‘There are no more boats on this deck,’ Harry shouted. ‘Follow me.’
He took the group towards another ladder then, which led up to the boat deck, the highest point on the ship. This ladder was already teeming with bodies; people of all age and class trying desperately to get up to the remaining boats as they felt the forward compartments of the ship sink further and further under the water. Large, burly men pushed past Maggie in an attempt to secure their own escape, or to help women and children who were with them get a foothold on the ladder. A Priest stood reciting prayers as a group huddled together at his feet, their heads bowed.
It was a desperate, frantic moment which frightened Maggie to her core. She knew that Harry, Maura and Jack Brennan, Eileen Brennan and young Michael Kelly were ahead of her. Behind her were Peggy, Katie and the rest of the girls with Pat insisting he follow the last of them up. Struggling with all her might against the surge of bodies behind her, she eventually got a foothold on the ladder and started to climb.
‘Oh, Jesus, my hat.’
She knew immediately it was Peggy’s voice and craning her neck around, saw her friend scrabbling about on the deck for her hat which had been knocked off her head. In the confusion, others climbed up ahead of her, forcing Katie and the others back.
‘Peggy,’ Maggie cried. ‘Peggy, leave it. We have to go. Katie….’
Pushed along by the momentum of the crowd behind her, Maggie had no choice but to keep climbing, emerging onto the boat deck terrified, shivering uncontrollably with the cold and separated from everyone from her group, other than the few who stood with her.
The emergency rockets being fired into the sky sent a bright red light across the ship which was now audibly creaking and groaning under the strain of the water flooding the lower compartments.
Maura Brennan stared wildly around at the unfamiliar faces emerging from the ladder behind them. ‘Maggie, where are the others? They were right behind us.’
‘They got pushed back. I don’t know. I don’t know where they are.’ Maggie’s fear developed into gasping tears then, the enormity of what was happening suddenly hitting her. ‘I don’t know where they are, and I don’t know where Aunt Kathleen is either.’
Grabbing her arm, Harry pulled Maggie and the others he had managed to bring up the ladder towards a lifeboat. ‘It’s women and children first,’ he told them. ‘The men will follow.’
Maura Brennan grasped Harry’s arm. ‘What in God’s name d’ye mean? Can we not all go together?’
‘Officer’s orders Miss. Women and children first.’
A terrible silence fell over the group then. Maggie looked at all their faces.
An Officer manning the boat started shouting at them urgently. ‘Everyone in, Miss. Come on, everyone in. There’s room for a few more.’
Seeing that Maura was pregnant he ushered her towards the boat, pushing Eileen and Maggie with her. A surge of passengers behind them caused them all them to be pushed forward, their legs crushed momentarily against the hard edge of the lifeboat. Some men tried to clamber aboard. A gunshot rang out. Maggie turned to see the Officer waving his gun in the air.
‘Get back men. Get back and wait your turn.’
Amid all the confusion, Maura Brennan stood perfectly still, a determined composure and certainty about her. ‘I’ll not go.’ Maggie stared at Maura who stood at the edge of the boat. ‘I’ll not go without Jack. I will never go without Jack.’
Standing next to her, Eileen started to sob desperate tears. ‘I’ll not go either, Jack. I’ll not leave my brother standing here. I’ll not leave you to drown.’
As the women hesitated, their seats were gladly taken by others.
The Officer pushed Maggie forward. ‘Miss, one seat left. I would take it now if I were you, before it’s too late.’
Maggie hesitated, looking wildly from one face to the other, at young Michael Kelly’s face streaked with tears. ‘Let the boy in,’ she said to the Officer, pushing the Kelly boy forward. ‘Let him go in this boat. He has a Mammy at home.’
‘Women and children first Miss. He can go in the next boat.’
‘But, I can’t go alone,’ she cried, clutching at Maura’s thin coat. ‘I can’t leave you all here. And what about the baby?’ she added, suddenly very conscious of the life growing within Maura’s belly.
‘We’ll take the next boat Maggie. When all the women and children are on, they’ll let the men go and we will all go together. Peggy and Katie and the others will have made their way up by then and we’ll all come together. If I know your Aunt Kathleen, she’ll have been helping others get into the boats and will be on one herself by now, probably rowing the blessed thing herself if I know her at all.’