Henry Palmer

Language Arts
Period 2

The Titanic

I looked out into the big blue ocean. It seemed endless. The only sound was the ship
cruising along the Atlantic Ocean. I always wondered what was out here. I looked at my watch.
Leanne, its getting late, where is John, I walked over to her.
He is over there, she pointed. I sauntered to him and told him he had to go to bed. I decided to
get some rest as well, I thought to myself.

I woke up to the sound of people yelling at each other and loud sirens screeching. I got
up and saw this gigantic iceberg, and we were heading right for it! I couldnt find Leanne and
John anywhere on this huge boat. I was searching everywhere on board but still couldnt find
them, when suddenly I heard, BANG, CRASH! We had collided with this huge piece of ice!
The ship started to sink. I ran over to one of the lifeboats and jumped in. There was only 16
lifeboats and four collapsible boats.
How could these accommodate all these people?
The boat was almost fully submerged by now. Hopefully John and Leanne are ok, I
thought reassuringly. I slowly dipped my hand in the water and immediately removed it. The
water is freezing. No, the water is below freezing, probably around 28 degrees fahrenheit. The
raft I was on held about 28 people (including myself) but could have held a lot more.
Hello everyone, my name is Johnny, I am 32 years old, I waved to everybody. We will
have to work together to survive so we might as well get to know each other,. We went around
in a circle saying our names and age. Leanne and John were not here. Everybody seemed
fairly nice. There was one kid without his parents, he was crying.
Hey buddy, whats your name again, I asked him.
Jackson, he replied. He stopped crying for a second and looked at me.
Its ok, we will find your parents, I promise, I told him reassuringly. He just smiled.

Five days had passed and still no sign of other boats. Luckily we had food to last
probably another seven days for all of us. Nothing had really happened on this raft, we all took
turns paddling. We didnt know where we were going, but eventually we would find some form of
life. There was not much animal life in the water.
Whats that, someone said pointing toward a gray figure in the ocean. I thought for a
second and then came to a conclusion that it was a shark.
A shark, I replied. Hopefully this is not a bull shark. They are very aggressive, a couple
moments later the shark started circling our boat. I looked at my surroundings and saw 27
scared faces staring at the dark gray figure in the water. The shark jumped towards one of the
men on our boat.
 He screamed in pain. Ten seconds later he was gone. I looked over the edge only to see
a cloud of blood in the water. There was now 27 people on our boat. The shark did not leave
after it ate one of us, it kept circling the boat. I could see it coming at me! I quickly sprang to the
left to avoid the incoming shark. The shark jumped over the boat and just barely missed me.
What were we supposed to do? Would the shark ever go away?
After the close encounter with the shark it still did not stop. It kept staying close to our
boat. The shark did not leap at any of us anymore though. After what seemed like an hour the
shark decided to leave.
That was close, I walked over to one of the boat oars and kept on rowing.

Not much had happened in the past three days. I had finally come to the sad realization
that there was no chance of getting saved. For many days I had wondered about what
happened to my son and wife. Although, I still have no idea about where they are or what
theyre doing right now. For all I know they could be dead.
I woke up and grabbed the oar to start rowing. The ocean is so peaceful. So blue, so
wide, so long, it seemed endless. I looked over the side of our boat and gazed at the ocean. I
leaned over so far the boat started tipping over, I fell in!
Most of the other members on board were asleep, how would I get back onto the boat?
The water was so cold, I felt like I was going to get hypothermia. My body started to
become numb and I felt as if I couldnt move. I screamed as loud as I could. The other person
rowing went to the noise. He saw me and put out his arm. I tried to grab it but my grip was not
strong. He tried to pull me up into the boat, but couldnt. He woke up some other members of
the boat to help him. They used all of their strength to pull me up. I was shivering. Some of them
took off their shirts and wrapped me in them to try and keep me alive.
Thank you, I said gratefully. They just smiled and nodded. Without them I would have
died. Well, I guess it would have just sped up the process anyways. By now everyone onboard
had woken up and started asking questions. I answered as many as I could.

The sound of loud motors and horns filled my ears. I gazed upon a giant ship. It was
called the Carpathia. It was heading right for our tiny boat. I was so happy! We were saved! I
thought there was no chance of survival and now we finally can live our lives. I still wondered
where Leanne and John were though. Maybe they were also saved by the ship, maybe they are
onboard it right now looking at me.
Jackson, look, I pointed to the big ship.
Do you think my family is on that boat, Jackson questioned me. I just smiled at him. I
honestly had no idea but I didnt want to sadden him.
It took a while for us to get on the big steamship. Jackson and I walked around the boat
and found his family. He was so happy. I was kind of sad he was leaving though, he was like a
son to me. Well, now he gets to live his life with the rest of his family and he can be happy. Now
I will go find my family. I walked along the ship looking everywhere for Leanne and John. I could
not find them. Although, I had not checked the front half of the ship yet. I searched everywhere
until I finally found them! They survived! I had so many questions for them. How did they
survive? Did they also get onto a lifeboat? I saved my questions for later and hugged them
instead.
Where is this ship going, I questioned them.
New York, Leanne replied.
And that is where we will start our new lives, I smiled at them.

We got to New York and found a house. John started going to a new school and made
lots of new friends. I got a new job. I became a captain of a boat. I had to explore the oceans
more. Leanne decided to not get a job. Everything was turning out ok. Except for the fact that I
still felt bad for that man who was eaten by a shark on the wooden lifeboat. If only we could
have saved him too. A couple days after we had finally recovered balance from the shipwreck,
Leanne told me everything that happened and how they had to cling onto a small piece of the
broken ship in order to not freeze to death. I am just happy that we are all ok and can continue
our lives.