Page 59 - Titanic: The Untold Tale of Gay Passengers and Crew

Titanic 45

raucous shrill of the alarm bells activated by First Officer
William Murdock on the bridge.
In the postal sorting room on G Deck, the clerks began
their hasty removal of mail to the high er decks. The eleva-
tors were not working, but the lights remained on without
a flicker.
“Assess the damage,” Captain Edward Smith ordered. To
his dis may, at midnight, as Sunday, 14 April, became Monday,
15 April, he found that no more than twelve square feet of
Titanic had been breached, but those twelve feet stretched, in
a tear 3 inches wide, 300 feet along the ship’s length, flooding
five compartments. The ship could float with even the first
four compart ments flooded; but she could not survive the
breaching of the fifth. “Had we but a moon,” the Captain
said, “we might have seen the face of the berg.” Well he
might have said, “Had we but a moon, we might have seen
the face of God.”
At 12:15, the Marconi Wire less room sent Titanic’s first
distress signals. Twenty-one-year-old Robert Hallam, wire-
less operator on the east bound Carpathia, 58 miles south of
Titanic’s position, was stripping for bed, sleepily touching his
penis, and about to turn off his receiver for the night, when
he caught the call. Carpathia’s Captain wheeled his course
around making his slow, careful way through the ice fields
of the open sea.
“I believe we’ve stopped,” I said.
Still nothing changed. Through the Grand Ballroom win-
dow, I could see into the first-class dining rooms. Stewards
were putting the finishing touches on the breakfast table
settings.
Molly kicked one high-but toned shoe up on the white
linen table cloth. “My feet are still dry!” She made everyone