The bright blue beautiful sky looking brighter than ever. Hanging over the the bright blue beautiful sea. The ship, 833 feet long, four smokestacks. Looking around at the people boarding the ship, I saw a man in nice clothing. I noticed the smile he had was just as enthusiastic as the one I wore. The sun was so bright it seemed like the entire universe was smiling excitedly.

“Are you the captain of this beauty?” the man said, pointing at the ship in amazement.

“Yes I am. Ted Johnson, and you are?” I was walking up onto the titan next to him. I still couldn’t believe they wanted me to be the captain. Then I looked around and noticed that many people looked like kids after their first Christmas.

“The name’s Jimmy,” he responded.

“Which class?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“First,” he answered.

“What do you do for a living? How'd you get the four thousand euros needed for the ticket?” The ship was being boarded by hundreds of people.

“I’m a businessman.” By the time the ship started to move along the water, there were about 4,000 tickets sold, and many were second and third class passengers. The first dinner was entertaining with a lot of laughter.

“How are you liking the trip so far?” I asked many families as I walked passed them on my way to the cockpit. Many of the people I asked said that they were liking the trip. I ended up walking past one of the three cigar rooms; it was hard to not cough. I’ve  never seen New York before. My family was waiting there to welcome me to The Empire State.

The fourth day in, almost at America. It was 11:50, April 12, 1914, and I heard crew members yell “Iceberg!” My hands slithered around the controls like a snake as I was pulling the levers to go full reverse while trying to turn the ship away from the iceberg. No thoughts, just instinct.

As we approached the iceberg, the snow white mound increased in size, and I felt myself working quickly and without thought.

Clark, one of the workers asked, “We’re not making it, are we?” He knew what I meant by the look I gave him. “Get the lifeboats ready for boarding!” I heard him yell.

The musicians had the same fate as me. The lack of lifeboats was a problem that was not addressed. “Women and children first,” I remember hearing while I was still in training.

BOOM came a loud noise along with the ship shaking. I looked up in the sky at the blood red glow of the flares. The only people who can live are either immune to cold or on lifeboats, I thought to myself, knowing that no one is immune to cold. CRACK, as the boat's front completely broke off, sinking at a rapid speed.

I was running to the end of the ship along with everyone that didn’t get onto the lifeboats.

“That was the last lifeboat!” The noise stayed in my head, along with the screaming from entire families still left on the Titan.

“Ahhhhhh!” People screamed as they jumped into the navy blue water that had already taken hundreds of lives. Soon after that it was my turn. The musicians blew and plucked at their instruments, playing until death, others scrambling to the end of the ship next to me.

“What happened? I thought the ship was unsinkable?” a woman asked between little spurts of crying.

“Me too,” I said. “Everyone did.” I was happy to talk;  it kept my mind off the imminent.

“I’m sorry the ship didn’t live up to its name,” I said as the tears on my face started running like a river. The nip of cold made it feel like a frozen lake more than a river, the rescue ships in the distance underneath the dark sky of the early morning, the icy sensation crawling up my legs, drawing me closer to death.

This is it, I thought because the rescue ships weren’t fast enough. Eventually, after a few minutes of freezing, everything started to become darker. Eventually the darkness consumed me.

-Tyler Bristol