Unsinkable

On the day of the voyage, the Titanic’s dock is a mess of people and luggage. Juliana and her father skip the line because they are first-class passengers. From the deck, Juliana witnesses the arrival of Sophie and her mother, Amelia, by police escort. Amelia shouts about injustice, drawing attention, while Sophie does her best to keep people from staring by hurrying her mother along. Sophie and Amelia are also traveling first class, and Sophie watches the crowd from the first-class balcony. She waves to Juliana, who ignores her, and Sophie feels rejected, thinking, “[S]he was an outcast—and they hadn’t even sailed yet” (70).

Paddy continues to keep a low profile as the ship fills up, including avoiding Mr. Andrews. Still wearing his steward outfit, Paddy is mistaken for an employee and sent to serve the first-class passengers. While on the high balcony, he witnesses a smaller ship being ripped from its moorings by the Titanic’s water displacement force. The boat hurdles toward the Titanic, narrowly avoiding the larger ship. The first-class passengers cheer the captain for avoiding the crash, but Paddy can’t help but think that it was luck, not skill. After all, no one’s ever built a ship like the Titanic, meaning that no one has ever sailed a ship like the Titanic, and Paddy wonders, “[D]oes anybody really know how to sail this boat?” (76).