Jack stared at the name of the ship.
"You know what happened to the Manic, don'tyou?" he said softly.
Annie nodded.
"It hit an iceberg and sank," she said. "But I don'tget it. I thought this ship was unsinkable.""That's what people thought when the Titanic wasbuilt, " said Jack. "But they were wrong."Suddenly, steam gushed out of the ship'ssmokestacks. Then the engines cut off. The Titanicstopped moving.
"We'd better go home," said Jack. "There's nothingwe can do here. We'll have to find another lost ship-asafer one.""No! We have to stay and help," said Annie. "Wecan escape in the tree house anytime we want.""But what can we do?" said Jack. "Thisship's going to sink no matter what. We can'tchange history. And we can't take anyone into ourtime with us.""Yeah, but maybe there's some way we can help,"said Annie.
"How?" said Jack.
"I don't know," said Annie. "Let's look around."Holding Teddy, she disappeared down a smallstairway.
Jack followed her to a lower level.
Annie put Teddy down on the deck. The dogsniffed the chunks of ice that had fallen off theiceberg.
The ship seemed strangely empty. "Where iseveryone?" Annie asked. "Maybe they're still asleep,"said Jack.
"They probably don't even know the ship hitsomething."Annie and Jack started toward the front of theTitanic.
"Come on, Teddy," said Annie.
The little dog scampered after them.
They passed the round windows of different roomson the ship. Jack looked through them as they wentby.
He saw exercise bikes and rowingmachines in one room. In another, there were palmtrees, bamboo chairs, and tables. Next, they passed alibrary filled with books.
"This ship is like a town," said Jack.
Near the end of the deck, they peeked throughanother round window. Inside a little room, a manwas wearing earphones.
Jack heard a clicking noise as the man tapped alever on a black box.
"What's he doing?" whispered Annie. Jackshrugged.
Another man stood nearby. He had a white beardand wore a fancy uniform.
"Send the international call for help," he ordered theman with headphones. "Tell all ships close by to comeat once. We're sinking.""Yes, Captain," said the man.
He shined the flashlight on the book and found apicture of the radio operator.
He read quietly to Annie:
After the Titanic hit the iceberg at11:40 Pm." the ship's radio operator sent out an SOS.
An SOS is the internationaldistress signal in Morse code.
Unfortunately, the only ship near the tanic hadturned off its radio for the night. All the other shipswho received the message were too far away to help.
When the Titanic sank around 2:20A.M."she was all alone.
"That's terrible," said Annie.
"I wonder what time it is now," said Jack.
"I don't know," said Annie.
Jack pulled out his notebook and wrote:
SOS sent out Titanic sinks at2:20 A.M.
"He's leaving," whispered Annie. "Hide!" whisperedJack.
He and Annie moved quickly into the shadows.
The captain stepped out onto the deck. "Tell themen to start loading the lifeboats now," the captainordered a deck hand.
"Yes, Captain!" the man answered.
The captain and the deck hand left. Annie turned toJack.
"At least that's good," she whispered.
"Everyone can get into the lifeboats.""I don't think it's good enough," said Jack. He readfrom the book again:
27On the Titanic, there were 20 lifeboats. To saveall the passengers, the ship needed twice as many. Butwith all the confusion on board, a number of thelifeboats were not evenfull when they left the ship. Many third-classpassengers did not have a chance to get into any ofthe Lifeboats because they were on the lower decksand didn't know where to go.
Jack wrote in his notebook:
Need twice as many lifeboats"Hey, I know what we can do to help," said Annie.
"What?" asked Jack.
"We can help someone find the lifeboats," shesaid."You're right!" said Jack. "With our book, we canfind our way to a lower deck."He turned the page to a map of the ship. He andAnnie studied it.
"We'll start at the grand stairway," said Jack. Hetraced a path with his finger. "Then we'll go down tothe third-class cabins this way.
"Good plan!" said Annie.
Jack looked back through the door. The radiooperator was still tapping out his message-over andover and over.
"SOS," whispered Jack. He took a deep breath.
"Okay," he said. "Let's go." |