CHAPTER ONE
Will Murdoch capped his gold-nibbed fountain pen and laid clean
blotting paper over the words he had just written before he
responded to the insistent knocking on his cabin door.
"Come in." Murdoch turned to see who would enter, waiting to
decide if it was necessary to don the 'monkey jacket' that hung
over the back of his chair.
Rob Baxter wore the shore-going mufti of an off-duty mercantile
marine officer. His muscular arms and shoulders strained the
seams of his blue serge suit while perspiration beaded his
forehead. Baxter removed his black bowler and wiped his brow with
a snowy linen handkerchief as Murdoch rose to open the window.
"Sorry, old man. I closed it when it started raining awhile
ago."
Rob nodded thankfully. "I bumped into Harry whilst I was
looking for you. He said I'd find you here." Baxter's booming
voice filled the cozy room as he motioned toward a tall,
powerfully-built man who hesitated in the doorway. Like Murdoch,
Harry Wilde wore the blue-black uniform of a White Star officer.
"Bloody rotten business, Will. Sorry to chuck you out of your
quarters on such short notice."
"Nothing to worry about, Harry. I hope I didn't leave anything
behind."
"Not at all. Everything's ship-shape. Well, I'll get back to
unpacking. Nice to see you again, Baxter." Wilde started to
leave, then turned to face Murdoch. "You know I'd rather not be
doing this, Will. I didn't have any choice."
"I know that. It's quite all right. I expect it'll be the last
time we get to sail together." Murdoch grinned and shrugged his
shoulders.
"Aye. I guess it will be at at that." Wilde nodded to both men,
then disappeared into the Chief Officer's cabin just forward, as
Baxter closed the door.
"Good to see you, Rob. Sit down." Murdoch motioned toward the
settee next to his desk. "I was just finishing a letter to the
folks."
"Give my regards to Captain Sam and your mother. Tell them
Alice and I expect to be in Dalbeattie next month. Now, what's
this all about? I had a devil of a time finding you. I thought
you'd been posted as Chief." Baxter eased his bulk on to the
settee and laid his bowler on the seat next to him.
"It's nothing serious. Smitty wants at least two of us from
OLYMPIC for this voyage. Harry will have his command when we're
home, and I'll be back in the Chief's quarters."
"Short notice, I'd say. Does it have anything to do with J.B.
being on board?"
"You might say that. Among other things."
"Would it mean the rumours I've heard are true?"
"That depends on what they are."
Baxter glanced at the closed cabin door, then leaned closer to
Murdoch. "They're saying 'round the pubs that she showed a pretty
turn of speed in her trials, and J.B.'s hoping to beat OLYMPIC's
passage," he murmured. "It'll assure the bookings and pay for the
third ship."
Murdoch shrugged and nodded. "She did better than OLYMPIC in
her trials. J.B. came down from Belfast with us. He's elated.
Even a hint of extra speed will bring passengers flocking to us.
We can't beat the MAURY, of course, but we can beat the Germans,
without the vibrations that plague them. Some alterations to
improve the draft in the furnaces, and something a bit different
in the engines, I believe. The problem is...it's not June.
April's one of the worst times for a maiden voyage, especially if
you want a record passage when you haven't much reserve speed.
Joe Bell thinks he can work up to 26 knots when the engines are
run in, but that's not now. And the old girl's clumsy, just like
OLYMPIC. Can't expect any better though, with the triple screws
and that bloody center turbine without reversing gear. But four
screws cost too much, and Cunard got their subsidy for MAURY and
LUCY. We won't get a shilling from Parliament as long as the
American owns us, and the Germans will spend anything to beat
the Union Jack. These ships are slow to answer the helm, but once
you get them pointed they can work up a pretty good speed.
Frankly, it's my opinion that the rudder's too small to
compensate for lack of maneuverability with the screws. At high
speeds, of course, the screws don't make any difference, but the
rudder does. And these vessels would make bloody rotten armed
cruisers!"
"I've heard all that," Baxter nodded. "It's in the ice and fog
that fast maneuvering is as important to us as to a warship, but
all that goes by the board when you have to consider building and
operating costs. I'm sure you know... we saw bergy bits and
growlers, along with field ice, as far south as thirty nine
thirty last week," he warned.
"I know, all right. We've heard all the inbound officers
talking about it. But the Old Man likes to run well to the north,
and I agree with him. We should have open water above forty two
with the ice so far south. He knows that Harry and I will have
the most critical watches. Lights and Blair are just off OCEANIC,
but Lights will get the feel of her on this voyage, in a better
watch. Then Davey will join us again for the next one. He was
quite disappointed to be left ashore this time, of course."
"Lucky for him, I'd say. Bloomin' nuisance, having J.B. on
board." Baxter paused and looked around the cabin. "A far cry
from NORTHBROOK's half deck, eh, Will?"
"Come now, old man. You didn't come on board just to admire my
Quarters. I hear you'll soon be Chief in OCEANIC."
"I hope to be," Baxter beamed. "But it's not official yet, as
far as I know. How did you hear about it?"
"I had it from Jim when we came through Queenstown last month.
That's about as official as it can be. You'll be in OLYMPIC, or
TITANIC, as soon as the third ship goes into service. If you
hadn't been so bloody sentimental about sail you'd be in one of
these big ones now! I'm almost two years ahead of you because you
went on that one last voyage in a square rigger!"
"I know. But honestly, Will, there are times when I wish I was
back in a windbag again. Why, I'm working with young officers who
never set foot in a Cape Horner! They haven't the faintest notion
what a skys'l is! I don't know where they get off calling
themselves sailormen! And passengers must be the most dangerous
cargo a vessel can carry. Especially these bloomin' American
toffs who flit back and forth across the Western Ocean like we
cross the Avon. Don't you forget sometimes you're at sea when
you're in this bloody floating town? I doubt she ever takes it
green."
"Come on, Rob! You know the ship hasn't been built that won't
take it green over her bridge deck some time or other. But times
are changing. And we have to change with them. You've got to
admit this is far better than a wet bunk in the half deck and a
brassbounder's perpetual hunger and blistered hands. I remember
when I wasn't dry for months on end, and you do too, you old
shellback. But you didn't come here to reminisce. We could do
that better over a whisky or two at the Red Lion."
Instead of answering, Baxter picked up his hat and absently
turned it 'round and 'round on his knee. Frowning, he studied its
shiny surface, then flicked a minute bit of lint off its stiff
crown. Murdoch waited patiently, knowing that his old shipmate
would not talk until he had chosen his words carefully. When
Baxter finally spoke, he startled Murdoch with an abrupt change
of subject.
"Alice said Ada would be here today. Has she gone home
already?"
"No. One of the junior officers is showing her around the
omnibus. I've had little free time since we got to Southampton,
and I want to post these letters to the folks before we leave."
"I didn't want to discuss this with anyone else around, and I
know how precious little time you have with Ada."
"Will you get on with it, old chap? I think you have more on
your mind than my marital relations." Murjdoch backed off when he
saw the sudden anguish in his friend's eyes.
"It's Meg," Baxter blurted. "You know she's transferred from
OLYMPIC?"
"Yes. I haven't seen her on board yet, but I imagine she's as
busy as I am."
"I had to talk with you before you leave. She's got herself a
young man, Will. I won't allow him in my house, but I think she's
been sneaking out to meet with him. He's sailing with you, too."
"What on earth is wrong with the man that you won't allow him
in your house? I can't believe Meg would choose a man of such low
class she couldn't bring him home."
"To begin with he's lower deck. An Engineer."
Murdoch couldn't suppress his laughter, no matter how hurt
Baxter looked. "Come now, surely you're too modern for such
feelings. I hear that young women prefer engineering officers
nowadays. And you know bloody well we can fiddle with our handles
up on the bridge from now until doomsday, and the ship won't move
without all the men who work below."
"That may be so. But...," Baxter hesitated. His face reddened
until he looked ready to explode. "He's a bloody Papist! A fish-
eating Liverpool Irishman! He was one of the black squad,
brawling in pubs like the rest of them!"
"Ah, it's not his profession, then. It's his religion that
bothers you. Who is he? Perhaps I know him?"
"Maybe so. You've always been one to know the lower deck
crowd." Baxter sighed, and slumped forward, his head in his
hands. "His name's Billy McBane."
Murdoch nodded, "I do know him. He's a good man. Apprenticed at
Harland and Wolff, no less. At least give the man credit for
working his way up, off the black squad. A man has to have a good
deal of intelligence to be an engineering officer."
"You should be thankful you don't have a daughter, Will."
Baxter shook his head and ignored Murdoch's praise of Billy
McBane. "Girls are such a trial. A man has his hands full with them,
I'll tell you. A son you can send off to sea and he'll come home
a man, or not at all. But girls these days are so willful! And
Meg's pretty, which makes it worse. Men flock after her, and
half the time she doesn't even realize it!"
Murdoch thought wryly that Baxter needn't rub salt in his
wounds. He and Aid would be thankful for girl or boy. Just to
have a child was their last unfulfilled dream. Time was running
out, with Aid now thirty eight. But they hadn't quite given up
hope. Doctor O'Loughlin had examined and counseled them. "No
reason," the good doctor had said, "but God's will. Sometimes it
just doesn't happen." Will thought of his father, his grand-
father, and generations of Murdochs before them, men who went to
sea in sail, away for months, years at a time. Yet they had all
sired large families. Murdoch tried to concentrate on Baxter's
problem, and not think of his own.
"Just where do I fit into all of this, my old friend?"
"You know what these Papists do to a good Protestant girl,
Will. McBane will seduce her, or worse, and when he gets her in
the family way she'll have to marry him and turn Catholic. You
outrank him...you can order him to stay way from her. Talk to
Meg. She'll listen to you. She respects you, and adores Ada.
Maybe you can ask Ada to speak to her after you get her safely
home again. Just get her back to us, Will," Baxter pleaded.
"We're afraid she might take a pierhead jump in New York."
Murdoch sighed. Just what he needed. A maiden voyage in April
with the Line's Managing Director on board running the show, and
now his best friend asking him to play nanny to a headstrong
young woman who would bloody well do as she pleased, no matter
what he said.
"I'll do what I can, of course. But I don't believe your fears
will come to anything. I think McBane's a fine chap, and I think
I know Meg. She won't do anything that goes against the morals
you and Alice taught her. She'll have plenty of work to keep her
busy, and so will McBane."
"God forbid he gets her alone in the moonlight. She wouldn't be
the first to succumb!"
Murdoch couldn't resist. He threw back his head and laughed
heartily. Baxter grinned sheepishly.
"Now there's something we couldn't do in a windbag. If Meg is
anything like Aid, McBane will suffer all the way to New York and
back. It took me from Melbourne to the 'Pool just to get a kiss
and a promise to see me ashore. And we aren't going to have much
of a moon, as you well know."
"Then it will be even darker on the boat deck."
"And bloody cold this time of year, as you also well know."
"I hear you have a few empty cabins."
"Hell's bells, man!" Murdoch exploded. "I don't believe what
you're saying about your own daughter! Do you know what McElroy
would do to a stewardess who behaved like that? He'd have Smitty
put her ashore at the next port, if not sooner!"
"Aye. I guess you're right. I'm half crazy with worry over her.
We did bring her up to know right from wrong. But there's another
thing. There's a rich American girl traveling in First. Meg met
her last year in OLYMPIC. She's filled Meg's head with wild ideas
about starting a dressmaking firm. She's so uppity she calls it
something like 'co-toor.' Meg's always made her own clothes, you
know, and most of Al's besides. Very nicely too, if I must say
it. If Meg doesn't get trapped into marrying McBane she may
leave us and go to America. I'm not sure which would be worse."
Murdoch raised an eyebrow. "I think I know the young woman.
Name's Easton, isn't it?"
"That's it. Her father's been traveling with the Line for
years. Matter of fact, I've often seen him with J.B. Mrs. Easton
is English. She was a P.B. in the eighties. They have another
daughter who's a real looker, blonde, just like the mother. Only
the two girls are traveling this time, according to Alice, and
that's sure to make more trouble. Al doesn't seem a bit upset by
all of this. These headstrong women remind me of Jeanine.
Remember her, Will? She had such a crush on you."
"How could I forget her? She was like a sister to us"...'Until those
last few weeks before we went away to sea,' Murdoch mused to
himself. He rarely thought of Jeanine after Aid came into his
life but he could never forget dear, fey, lovely, little Jennie.
She was dead so many years now, yet it still hurt to think of her
cold in her grave.
"I confess, Will, I think of her sometimes when I'm on watch
late at night, stumping the bridge with nothing to occupy my mind
but memories. On my watch below I can read, or sleep, but on the
bridge Jeanine often haunts me. She loved you, but I loved her. I
can't help wondering, would she still be alive if I'd married her
before we went off to sea? Was it really the babes, so soon, too
close, that killed her, like people said? I wouldn't have done
that to her."
"No." Murdoch spoke sharply, as he had to, or admit that he also
mourned Jennie, and blamed himself for not daring to court her
because his best friend loved her. Jennie's memory had kept him
from marrying unitl he met Aid, and forgot everything before her.
The pretty New Zealander had been the only woman who could make
him forget the little Scots maid.
Murdoch recognized with relief his wife's gentle knock on the
cabin door. He put Jennie's nostalgia back into the past where it
belonged, and rose to greet Aid. Baxter stood up, apparently just
as thankful to forget Jennie for a while.
Beaming over Aid's head, the handsome young Sixth Officer
saluted his senior.
"Well, Mister Moody, did you impress her?" Will asked.
"He's too honest to answer that, dear." Ada's gentle chuckle
made James Moody blush. "Yes. I'm impressed. I believe the
improvements are well done. Ah, but such a long way to walk!"
Ada turned to Baxter. "And how are you today, Rob?"
"Quite well, Ada. And Alice sends her love."
"And mine to her, Rob." Ada Murdoch still looked more like a
school girl than the teacher she was. Petite, with a slender but
shapely figure, she had not one white hair in the shining auburn
mane that peeped out from under her huge 'Merry Widow' hat. She
gazed at her husband through lowered lashes as adoringly as she
had six years earlier when he'd invited her to meet him on MEDIC's
boat deck. She had fallen deeply in love, but she would not let him
know it so soon. To this day he did not know how she had longed
to have his arms around her that night, to feel his mouth on hers
in a kiss like she had dreamed of but
never dared know.
Baxter noted Ada's adoration and smiled. He turned to Moody.
"Mister, I think it's time we left these two alone. I don't
suppose you'd care to show me around a bit? I can't compare with
Mrs. Murdoch's beauty, but perhaps we'll come across my daughter
whilst we look around. She's quite lovely too, and she'll be
sailing with you."
Murdoch suppressed a grin as Moody blushed like a school girl.
"Oh, that's all right, sir. I mean, I'd be happy to show you
around, sir."
Baxter's pleading gaze met Murdoch's once more, "I'm counting
on you, Will."
Murdoch threw him a half-salute and nodded. The door had
barely closed behind the two men when Will had Ada in his arms.
He suddenly wanted more than kisses.
She realized it and pushed gently against his chest, "That was
not a goodbye kiss, Will Murdoch. That was definitely a hello
kiss."
He stopped her laughter with another kiss, but when he finally
released her she was serious.
"I had that dream again last night, darling. I'll be so happy
when you're safely home. I can't help wishing you'd stayed in
OLYMPIC until you had your command."
"We've been all through that, Aid. If I'd asked to do that, I
wouldn't ever have a command."
"I know it," she sighed. "That's the only reason I've tried
not to nag. But this is going to be the longest fortnight of my
life."
"Longer than that fortnight in MEDIC?" he teased.
"I couldn't let you think I was a hussy! And the agony I went
through trying not to love a sailor. You had so many women
chasing you....a girl in every port, of course! Maybe you still
have. You're even handsomer without the mustache, I think." She
drew back to look at him and ran her finger lightly over his
naked upper lip.
He understood her. She was a beautiful woman. He worried
about what she was doing when he was away at sea. But he made a
point of never questioning her. He expected her trust, and he
must give his in return.
Abruptly she changed the subject. "Alice says that Meg is
posted to TITANIC too. Is that why Rob was here?"
Murdoch chuckled. He was sure his wife already know all that
he had just learned about Meg's romance.
"Rob is very concerned about Meg. She's been seeing an Irish
Catholic chap behind his back. The man is sailing with us too.
Somehow I'm supposed to see to it they don't get together!"
"Alice knows all about it. She's not too worried."
"I think Rob is worried for nothing. Billy McBane's a good
man. Did Alice also tell you about the American girl Meg's
met, who wants to set her up in a dressmaking business?"
"Yes. She doesn't think that's so terrible, and neither do
I."
"Why do I feel outnumbered?"
"Because you are! I'll see you tonight, dearest."
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