//------------------------------// // To Catch a Pony // Story: On a Sea of Glass.... And Ponies // by JustAnotherHistoryBuff //------------------------------// RMS Titanic Pier 54, Manehattan April 17th Throughout all the decks, all was silent. Passengers and crew members alike were asleep in the beds and bunks, preparing themselves mentally for the next day. However, not all were asleep. Take the officers for instance, fighting among each other in a drunken haze inside the Officer's Mess up on the Boat Deck. Captain Smith, the poor soul, was busy trying to get some sleep inside his cabin to try and drown out the thought of being in a new world. And then that leads to the two wireless operators, the chairman, and the Chief Designer, all sitting alone in Ismay's large suite with a bottle of wine between them. Originally, Phillips and Bride were not even invited, but when Ismay saw the two friends skulking around on the decks, he decided to let them in. And now here they sat, glasses in hand, silent as the night. From the way they looked, they looked like they were all in deep thought, and that it was. Families were on their minds of course, with Andrews thinking of his wife Helen and 2 year old daughter Elizabeth, Ismay thinking of his own wife and children at home in England, and Bride and Phillips thinking of the families they left behind when the joined up with the Marconi Company. No sounds departed from their mouths other from the faint sound of one of the sipping wine every now and then. Silence was their only solace. After a while, Andrews decided to get up from the chair in the sitting room and decided to head out to the Private Promenade, taking his glass with him. From there, he proceeded to open up one of the Promenade windows with one of the window cranks in the corner. Opening the window, Andrews let the cool city air blow into the Promenade as if it were air entering an airlock. All in front of him, the city was alive. The shining lights of the city reminded him so much of New York. Everything looked almost exactly like the city... but it simply wasn't New York. No... it was some twisted reality that he found himself thrown into along with everyone else on board the ship. Was it punishment for the sinking, punishment for not pushing through and having more lifeboats be put on the ship? He wanted answers, but he knew that he would never get them. All he could do was simply resign himself to the facts presented to him, and make do with what he had. So there Thomas Andrews was, sitting in a lounge chair, starring out into the vast cityscape of Manehattan, unsure of the future. *** *** *** While the four men sat alone in silence, back up on the Boat Deck, panic was about. Bursting out of the officer's mess, a small hooded figure ran about on the deck heading aft. Soon after, 7 half-drunken and half-shocked officers burst out of the door attempting to catch up with the small hooded figure. Reaching the aft-end of the Boat Deck and seeing nowhere to go, the figure ran into the Second Class staircase and made a mad dash down the stairs. When the officers followed, only Wilde, Moody, and Lowe were able to keep balanced while the rest tumbled down the stairs (Lightoller in part because they all forgot to untie his bindings.) Reaching the B-Deck Second Class promenade, the figure tried to make its way into the Second Class entrance only to find it locked. With the officers closing in behind it, the creature tried the next. Oddly enough, the door was unlocked and the creature soon found itself in the Cafe Parisian in all of its beauty. But there was no time to stop as the voice of a drunken Scotsman roared from behind it. "There it is boys! Move yer arses!" Murdoch yelled, pointing in the direction of the Cafe's backdoor entrance. "Fer god's sake... untie me ye bastards!" Lightoller yelled. "Oh fer th... Moody, untie L.....LIGHTS!" Wilde ordered, nearly forgetting Lightoller's name. "Yesh Sir!" Moody said with a sloppy salute. While Moody untied Lightoller the best he could in their drunken state of mind, the rest of the officers chased the hooded figure through the cafe up to the aft grand staircase. What followed suit was a large amount of cursing and drunken slurs as the officers attempted to open up the port brazen door which led to the port B-Deck First Class corridor. By the time they reached the main staircase, the figure had all but vanished and once again, the officers began to argue among themselves. They only stopped arguing when a quite irate figure popped up behind their backs with a face of near full on rage with 3 other men behind him. *** *** *** When Andrews decided to go out onto the Promenade, it wasn't long until Ismay, Bride, and Phillips followed suit. They remained quiet though, letting the sounds of the bustling city drown out the quiet atmosphere. It wasn't long though before the awkward silence that dominated the room was finally broken when Ismay began to compare the city to New York from his past visits. Eventually, the conversations evolved into each of the men's own tales from their hometowns. The mood had somewhat lightened, but still their conversation was soft and calm, not as hearty as the ever ridiculous (and sadly true) Tales of Lightoller were when Murdoch told them the stories the previous day. The conversation only ended when the sound of men arguing like children came from the hallway. The fact that they were on the Promenade and that they could hear it meant that it was quite loud. Getting up from his lounge chair, Ismay made his way up to the door to see what the commotion was about, Andrews, Bride, and Phillips following suit. What they saw was a sight they would never forget. If one had never seen 7 ranking seamen drunk and arguing like children before, then this was their perfect opportunity to do so. Seeing such a sight saw Ismay forget about his own worries and he found himself quite angered. Looking behind him, he was surprised to see a quite puzzled face on Andrews before it turned into a face of slight anger and puzzlement combined. The two wireless operators however wore faces of shock and compressed laughter. Ismay really couldn't blame the boys, they were still youngsters after all. It took a while for the officers to stop arguing as they were too drunk to even notice their own surroundings. However, it took one quite loud "Ahem" from Ismay to get them to turn around. When Wilde turned around, it looked like he was about to say something smart towards Ismay but when he laid eyes on Ismay's face, his eyes went as wide as pie-lids as he quickly shut his mouth. When the others saw Ismay, it was as if they had all became sober immediately stared into Ismay's eyes with fear clearly in their glassy eyes. Now Ismay had their attention. "Officer Wilde, what are you and your men doing?" Ismay said calmly, surprising the officers. "M-mr Ismay... we was uh...." Wilde tried to say as he nearly drifted into a drunken haze. "Wilde!" Ismay snapped. "Y.... Yes Sir! We were chasin' a uh..." "A what?" "Uh... c'mon boys, help me out here." Wilde asked. "I don't know hic what the hell that... uh... thing was." Lightoller said, still trying to remember. "Yeah... it was damn well short hic though... looked like it was covered with dark sheets." Moody added in. "Oh yeah! It uh.... what was it... damn.... it had something that took a large flash. I swear my eyes still hurt from uh... from that." Murdoch said while rubbing his eyes. "You sure it wasn't the alcohol Murdoch?" Bride muttered under his breath. "What was that Bride?" Murdoch yelled. "Hm? I said nothing." "Sure..." Murdoch said before turning his still drunken head towards Ismay. Ismay was about to give the officers a thorough reprimand but was stopped when the sound of a piano began to fill the halls of the ship. Immediately all of their eyes darted towards the Grand Staircase as the music grew into an ominous crescendo. "Lights... get the guns... we are ending this now." Murdoch ordered. "Already on it." Lightoller said as he tried to make his way up the stairs to the Officers Quarters. "No, you will not be getting the guns." Andrews finally said. His voice was firm and he did not waiver when Lightoller shot him a drunken glare. They stared at each other for a minute before the music began to grow louder once again. "Give me the keys Lightoller... you are in no shape to even handle a firearm." Andrews said, slowly walking over to the somewhat drunken officer. "I am as sober as the Captain, thank you very much." Lightoller said, his head bobbing up and down with every word. "No... you are not, now hand me the damned keys Mister Lightoller." It took a while but Lightoller finally (albeit reluctantly) gave Andrews the keys to the safe in the Murdoch's room. For the few minutes Andrews was gone, Ismay and the two Wireless operators had to make sure that the drunken officers did not manage to break anything. It got to the point where they had to be sat in chairs and placed in timeout like children. When Andrew's steps could be heard coming down from the staircase, the lights began to flicked for some reason and a couple of the officers huddled under the chairs like children (it looked like Lightoller and Murdoch). "These pistols are brand new gentlemen." Andrews called when he was starting down the stairs to B-Deck. "We had them purchased in surplus actually so those are simply well kept, not brand new Mr Andrews." Ismay said. "Hm... Alright, I brought them all down in case one of our prestigious officers somewhat sobered up." Andrews said while handing a pistol to Ismay. "Have you boys ever shot before?" Ismay asked. "Um... No Mr Ismay, I haven't shot a gun in my life Sir." Phillips replied. "Same here." said Bride. "Alright..." Ismay said with a sigh. It was time for the next best option. "Alright you drunken fools. I want you all to stand up... If you can." Ismay directed towards the officers in timeout. Wilde and Pitman were able to stand up immediately to the surprise of Ismay while the rest stumbled out of their chairs or simply fell down back into them. When they all finally stood up, he turned to Andrews and motioned for him to come over. "Are the guns even loaded?" He whispered in Andrews' ear. "No, why would anyone knowingly give a bunch of drunkards a loaded gun? Besides, I'd rather try to solve this problem without putting a few bullets into whatever this thing is or the ship's paneling." Andrews said with a chuckle handing Wilde and Pitman the unloaded pistols. Bride and Phillips protested until Ismay showed them that none of the guns were loaded behind the drunken officer's backs. Once everything was set, the 11 men set down the stairs towards the ominous music coming down from the Reception Room. With each careful step, one of the drunken officers nearly slipping on each step. When they finally managed to reach D-Deck, the lights suddenly dimmed and Ismay thought he heard a couple a squeals from a few of the officers. "I'll go check the breaker." Andrews said, making his way through the dark to the starboard gangway which housed the electrical breaker. Just then, hell broke loose. The piano music grew louder and everyone paused and stood still. Pistols in hand, Ismay, Wilde, Andrews, and Pitman made their way slowly to the piano with the others in tow grabbing furniture to strike the intruder. When they managed to surround the piano without being noticed, Andrews and Wilde moved up to apprehend the cloaked figure. Unbeknownst to them, a trip wire was in front of the two. Andrews nearly caught himself but managed to move over it in the dark but the still somewhat drunken Wilde stumbled over it falling flat on his face. Out of nowhere, the sound of a large cannon shook the entire room as suddenly, the cloaked figure disappeared into the darkness. Suddenly without warning, a voice sounded from behind the 11 men. "Surprise!" It called out. "It's a ghost! Everyone run for your lives!" Murdoch drunkenly yelled out. As soon as he yelled it, the 7 officers began to scramble around the dark room, at one point nearly trampling poor Bride. In the meantime, Wilde and Pitman furiously tried to pull the trigger of their guns as they tried to shoot in any and every direction to no avail, suddenly realizing that the guns weren't loaded. In all the chaos, Andrews was able to make his way passed the mass of drunken humanity towards the breaker switch and turn the lights back on to find Ismay sitting in a chair with his head slumped down, Phillips attempting to get Bride out from under Lowe, and the rest of the officers either knocked out or simply asleep on the reception room floor. Absently, he wished he had decided to spend the night in his room. *** *** *** Like any good White Star Line employee, Charles Joughin woke up early to prepare his daily rounds. Of course, given the circumstances, he did what any sensible man would do in such a time, take a few drinks. He only took enough to fall asleep of course, not wanting to go overboard like he thought he did on the 15th. After the customary preparation and oversight of the bakery, Joughin made his way to the dining room to see how the tables were being set only to find Mr Andrews, Mr Ismay, the two wireless operators, and the ships officers sat down in chairs sleeping while the room around them looked slightly ajar. Not letting his curiosity get the best of him, Joughin made his way back to the kitchen to let the stewards know of the mess.