E deck of the ship and we had to climb the stairs up to the boat deck to find out what was going on. After five flights, we were all relieved to breath in the fresh ocean air, but the cold quickly froze our relief. Up top there was a larger crowd than I expected. Some were properly dressed for the cold and others were huddling together to stay warm until they heard the news that they had nothing to fear and could return to their cabins. Molly pushed her way forward, even shoving some first class

like arsenic at times, bitter and deadly. But she was bright, As smart as they come and I knew that she knew more about ships than I ever would. I was willing to risk looking like a fool with her if it meant that I would live. I had to redress, but Molly told me to wear my clothes over my pajamas and then put on anything warm I had and then my life preserver. We left the other two neatly on the Swedish girls’ beds. We didn’t know where they were because

passengers who looked disgusted to have to share a boat deck with peasants like us. But Molly didn’t care. She marched up to an officer and stared him straight in the eyes. She was not a decent distance away from that man. She was so close that when they both exhaled their breath intertwined into one unified body of smoke. The officer tried to maintain his calm, but you could see that he was unsure if she was Page 8

going to yell at him, strike him, or talk politely to him. To tell the truth, none of us were sure what Molly was going to do. “Can I help you ma’am?” he finally stammered. “Aye, you can. You can tell me what is going on and if I need to fear for me life, sir. And I don’t want the sugary tale that you’re spoon feeding the rich with. I want the absolute truth. I demand to know if I should keep me preserver on and hop in a boat or go back downstairs and stay warm.” I think both the officer and I released a small sigh of relief. Molly had maintained her calm and finally succumbed to the notion that you attract more bees with honey. Whether or not she would actually admit it was another thing, though. “In all honesty ma’am?” the officer whispered, “I would tell you and the other lasses you’re with to hop in those boats as fast as you can and to stay there until otherwise. You hear?” Molly smiled and thanked the man. She turned towards us and ordered

us to march as if we were her cavalry. We had to go back down and get Eileen and the boys. As we made our way back down to steerage, I noticed that there were steerage passengers in a panic than there were wealthy. They must all think they’re unsinkable too, I thought, as I hurried behind Molly, while Shannon clung to my sleeve We finally made it back to E deck and found Eileen already dressed and wearing her life preserver. She didn’t have to say that she was wrong and Molly didn’t need to hear that she was right. All we wanted to do was find the boys and get into a lifeboat before it was too late. As we went to the other end of E deck where the men slept, we noticed several rats scampering by. Nora shrieked, but Molly reassured us that this was the right way because the rats were running away something and to safety and that’s where we wanted to be. Sean, Brian, and the other lads met us half way and we all went up to the main passage. There was a small

A calculated image of where Titanic hit the iceberg Page 9

crowd outside of the gate and we saw two White Star Line employees telling us that that they could not let us through until the first class had boarded the lifeboats. Sean and Brian pushed us girls to the front and we persistently told them that there were women and children down below, but they refused. It seemed like eternity, waiting down in that narrow shaft, praying that I was given a chance to survive. there weren’t enough lifeboats and we all knew it. By the time first and second class were saved, there would be no room for us. We waited. That was all that we could do. Stand there and pathetically look at the two employees who ironically held our fate in their hands. They couldn’t make a go for the lifeboats either because they had to stand guard as we blindly watched our lives become shorter and shorter. The line had quickly grown since we had made our way to the front and below us you could hear and feel the panic levels begin to rise as the women became frantic for their children and the men angry

left as I clasped Sean’s with my right. We formed a long chain of bodies as we descended down the stairs. It wasn’t really a descent as much as it was like a heap of pigs crawling over one another. There were now seven open spots at the front of the gate and other passengers began fighting to take the lead. Chaos had begun. This Man, This Savior We got to the bottom of the stairs and followed the strange man down the nearby passageway. There were four other girls with him. He two looked about my age, one was around eight years of age, and the fourth looked about three, though I couldn’t get a clear look at her at first because this man was carrying her in his arms. “Where we going?” Shannon asked her brother, Brian. “That man, Martin, says he knows a way to get you girls up to the lifeboats before they are all gone,” Brian explained, hurrying us along. We reached a small opening that was kept closed by a equally small

for their families. A man tapping on Sean’s shoulder caught my attention and I saw the two of them beginning to whisper. I tried to lean closer and hear what was going on, but the noise below me which had begun as a mild roar had escalated into a fuming wrath of hostility and terror. “Molly, Colleen, grab the girls and come with us,” Sean ordered as he turned and followed the mysterious man. I took Molly’s hand into my

door. Martin handed the little girl to me and lifted the hatchet that hid this tiny portal of freedom from the rest of steerage. I peered in and saw various platforms that changed levels so they could be easily climbed. “What is this?” I asked, moving the small child from my right hip to my left. ‘It’s a hatchway,” Martin answered, stepping aside and motioning Molly and the other girls to step forward. “I’m going to climb up first and help you girls come up. Sean and Page 10

Brian are going to help you girls climb up and when we get to the top, you’ll get into a lifeboat.” “What about you?” Shannon asked, looking frantically from one brother to the other. “They won’t let lads on the boats, Shannon. We have to wait until the women and children are on and they aren’t letting steerage come up yet. This is the only way we can save women and children. We’re going to get you lasses up there and into boats and then come back for more. We don’t want the men to find out, though. Do not tell anyone where you came from when you get up there,” Brian instructed as he fastened his life jacket onto the eight year old girl. Shannon nodded, as did the rest of us. We understood what the boys were doing. We knew that they would must likely never get off this ship. This was the only chance we had to survive.

At least, it was the only chance we knew of at the moment until they unlocked the gates. Martin climbed one platform first and I followed. Molly handed me the small girl and I handed her up to Martin. He told the little girl to not move from the platform until I told her to. I looked down and saw Molly Beginning to climb the first platform and then a red-haired girl following her. “Keep climbing Colleen,” Martin yelled above me. “When you get to the next platform, hand me Katie.” I looked up when he said that name and thought of my baby sister who was about a year younger than this little girl. I wanted so badly now to be back in Ireland with my family and Joseph. Any eagerness I may have had about going to America had been chipped away when Titanic had collided with the iceberg. But I couldn’t think about home now. I had to focus on

One of the many lifeboats that left without steerage passengers Page 11

living through this night. We climbed what seemed like forever until Martin got to the top and I handed Katie to him. He lifted me up to the top of the deck and looked around to see if anyone had noticed the extra heads that had suddenly appeared in first and second class territory. Within minutes, Molly, Shannon, Nora, Eileen, and the other girls had all joined us. Martin looked around and I could see his calculating eyes searching for his next move. There was a new life boat and Martin saw this as the first available opportunity. He looked at me, deep in the eyes, and his soft blue eyes were like cameras, trying to make this image last for the rest of his life, however long it may be. “I’m gonna lift you over the railing Colleen. I’m going to lift all of you over and you’re going to get into that lifeboat yonder. You hear me? And you hold onto these little girls with your life. They’re my sisters and I want them to make it to New York,” Martin no longer looked brave as he talked about his sisters. He looked like a man

officer immediately spotted us and instructed us to step ahead and get into the boat. The last thing I saw before the boat was lowered was Martin’s face. He was looking to make sure I had his little sister Katie in my lap and the other sitting next to me on the right. As the boat lowered, he gave us a small wave and then disappeared. I never did thank him for saving me. Waiting And that’s where I stayed. I stayed in that boat for hours, clutching onto Katie, making sure she was warm and all right. Molly had become the caretaker to Martin’s other sister. She wouldn’t speak at first, but with some kind words and reassurance, we managed to find out that her name was Bridgett. We sat there for hours, huddled in the cold. We were far enough that we didn’t see the bodies floating in the water, but we could hear them. The ship was gone, forever buried under

who was handing his heart over to a stranger that he was praying would be honest and do as he asked. “I promise, I’ll watch them,” I said, as I took his hand into mine. “You saved my life Martin. I’ll do whatever you ask.” He smiled and then lifted me in the air without notice. Within seconds I felt the floor beneath my feet again, but it was different this time. I felt as if I was standing on new ground, even though it was the same floor. This new land beneath me was my freedom, my future, my life. I grasped Katie in my arms and waited as my friends and the other women were over the railing. An

millions of gallons of water. It took down with her many, many lives, but left even more to try and fight the water. It wasn’t a matter of drowning. It was the temperature. Those people were going to freeze and become permanent fixtures in the ocean. Sean, Brian, Martin. All of them were told they didn’t deserve to live because they were the wrong sex and the wrong class. And then she came. The Carpathia arrived, picking up one life boat at a time. I was in life boat #15, which was neither the first nor last boat saved by Carpathia. But I was saved. Never before in my life had I Page 12

ever been so thankful to be warm. Workers on the Carpathia seemed to attack us with blankets and hot coffee as we boarded. They looked at us stunned and somewhat horrified. All of us had skin as white as the snow, with dark black circles so unimaginable it would have been easy to assume that we had used coal to dramatize the effect if you hadn’t known what we had just endured. Class still mattered on the Carpathia. They divided all us between classes so survivors could locate family members easier, but we also slept in different accommodations. And then on April 18th around 9:30 pm, we arrived in New York. I had imagined what the Statue of Liberty looked like hundreds of times, but my image was clouded by the darkness of the night. That same darkness had plagued my journey on Titanic and followed me to my new life. It was a dreary welcome to a turbulent adventure. My new life had begun on Titanic and I prayed that America was kinder to me than that

the man who was responsible for both my life and my son’s. Four more babies followed: Sean, Jilleen, Brian, and Rebecca. Molly Connolly moved to Boston, but came to New York four years later with her husband. She had four children and worked as a teacher until she retired. To this day, we not only live next door to one another, but are still best friends. I have lost touch with Nora and Shannon. Last I heard, Nora had married and moved out west and Shannon was living down South. Once we landed in New York, everyone seemed to want to go their separate ways. Bridgett and Katie Gallagher, Martin’s younger sisters, lived with Joseph and I until they both married. We raised them as if they were our own, but always made sure they remembered Martin and how much he loved them. And so there is the truth about Titanic. It was not a detailed, imagined

ship had been. or a Afterlife I lived with my brother and in dedication the spring of 1914, my parents and siblings arrived in New York. Joseph had made the journey a few months before in September of 1913. We waited to marry until my whole family was reunited. I never sold my story like so many others. I wasn’t ashamed, but it was a subject that I could not face for a long time. Joseph encouraged me to write and I became a reporter for this very paper when I was only twenty years old. I continued to write after the birth of my first child, Martin, named after

account from an aspiring author dramatized film from a Hollywood producer. It was the truth, handed to you by a survivor. It was a and honorary piece in the name of Martin Gallagher, Sean and Brian Fitzpatrick, and every other individual who lost their life on that ship and saved the lives of many others.