FOUR DAYS AFTER TITANIC

FOUR DAYS AFTER TITANIC

by Paul Stewart

[ May 7, 2007:  This is the on-line version.  For a better format I can email you an attachment.]

The play takes place during the senate subcommittee hearings investigating the sinking. Titanic foundered on a Monday morning, the rescue ship arrived in New York that Thursday evening to a crowd of 40,000. A colourful trust-busting senator (and former street performer) was given all the power and resources to launch an immediate investigation. He even boarded the rescue ship and served subpoenas to keep key people from slipping away.

The very next morning Friday April 19, 1912, survivors testified. (The senate inquiry lasted 17 days. The final report was issued May 28.) The disaster hearings began in New York’s Waldorf-Astoria conference room. A lot of the dialogue is from the actual transcripts. There were also reports of lots of the witnesses gossiping and talking to reporters in the corridors. Some of the action takes place in flashback scenes during the night to remember.

All characters can play multiple, and non-speaking roles except for Senator Smith.

 CAST: (With costume notes)

SENATOR SMITH       53 Narrator, chairman of investigation, American from Michigan, dresses like a Senator/railroad owner, with derby

CHARLES LIGHTOLLER – 38, 2nd officer, highest ranking survivor (refined British accent) regular suit pants, officer’s hat and blazer.

BRUCE ISMAY           49, managing director of White Star lines  (upper crust pompous British accent) A fine suit, a thin villain looking moustache.

HAROLD LOWE          29, fifth officer, on the one lifeboat that went back (Refined Walsh accent, ladies liked him) Has officer’s coat and hat similar to Lightoller.

FREDERICK FLEET   25, lookout who spotted the iceberg (very thick cockney accent,) beat up clothes and watch cap.

MRS. WHITE              Middle aged, First Class (British very aristocratic old money accent, but likeable, not too snobbish.)

MRS. SHELLEY          30s Second class passenger, chronic complainer (American, from Montana middle class want-a-be) Or she can be generic new money from first class.

HAROLD BRIDE         22, Titanic’s Wireless operator.  Recovering from frostbite, was born in London.

Fictional or composite characters who don’t testify:

MISS BIDWELL          20s, Senator Smith’s assistant. Upper-class American, dresses like a progressive business woman.

WANE                         20s American, First class steward/con artist in love. He has a slight but engaging Colorado/cowboy accent.

KATE O’BRAIN           3rd class, Irish suffragette, loves Wane. Wears middle class dress.  Can wears a big immigrant’s shawl for lifeboat scene.

MARGO LANE            Reporter and Suffragette. American, wears a middle class business skirt suit. Can also wear a big shawl to play a third class passenger for sinking and lifeboat scene.

FIREMAN                  Actually named for the crewmen that stoke the furnaces.  Lower class, cockney accent but intelligent.

Also parts for US MARSHAL, NEWSBOY and PHOTOGRAPHERS, REPORTERS, BY STANDERS, PERSON, PASSENGERS, CREWMAN. Sometimes everyone who’s not acting in the foreground sings in the darkened background. The CHORUS is anyone who can sing.

ADDITIONAL COSTUME NOTES:

To help the audience accept actors quickly switching roles, luckily we have a wide difference in costume, class and accents of the characters. Everyone wore hats and some of the facial hair then was huge. In photos most of the suits were dark and relatively standard to any old fashion looking suits. It’s the collars, scarves, watch chains and headwear that really show the period. They also may have gloves, fancy canes and umbrellas when they’re coming or going. It was rainy in New York when the hearings began. All the males who play multiple roles keep the same generic dark pants and shoes on.

Unfortunately the hearings were a very male dominated affair. Only two woman survivors actually testified, another four wrote vividly detailed affidavits the SENATOR read out loud during the hearings.

The good news is there were woman present as spectators inside the hearing room and in the photos they have giant hats they didn’t have to take off like the men did. Although the suffragette passenger story is fictional, the woman’s rights movement was very present. There were lots of stories and debates from suffragettes in the press about equal rights abolishing the tradition of "woman (and children) first."

SET:

The Senate inquiry was a rushed together affair. Most of the furniture was removed from the hotel conference room, leaving a large table and chairs. (The hearings moved to Washington the next week, but the format remained similar. And the Senator did come back to talk to witnesses.) It is not a trial but an inquiry with people sitting in rows around the table, although at times it seems like a trail. A lot of people had stacks of notes and papers in front of them.

We can perhaps do without the table (or make it small and in the back) and stick to just chairs. A platform in the middle of the stage may act as an informal witness stand. However too many characters have to speak one after another. Sort of a stream of thought montage. Usually getting up and moving before and after testify will be awkward. Perhaps they can be lined up in a panel. Except for maybe moving a few chairs this area doesn’t have a set change.

SENATOR is usually the only one standing during the "hearings" scenes. When he addresses the audience he walks towards them and the “hearings area” goes dark. Since we assume the hearings are always going on with people coming in and out the actors in that area do not have to freeze, (no pun intended.) They just sit still during "hallway," "flash back" and “waiting room” scenes. Often they will enter those other scenes. Sometimes they may need to change character, other times not.

Any area in front can pass as a "hallway" or behind-the-scenes area. Example: In the middle of one of the SENATOR’S speeches to the audience, ISMAY comes up and asks if he can go back to England now. (Although no one but SENATOR breaks the forth wall.)

Two benches or chairs could be enough for the “waiting area.”   A spotlight is not that important on scenes where SENATOR addresses the audience. However, to achieve the dream-like effect during the “flash back” scenes a spotlight will help hide that there’s no multi-million dollar boat set.

The play can make extensive use of pre-recorded sound and music. All the singing is live. Often the play should have a dream-like quality; the lighting should reflect this. But there’s also bursts of realism.

Section 1: Re-enactment of the sinking

The stage is dark. Slowly we began to hear singing, it gets louder but stays somewhat soft and ominous. Perhaps it should be sung slower than normal to not sound too upbeat. This is a popular camp song dating back to at least the ‘20s with many versions.

[In previewing the tape of the shows original production after four years,

I’d forgot that the cast decided to sing this song slowly, not like a camp

song. The passengers walk around and greet each other as they sing as if

casually strolling aboard the ship. It was quite effective and their harmony

was excellent.  It was the only slow part of the show after that as they were

trying to keep in to a half hour.]

 

CHORUS                IT WAS ON ITS MAIDEN TRIP

WHEN AN ICEBERG HIT THE SHIP.

IT WAS SAD, IT WAS SAD, IT WAS SAD

WHEN THE GREAT SHIP WENT DOWN

TO THE BOTTOM OF THE…

HUSBAND’S AND WIVES,

LITTLE CHILDREN LOST THEIR LIVES.

IT WAS SAD WHEN THE GREAT SHIP WENT DOWN.

Spotlight on NEWSBOY who enters from stage left. He has to yell to be heard over the chorus. He speaks out to the audience.

CHORUS                (overlapping softly)

OH, THEY BUILT THE SHIP TITANIC

TO SAIL THE OCEAN BLUE,

FOR THEY THOUGHT IT WAS A SHIP

THAT WATER WOULD NEVER GO THROUGH.

THE RICH DIDN’T LIKE THE POOR,

SO THEY PUT THE POOR BELOW,

WHERE THEY WERE THE FIRST TO GO.

IT WAS SAD WHEN THE GREAT SHIP WENT DOWN.

 

NEW YORK STREET SCENE:

 

NEWSBOY              Extra, extra read all about it! Get your paper, get your paper here!  Latest report confirms Titanic foundered Monday morning off the coast of Greenland! Over a thousand people are presumed dead!

 

BYSTANDER          Millionaires was on that boat, captains of industry all arranging their schedules so’s they can take the maiden voyage.  Opps.

 

BYSTANDER         Nonsense, a ship that size couldn’t sink from hitting ice.

 

BYSTANDER 2      The Post just reported everyone’s been rescued and the Titanic is being towed to Halifax for repairs.

 

BYSTANDER         You can’t trust all these wireless reports.  Too new a science.

 

BYSTANDER 2       Oh, no, you can bet the owners of the ship have received clear reports.  They’re stalling for time, there’s a huge mob on the street in the front of the offices of White Star Line.

 

SENATE FLOOR:  

 

Perhaps on the opposite side of the stage, SENATOR is standing near by

Mrs. Bidwell is taking notes.

 

PERSON                The floor recognizes Senator Smith From Michigan.

 

Addressing an imaginary the audience like it is the congress/senate.

 

SENATOR             (nods hello) I have just met with President Taft.  I’ve introduced a resolution that I spearhead a subcommittee authorized to investigate the causes leading to the wreck of the Titanic. A train is being held for us.  

 

The SENATOR and MR. BIDWELL, grab suit cases

and or big brief cases rushing off to New York on stage or off. Perhaps

somewhere towards the middle, away from the first street scene,

the two bystanders react while reading the news in the paper one is

holding. 

 

BYSTANDER         This Senator Smith is from the wilds of the Midwest. 

 

BYSTANDER 2       His state is landlocked. He was a railroad lawyer.

 

BYSTANDER          Yes, but he’s a trust buster, likes to go after big monopolies like the owners of the Titanic.  

    

Both bystanders nod in agreement and take out their umbrellas as if they know what is coming.  We hear a thunderclap. 

 

BACK TO NEW YORK STREET SCENE: 

 

NEWSBOY              Extra, extra Titanic survivors arrive here in New York tonight! Senate investigation begins tomorrow morning! Get your paper, get your paper here!

 

CARPATHIA ARRIVES STREET SCENE: 

                              

The rescue boat arrived during a pitch black drizzling night with rolling thunder.  There were ropes keeping them at bay, dotted with green lanterns.

 

Rain coats, rain hats and umbrellas can help disguise actors. How about a dozen more umbrellas to give the illusion of more people? Card board cut outs of masses of people. I’m kidding but there may be some convention using lighting or shadows to indicate masses, thought sounds will also be effective.  There was a big traffic jam (one of the world’s first) so horn honking in the distance may help set the mood. 

 

As many people as possible should be on stage starring out into the harbour.  Restless and struggling to get a better view, but in control. Drawn night sticks.  Flash of cameras. 

Lots of room for adlib crowd comments:  “What about other ships, people trapped in water tight compartments. Survivors clinging to ice bergs.” All real questions family members asked. Smith got so much mail he asked his son to take a brief leave from college to help him sort it.

The crowd would have contained all classes of people, reporters have cameras, note pads and signs in there hat bands that say “Press.”  U.S. MARSHAL has his knight stick in one hand and a stack of subpoenas in the other.  

The Senator’s security and process servers were sergeant at arms for the senate, not sure how they looked.  But a U.S. Marshal will work, actor simply needs to slip on an arm band that says US Marshal and have a badge, (Google for photos of arm band, they are bright colours with black lettering.)

Another man dressed similarly to him can be on the scene. Or perhaps you have a generic police uniform.

Fog horn blast. Sounds of the crowd as they cheer when they see the ship.    

 

BYSTANDER           Here she comes, yes, that’s the Carpathia!

 

US MARSHAL         Everybody stay behind the ropes!

 

BYSTANDER          Watch out here comes the Michigan Minuteman!

 

SENATOR and MRS. BEDWELL arrive, with hats and coats.

 

SENATOR              Make sure no one except our party is anywhere near the 

                             Gangplank!  No reporters yet!  

 

MRS. BIDWELL      It looks like half of New York has showed up. And every                                             

                             newspaper reporter on the East Coast.  (gazing out) How

                             many escort boats did the President order?

 

US MARSHAL        Oh, I heard the big papers chartered boats. Trying to be

                             the first to talk to survivors. 

                            

SENATOR             No one is skipping away!  We will board her and quickly           

                            serve every subpoena before a single soul embarks. 

   

SENATOR and MRS. BIDWELL push through and disappear behind the people.  (Perhaps Person 1 and 2 can be very poor looking female immigrants.) 

 

PERSON               (yelling) Senator, ask about my son, they keep putting his

                            name of the list of those lost then taking it off!

 

REPORTER           Senator, what about Ismay? Can’t we have an interview        

                             before you arrest him?

 

PERSON 2             (to reporter) Some of us are holding out hope our love    

                             ones are on that boat or another one, but you’d trample

                             us all for a story!

 

Several in the crowd loudly agree. Fog horn blows again. Crowd dies down, chorus starts to sing again softly.

 

 

CHORUS                IT WAS SAD, IT WAS SAD, IT WAS SAD

WHEN THE GREAT SHIP WENT DOWN

TO THE BOTTOM OF THE…

 

SENATOR reappears without his coat and addresses the audience.

 

SENATOR              Hello, perhaps an introduction and some explanation is in order.  (takes off hat) I’m Senator William Alden Smith chairman of the disaster hearings.  Welcome to 1912.

 

A few people begin to quietly sing some more: "Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives, it was sad when the great ship went down."

 

SENATOR              May I please talk now! (Singing stops, back to audience) This is a play about life, as it deals with death and responsibility. I can assure you that I’ve been dead since 1932. I’m sort of a ghost brought back through transcripts, notes to bring truth to the legend.

 

OK, you’ve all seen the moving picture shows leading up to and ending right after the whole thing with the big iceberg.   I can not begin to tell you what a worldwide frenzy of shock and finger pointing went on in the days and months following the sinking.

 

You see rich socialites filled up the headlines in the days before movie and sports superstars. Now with several of them frozen solid bobbing up and down off the coast of New Foundland, along with 1,500 other souls, the world wanted answers. This before the world wars numbed us to death tolls.

 

I, along with others asked the good Lord how He could let 54 children thrash in the freezing water while scores of men sat in tuxedos in half-full lifeboats ignoring their screams.

 

While the 705 survivors were still steaming home on the rescue ship, Carpathia, I heard the president was too busy running for re-election to do anything.  I decided to organize an immediate investigation.

 

Sure it took a lot of string pulling, but we served our subpoenas and began these hearings on a Friday morning, just four days after Titanic went to her grave.

 

During the 17 days of hearings, I gave the press full access. A lot happened off the record in back rooms and these very corridors. I can’t give you all the answers only glimpses at the truth behind everyone’s personal agenda. Even my own. God gave me all the resources to find the truth but didn’t answer me. Perhaps it’s because I – Oh, excuse me, the testimony has began.

 

The lights come up revealing the makeshift senate hearing room. SENATOR rushes over.

 

SENATOR is standing, he almost always has a folder overflowing with papers in his hand.  (See photo in book.) MRS. BIDWELL is at the table taking notes.

 

Also at the table is HAROLD BRIDE.  BRIDE has a bandaged leg and is still recovering.  (He was in a wheelchair, but if you don’t happen to have an old one handy, perhaps his leg could be propped up.) We enter the scene as if it is midway through. [Actually the room was so crowded he had to be carried to his chair because his wheelchair wouldn’t fit.]

 

Because it is suppose to be the beginning of the hearings, for this scene at least I picture a few members of the street scene standing still listening to BRIDE’S story, hanging on every word.  Like they would have done by reading it in the papers and listening to gossip from those at the hearings.  Updates which spread like wild fire each day to a hungry world.

 

[Bride became an instant star.  At a time before movies, TV or radio, his tale was one of the most compelling sea stories ever told.  He was well spoken, charming and regarded a hero, but he didn’t really testify till the next day.  What he says happened to him on the ship is all accurate but I used some artistic license so the audience can get details about the ice field and the cold.]

 

SENATOR                Please continue, Mr. Bride.

 

BRIDE                     I received that message myself and delivered it to

                               Captain Smith. It stated that the freighter, The                          

                               Californian had just past three large ice bergs.

 

SENATOR                We are learning that the Titanic did not come upon a 

                               random berg, but a field of ice!?

 

BRIDE                     Yes, it turned out to be 80 miles wide, sir.  (muted  

                               gasp from the crowd)  Such a large occurrence is rare.

 

SENATOR                You’re only 22 and not a trained sailor, but a wireless 

                               officer.

 

BRIDE                      I was not even an employee of White Star, I work

                                for the Marconi company.  Allow me to say I am a

                                trained listener, a patient observer.  I learned it’s been a 

                                particularly warm spring, ice sheers off of Greenland 

                                and makes it’s way down the Labrador Current and into

                                the shipping lanes.

 

SENATOR                Agreed. (glancing at notes) Mr. Bride, is the committee

                               to understand that by Sunday afternoon the Captain

                               received not two, but three wireless messages warning of

                               ice?

 

BRIDE                     Actually, it was four sir.  (louder gasps from the crowd) 

                               Senior wireless officer Philips was on duty when 

                               one came in from another steamer.

 

SENATOR               And how did the night end for you and officer Philips? 

 

BRIDE                    Quite badly sir. (nervous laughter from crowd) Even as we

                              felt Titanic being pulled  down by the nose, we  kept

                              sending  distress calls until Captain Smith himself came                                                

                              into the Marconi cabin and told us nothing more could be

                              done.  As we gathered our things, a man immerged and

                              tried to steal our life-vests.  There was quite a row before

                              we knocked him out.

 

SENATOR               And that is the last you saw of the Capitan?

 

CROWD leans in, hanging on his every word.

 

BRIDE                    No, by the time we made it outside we could hear 

                              water rushing over the boat deck.   I saw Captain Smith

                              dive off the bridge into the sea. The next thing I know

                              I was in the icy black water, eventually I made it

                              aboard an overturned lifeboat.  It had slid off the deck

                              before it could be launched.  Philips had crawled

                              aboard too.   30 or so of us began to shift our       

                              crumpled bodies to balance the unstable raft.  Icicles 

                              forming on our wet clothes and hair. 

 

SENATOR               Yet you lasted the night.  

 

BRIDE                    Several of us did, other’s like my friend Officer Philips

                              died of exposure. Those that didn’t slide off in death were

                              gently pushed off to lessen the weight. (crowd gasps)                  

                              Though the air was cold and biting, one could keep his

                              heart beating and blood flowing, staying in the much

                              colder water too long spelled certain death.               

 

Crowd reaction, reporters eagerly scribble in notepads.

 

SENATOR                 Early on wouldn’t there have been hundreds of people

                                around you, trying to cling to your overturned lifeboat?               

 

BRIDE                      I was the last man invited on board sir. (crowd gasps)

 

SENATOR                 That helps explain why your raft contained 27 crew

                                members and only three passengers…And is it true Mr.

                                Bride, that aboard the rescue ship those crew members                          

                                and the ones who spent the night on dry life boats with

                                blankets were able to rest and recover for a few days

                                before arriving in New York.

 

BRIDE                      That’s rather obvious sir.

 

SENATOR                 And yet you had to go right back to work for the last

                                three days. (crowd gasps)

 

BRIDE                      That too is rather obvious sir.  Despite my being ill, my

                                skills were needed, the Carpathia had only one wireless

                                operator.

 

Crowd reaction, sounds of hushed gossip. During this time the actors have moved away from the street scene and change into their characters, forming a line waiting to be interviewed. Perhaps they can have a slip of paper, the subpoena in their hands. SENATOR moves over as if to process them.

 

SENATOR              (pacing)  Kindly tell the committee your name and circumstance.

 

The following is a montage of witness testimony. At first these lines are spoken with no pause as a run-on sentence.

 

ISMAY                    J. Bruce Ismay, first class passenger and managing director of White Star Shipping Line.

 

FLEET                    Fredrick Fleet, able seaman and lookout…At just about seven bells I reported an ice berg right ahead, a black mass.

 

LIGHTOLLER        There was no moon, no wind, the sea was flat calm, smooth as glass so there was no waves to spot breaking around the berg. A night that comes only once every hundred years.

 

ISMAY                    …I awoke to a slight grinding noise…

 

MRS. WHITE         It was as though we went over a thousand marbles…

 

MRS. SHELLEY     Then the engines stopped…No one knocked on our door. There was no alarm. When we walked outside people commenced to appear in life preservers…

 

We start to hear voices of a calm crowd and the band begins to play.

 

MRS. WHITE         Then the band moved right outside on the deck…

 

For a moment the dialogue of the witnesses overlaps, and the pace speeds up, although they continue to talk as if they’re not competing with others. (Just a short line each, then can ad lib something.)

 

People have began to leave the hearings area and put on life vests and enter to the flash back area to stage right which will serve as Titanic’s deck under a spotlight. The mood is calm now, but growing more tense. Everyone is talking (adlibbing) among themselves. The following dialogue should be heard over others adlibbing.

 

Although the characters may be named in this scene, they’re not necessary being the same character, only similar. Example: the audience doesn’t know ISMAY yet, so he’s really just being a generic first class passenger. (But he can change his moustache and hat.) And of course the lighting will be dim.

 

LIGHTOLLER is the first to lead people over a bit further. He has simply put on his uniform hat and wears no life vest.

 

LIGHTOLLER        C’mon, into the lifeboats. Nothing to worry about folks, simply a safety precaution. You’ll row back aboard by morning.

 

PASSENGER          Look at the sea, it’s so flat and clam.

 

IMMGRANT           But the water is so far down, I’m frightened.

 

WANE                     Oh, she can’t sink, she’s just banged up.

 

KATE                     (to immigrant) Do you think this vest makes me look fat?

 

WANE                     Oh, you look lovely…Here let me help you.

 

KATE struggles with the straps of her vest, WANE helps her, there is

instant chemistry.

 

KATE                      Aren’t you the perfect gentleman. We’re not used to getting waited on in steerage.  You tie that knot like you’re a seaman, but your dress says first class.  

 

WANE                    Oh, I’m just a first class steward, I learned to tie knots because my family owns a small ranch in Denver Colorado.

 

CREWMAN               I’ve just heard from the wireless room, no less than three ships will be here soon!

 

LIGHTROLLER      You heard me, woman and children first! Don’t be a coward! 

 

PASSENGER          My son is only 13 and needs to be with his mother!

 

LIGHTROLLER      OK, but no more boys!

 

MRS. WHITE         Over on the starboard side they’re letting men leave along with the women.

 

CREWMAN runs off stage. Gradually the band gets louder, some people

begin to sing "nearer thy God to me."

 

LIGHTOLLER        Does anyone here have boating experience!?

 

ISMAY                    She’s starting to list quite badly.

 

WANE                     How bad could it be, the band is still playing.

 

PASSENGER          The lifeboats are gone. Let’s finish our card game. Drinks are on the house.

 

PASSENGER          If we die, we die as gentleman.

 

IMMIGRANT          My baby, where’s my baby!

 

Then we begin to hear hull-twisting noises of the ship’s nose going down. We hear a few distant gunshots. The actors begin to lean and jerk, (but not too much as to make it corny.) Some people panic while others, stay calm though terrified. Plenty of room for ad-libbing here. An actor can simply put a collar on to be FATHER BYLES.

 

LIGHTOLLER        EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!

 

FATHER BYLES    PREPARE TO MEET GOD!

 

Some people huddle around FATHER BYLES and say the Lord’s prayer, over the sounds of the singing and boilers exploding and sinking noise.

 

CHORUS                Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!
E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.

Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee!

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone.
Yet in my dreams I’d be nearer, my God to Thee.

 

Section 2: Senator Intro and argument with Ismay (Chairman of White Star Lines) who does not want to give evidence to the hearing

 

The sounds and music stops. Lights come up on SENATOR. Everyone freezes, stage picture for a moment while he talks. Then they disappear into the shadows.

 

SENATOR                (to audience) The truth is the band was playing a rag   

                               time number, not “Nearer my God to Thee” But legends

                               die hard so I leave that part in when I revisit this part of

                               the story.

 

Enter ISMAY, unaware of the audience.

 

ISMAY                    Excuse me Senator Smith…who are you talking to?

 

SENATOR              Ismay, I told you I am not letting you go back to England.

 

ISMAY                    I’ve contacted a number of marine architects, company personnel, these experts would be far more valuable than me. I –

 

SENATOR              You are the chairman and manager of White Star Lines! Your father was the founder.

 

ISMAY                    Yes, but I sold the company to J.P. Morgan.

 

SENATOR              Indirectly.  You are the president of his trust!

 

ISMAY                    I was still only a passenger.

 

SENATOR              Yet with obvious influence.

 

ISMAY                   I climbed aboard the last lifeboat as it was being lowered because there was plenty of room on board.  I can’t be blamed for the deaths of those who would have been far more valuable to your investigation:  The Captain, first officer, and Titanic’s main architect.   JP Morgan designed his own private suite, fit for a king.

 

SENATOR             And if he hadn’t cancelled his trip, or be in hiding now, you might have an easier time, I’ll give you that Ismay.

 

ISMAY                   The ship may have been owned by Americans but it was registered in Briton and most of the crew are British subjects. How much longer can you keep me here?

 

SENATOR              Most of the passengers were Americans. And do I need to tell you most of the passengers are dead?! The navy intercepted your wireless reports, we know you were planning to try to sneak back.

 

ISMAY                    (trying to be intimidating) You don’t seem to understand-

 

SENATOR              (stands toe to toe with Ismay) You know I’m a rich man too, I’ve owned railroads. But I didn’t grow up rich and spoiled like you. As a kid we were so poor I had to support my family by performing on street corners. Worked my way through law school, I’m a very resourceful man, Mr. Ismay.

 

MRS. BIDWELL, has entered at some point.  The Senator’s assistant,

dressed like business woman, some type of brief case and  holding a slip of

paper.

 

ISMAY                  Oh, Lord, it is another one of those women that liberal newspapers are letting become reporters.

 

SENATOR             (happy to see her) Good morning Mrs. Bidwell. 

 

MRS. BIDWELL     (handing him the slip of paper) President Taft just send you this telegram.  (not intimated by Ismay she turns to him ) These days they even let a few of us women go to college.

 

SENATOR wanders off becoming preoccupied with the Telegram and

reading from his notes.  ISMAY remains stone faced and reserved even when

he makes comic insults.

 

ISMAY                   Oh, you’re from the caravan from Washington, I heard he had a female assistant.  Now why don’t you tell me how you too grew up poor, without shoes.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     Simply coming from a wealthy family doesn’t mean you can’t be progressive, enter public service and live modestly.  Not travel with steamer trunks full of dress shoes. 

 

ISMAY                   You’re father owns a shoe factory yet you chose to go barefoot!

 

MRS. BIDWELL     I never could understand British humour.

 

ISMAY                  Do you know what I think? I think you come from a big family that was forced to live in a shoe.

 

LIGHTOLLER walks up trying to figure out where on Earth Ismay came up

with that comment.

 

MRS. BIDWELL      Almost a bulls eye, Mr. Ismay.  Our summer yacht was shaped a bit like a shoe.  And my father owns a string of factories.  He’s passing the business to my four brothers and they won’t need to sell it to the House of Morgan to make ends meet.

                                          

ISMAY                   You’ve done your homework.  I sold the company I inherited because to stay ahead we needed capital to expand into more luxurious ships.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     And still have room for immigrants and bags of mail?

 

ISMAY                  You impress me Mrs. Bidwell. It’s no secret that shipping immigrants to America is very lucrative.  As is the mail contracts.  And don’t you, who lived summers crammed in a shoe start in about our poor conditions in Steerage.  

 

LIGHTOLLER        Our third class area had spacious lounges, meals on table clothes with silverware.  You see miss, recently the competition among ocean liner companies has been fierce.

 

(ISMAY is annoyed that LIGHTS put his two cents in.)

 

MRS. BIDWELL      So you built too big, too fast. Cut a corner here-

 

ISMAY                   There’s no profit in brand new seven million dollar ships resting on the ocean floor. And why would you and the press think selfish me would be so foolish as to travel on a ship I thought was unsafe?  And Lightoller, I don’t remember asking you to join the conversation.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     (she sighs) Mr. Lightoller, I understand you are the highest ranking surviving officer? 

 

LIGHTOLLER         Yes.

 

MRS. BIDWELL      (glancing at paper work) Senator Smith will be calling you right after the captain of the rescue ship.  And tell your boss there I can see why he’s hired so many body guards.        

 

(Exit MRS. BIDWELL, ISMAY shakes his head in disgust.)

 

ISMAY                    The nerve of her and those witch hunters and that cowboy senator.  Have you been asking around like I told you?

 

LIGHTOLLER        (sighs) Yes.  I spent all morning in the hotel lobby. A couple reporters up from Washington were loose lipped. That charming woman there may have got the job as one of his assistants because of family connections, but she’s highly qualified. 

 

ISMAY                   Is it true that the Senator has no experience in nautical affairs?

 

LIGHTOLLER        None.  He’s a grandstander, very popular but well known in Washington for overdoing his theatrics.   He has also been a game warden and owns a successful newspaper. 

 

ISMAY                   As a boy he was a street performer?

 

LIGHTOLLER        (nods) Famous in Grand Rapids for singing and dancing to “Camp Town Ladies,” accompanied by a friend with a banjo.

 

ISMAY                   Those reporters were pulling your leg!

 

LIGHTOLLER         Evidently old timers still talk about how he could command an audience.

 

ISMAY                   That performing monkey along with the press are turning  me into the scapegoat of the century!

 

LIGHTOLLER        Sir, it’s the disaster of the century.  They need somebody who didn’t choose to go down with the ship.

 

ISMAY                    Maybe they had things to feel guilty about. You Mr. Lightoller get to be a hero in the papers.

 

LIGHTOLLER        I climbed aboard an over-turned lifeboat AFTER your ship was halfway to the bottom of the Atlantic. You jumped aboard a dry lifeboat.

 

ISMAY                    I’ve done nothing intentionally wrong! May I remind you that if you don’t support me, your desire to ever be a captain at White Star will sink to the bottom as well.

 

Exit ISMAY, LIGHTOLLER follows him like a reluctant dog, they pass MRS

WHITE who strolls by using a cane.  Her upper class appearance is obvious.

By the friendly way ISMAY greets her you know she’s important. She only

nods back. 

 

ISMAY                   Good day Mrs. White.

 

From the other direction enter MARGO with notepad and PHOTGRAPHER. 

They fail at getting ISMAY and LIGHTOLLER’S attention.

 

MARGO                 Mr. Ismay, do you feel you’re being treated unfairly by the press!?  Mr. Ismay!

 

MRS. WHITE         Good Heavens, Margo Lane? You used to write the society column for the New York World?

 

MARGO                  I’m a news reporter now.

 

When the photographer realizes MRS. WHITE is a survivor, she starts to set

up his camera.

 

MRS. WHITE          Splendid, dear girl.  I’ll be testifying in a moment, then

                              we’ll chat.  (still friendly but waves her cane) If that man

                              takes a photo of me in this barrowed outfit, I will gladly 

                              replace his camera after I smash it.

 

The PHOGRAPHER backs off.  [MRS. WHITE’S cane gained some notoriety as

it actually contained a flashlight, most if not all lifeboats didn’t even have

lanterns.]

 

Section 4:  Testimony of Mrs White and Mrs Shelley

 

Lights come up on hearings area, already in progress as MRS WHITE sits

down.

 

SENATOR              You heard no alarm what so ever?    

 

MRS. SHELLEY     No, nothing was said about lifeboats until someone came down and ordered us into life preservers.  We calmly walked on deck and there were so many hoards of people I couldn’t see past.

 

MRS. WHITE         There was practically no excitement as we thought the Titanic was one big lifeboat. I had to be pushed into a lifeboat.

 

MRS. SHELLEY     As we were being lowered I saw portholes disappearing. When we hit the water I saw where the danger lay. Too perfect a night. We had only starlight, no breeze, the flat sea looked like oil.

 

MRS. WHITE         Then when it came time to row, one man’s oar was all over the place. I said "why don’t you put it in an oarlock." "You mean that little hole?" he said.

 

SENATOR              Didn’t they assign two seaman to your boat?

 

MRS. WHITE         Dinning room stewards who escaped with the pretense of being oarsman.

 

MRS. SHELLEY     Oh, some of the crew were gentleman. Others took out cigarettes and began smoking, joking about not having to work for a while.

 

MRS. WHITE         A marvel of mechanism couldn’t avoid a chunk of ice. Who would allow something so unbearable to happen?

 

 

Wealthy, what have you…

                           

Section 3: Wane, Kate (sweethearts – met during disaster) and intrusive journalists asking awkward questions

 

FLEET is sitting on a bench reading the newspaper, LIGHTOLLER is pacing about, he stares at his pocket watch. On the other side of the bench is KATE reading a book.

 

 

FLEET                    Lights, ya atta read some of these bloody lies. Like they was in the crow’s nest with me.

 

LIGHTOLLER        Reporters are trying to find answers like everyone else. What they don’t find they invent.

 

FLEET                    Says I claimed the berg was so big, I saw a polar bear on it! A bloomin’ bloody po-

 

LIGHTOLLER        Don’t talk like that with a woman present.

 

FLEET                    She don’t mind, she told people in the lifeboat she wishes she was a man. Came to America for it.

 

KATE                      I beg your pardon.

 

FLEET                    Ya want rights just like a man, don’t ya? A suffer-somethin’ I seen her type in marches down the street.

 

KATE                      I’m a suffragette. I’m already an American citizen. I was just visiting family back in Ireland. (gets in his face) Fighting for equal rights and for the vote does not make me wish I was a man.

 

FLEET                    (gives her a dirty look) Molly Brown and her hens took charge of me lifeboat, and I didn’t like it.

 

KATE                      Although if I were I would use my fist to make your nose even more crooked.

 

LIGHTOLLER        (ushering Fleet away) You can’t be serious. His nose couldn’t be any worse.

 

Enter WANE, wearing a derby, he his arm in a sling.

 

FLEET and LIGHTOLLER move several feet away, both parties can have private conversations but still hear each other. WANE and KATE greet and kiss, you can tell new love is in the air.

 

WANE                     (tipping hat) I’m back darling.

 

KATE                      Don’t you look handsome in that new hat.

 

LIGHTOLLER        They subpoenaed that Yankee first class Steward?

 

WANE                     No, I’m just here to be with my future wife.  

 

FLEET                    Known each other all of a week have you?

 

KATE                      We’re not officially engaged.

 

LIGHTOLLER        Oh, yes, those two became lovebirds on the boat deck.

 

KATE                      Sir, I was third class, he made sure I had a seat. Never once thought of himself.

 

LIGHTOLLER        Worst sea disaster on record, and they begin a courtship.

 

FLEET                    Well, we all had a lot of free time the last few days aboard the Carpathia, didn’t we?

 

WANE                     Kate, I’ve got some wonderful news…

 

FLEET                    Look at you twos. An army of charities greets us last night. Givin’ the pilgrims food, clothes, homes to stay in. (to Lights) You gets a new uniform and pocket watch, I get a crummy bunk and broken down shoes. You Mr. Romeo find a wife in your lifeboat.

 

WANE                     No, was in boat eight.  I helped man it.

 

FLEET                    Ha, busted up his wrist climbin’ in, he did.

 

WANE                     Officer Murdoch called out for any men with sailing experience, by the time he asked me to jump in, the boat was ten feet down. Winged, I manned the tiller.

 

FLEET                    You’re no seaman.

 

KATE                     No he’s a rancher, who decided to see the world.

 

WANE                    My family owns a small sail boat, we have big lakes in  Colorado.

 

FLEET                   Ha, look at his hands. Smooth as a baby’s bottom.

 

KATE                    (touching his hands) I guess it has been a while since you’ve roped cattle?

 

WANE                   To be honest, a number of women in first class are always leaving behind small bottles of the finest hand cream, I decided to try some.

 

FLEET and LIGHTOLLER laugh.

 

FLEET                   I know that the Countess of Rothes never took her hands off the tiller in boat eight, not you.

 

WANE                     You weren’t in my boat!

 

FLEET                    (smirking to Lights) No, but I read about it in the Times this morning, I did.

 

KATE                      You mean Mr. Lightoller had to read it to you?

 

FLEET                    (mad) You claimin’ I can’t read?

 

KATE                      Oh, no.  I’m claiming you can’t see past your nose!

 

LIGHTOLLER        (pulling Fleet away) Fleet, stay back. We see a lot of con artists work first class. He could be a dangerous sharper.

 

FLEET                  His name is Wane Wheelwright.  Don’t that sound like a phoney name?

 

WANE                   It’s an English name.

 

KATE                    A sharper indeed.

 

 

Enter an aggressive PHOTOGRAPHER (maybe same actor as Ismay) and reporter MARGO. While the cameraman tries unsuccessfully to set his camera up to get a good shot, MARGO jots in at note pad. WANE and KATE are off to the side.

 

MARGO                  Mr. Lightoller, can you answer a few questions?

 

FLEET                    Who let them in!? Look another one a them bloomin’ free thinking women!

 

KATE and MARGO wave like they know each other well.

 

 

MARGO                  (talking rabidly) Mr. Lightoller, why were there no life boat drills? Was an American Ship registered in Briton because their safety rules are more relaxed?

 

FLEET                    You don’t care about all them families broken up. You just wanna sell papers.

 

MARGO                  Our readers want the truth! Your company sent us press releases raving about new luxuries and safety features.

 

LIGHTOLLER        Yes, but no one from White Star ever claimed the ship unsinkable, you reporters invented that. It was no secret that modern liners had too few lifeboats. It was our own arrogance, perhaps criminal negligence, but there is no big secret the Senator is dancing around looking for.

 

MARGO                  Do you think Senator Smith’s grandstanding has anything to do with the rumour he plans to run for president in 1916?

 

LIGHTOLLER        Perhaps. OK, that’s enough for now, good day.

 

KATE                      I would be the first to vote for Senator Smith.

 

LIGHTOLLER gently forces them off stage. As he turns thinking they are gone the PHOTGRAPHER burst back in and takes a flash photo of FLEET and LIGHTOLLER and exits. (Old flashes made a "poof" noise.)

 

FLEET                    (rubbing eyes) All these flashes…I’ll go blind.

 

WANE                     (polite as can be) Don’t you think it’s a little too late for that?

 

Infuriated FLEET makes a lunge at WANE who’s several feet away. LIGHTOLLER pulls him away and has to practically carry him offstage.

 

LIGHTOLLER        Easy, mate, the hearings are about ready to start up again.

 

(As he exits FLEET still wants a piece of WANE.)

 

WANE                     If it weren’t for my broken hand…

 

KATE                      What is the exciting news?

 

WANE                     Early this morning, the wire from my brother arrived, he’s got the money to buyout my share of our ranch. It will be on it’s way by Western Union.

 

KATE                      So quickly?

 

WANE                   Seems I’ve become a celebrity in our small town, the bank was suddenly eager to issue my brother a loan. 

 

KATE                    Wonderful.  How did they learn so much about you?  

 

WANE                    Remember how I had to stay and help the doctor before we disembarked the Carpathia? (she nods)  Well, he figured since I had one good arm and no luggage or family waiting, I might as well help him.  I met a reporter, who once lived in Denver, but I assured him I was no hero, turns out he ended up sending a story about me by telegraph to my hometown paper The Daily Express.  Now we’ll be able to get married and start our new life!  

                              

KATE                    Oh, you are so wonderful!

 

She hugs him, they both beam with happiness, unaware Margo has been

eavesdropping and takes notes.

 

Section 5: Clash of Senator and Ismay over lifeboat numbers, pressure on the captain etc..

 

 

For now MRS. WHITE and MRS. SHELLY can be seated in the hearings area or not.  Ismay is being grilled.

 

SENATOR              Mr. Ismay, is it true that when you commissioned the building of Titanic you made no limitations as to her cost?

 

ISMAY                    None whatsoever. We wanted the biggest, most luxurious, yet safest ship, regardless of cost.

 

SENATOR              Yes, we’ve learned about chandeliers and one way trips costing four thousand dollars, and even for 35 dollars your steerage accommodations were the best afloat. We know about double hulls, water tight compartments that failed. But-

 

ISMAY                    It was inconceivable. An iceberg had never taken down a big ship.

 

SENATOR              But there have been ship wrecks caused by ice bergs.  They were a known hazard! So why so few lifeboats?

 

ISMAY                    We had over the number required by the British Board and Trade.

 

SENATOR              (referring to file) All we hear is how you complied with The British Board and Trade’s hopelessly outdated regulations that defy common sense.

 

ISMAY                    The regulations were developed at a time when you could reasonably calculate passenger capacity based on the tonnage of the vessel.

 

SENATOR              Then in just a few years ships began to be built much bigger…But can you explain to me why the lifeboats you did have were only half-filled?

 

ISMAY                    That was a tragedy. Something you need to take up with the crew.

 

SENATOR              You dined with the Captain, did you see him receive ice warnings Sunday night?

 

ISMAY                    I did sir. He didn’t seem too concerned.

 

SENATOR              Did you urge him to light up more boilers, increase the speed to get out of the ice floes?

 

ISMAY                    No. I was a passenger first. The captain is in complete control and responsible for whatever happens on his ship. Regardless of a company representative. Is that not true?

 

SENATOR              Yes. Yet a captain can later be demoted for not following the wishes of the owners.

 

ISMAY                    Captain Smith was retiring! I could not have bullied him.

                             The captain of the rescue ship has backed me up on this!

 

SENATOR              You claimed to have helped load the boats. Witnesses say you barked orders.

 

ISMAY                    I was present when Mr. Andrews, the ship’s architect told the captain Titanic was only hours away from sinking. A sense of urgency was necessary.

 

SENATOR              Why did you get into a lifeboat when the call was for woman and children only?

 

ISMAY                    It was what I believed to be the last boat. I looked around, seeing no woman or children on the deck, I then stepped into the boat after it was already being lowered.

 

Crowd gasps, they don’t believe him.

 

SENATOR             When it’s convenient, you’re a representative of the company, the president. But later when it’s convenient to be just a passenger, you become one and don’t look back! (glances at watch) Let’s take a recess.

 

SENATOR steps out to hallway followed by MRS. BIDWELL: He is slowly showing fatigue.

 

SENATOR              This whole affair is maddening.  No one claims to have done anything wrong! For days now all we hear is a dozen minor things that led to major deaths.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     (glancing at notes) Senator here’s the facts we know for sure: Captain E.J. Smith allowed extra boilers to be fired up that day and drove his monstrous ship full speed ahead, with no extra lookouts with no binoculars when there had been repeated ice warnings! It stands to reason the other things the Captain did after the collision would make no sense.

 

He was told the ship wouldn’t make it till morning, so to not cause a panic he told his officers "casually load a few life boats here and there as a safety precaution."

 

SENATOR              Yet I’ve been advised it’s career suicide to harshly

                             criticize the Captain publicly!

 

MRS. BIDWELL     All these years we hear how ‘going down with the ship’ is

                            noble, to do any less is cowardly. Now I know it’s to avoid

                            having cartoons drawn of you in the paper. Mean cartoons.

 

As they exit, attention is drawn elsewhere as NEWSBOY makes a pass at an area where BRIDE and LOWE are standing.

 

NEWSBOY              Extra, extra, Titanic’s water proof compartments weren’t designed to hold water passed the upper decks! (faintly as he exits) Get your paper, get your paper here. 

 

Officer BRIDE is now walking, but still has a bandage on his foot and

perhaps a crutch.  Officer LOWE, is pacing about. He hasn’t testified yet so

he is sort of a generic officer.  Lowe is reading a newspaper.

 

LOWE                     Another drawing of Ismay. (shows it to Bride)

 

BRIDE                     Is he trying to drown Uncle Sam?  In full view of the

                               Statue of Liberty.

 

LOWE                      (reading another headline) Blast it all! There was nothing 

                               wrong with the ship’s construction. It was a marvel of

                               engineering that took years to design and build!  Blame

                               us for not slowing down or having more lookouts, not

                               thicker hulls. The crew was assembled too fast, but all

                               the officers were first rate.

 

BRIDE                      I beg to differ. Captain Smith and the First Officer were

                                lucky to climb up the ranks on smaller vessels without 

                                incident.

 

LOWE                       How dare you.  You’re a wireless officer, not a seaman!

 

BRIDE                      I am an observer! The fact that you still defend these

                                men’s’ arrogance is blind loyalty. And it’s why the

                                Captain never gained the experience he needed with

                                longer sea trials. And heaven forbid a life boat drill!

 

LOWE                       As Fifth Officer I shall take some of the blame for that!

 

BRIDE                      A fifth of the blame?... I will concede that Titanic was

                                sound, a true wonder.  Some act as if the wireless

                                equipment on board was as primitive as smoke signals. 

                                It was the best.  Nearby ships got our signals, their

                                officers had simply gone to bed.

 

LOWE                       Ever ponder how so many ships made the crossing for 

                                four centuries powered by the wind, made out of wood?

                                …Because they didn’t have to listen to annoying

                                wireless officers!

 

BRIDE                      It wasn’t that long ago ships simply disappeared without

                                a trace.  That’s better?

 

LOWE                       Man can always conquer nature in the end.

 

Section 6: Suffragettes – conflict of that and ‘Women and children first’ philosophy

 

Black out. Lights come up on the waiting area.

 

KATE is sitting on a bench holding hands with WANE. At first WANE is reading the paper not paying much attention to what the others are saying.

 

The lights stay up in the hearings area, for a few minutes action will happen in both places, to create a sort of split-screen effect. While there is action in the hallway area, SENATOR and others can slowly move and talk silently among themselves as if their scene is still going on. The audience will be directed toward the hallway and vice-versa.

 

MARGO enters hallway area looking like she has just walked in from a woman’s rights march. She has on a colourful banner under her arm and around her shoulder and carries a protest sign. She eventually sets it down, removes banner and takes out her note pad.

 

FIREMAN  is also sitting in the waiting area reading.  For

balance he should be a little rough around the edges with a

cockney accent like Fleet. Though he may be from the very lower classes he

is intelligent and wise.

 

[Based on actual fireman  Frederick Barrett who made it up in time and was

put in charge of boat 13.] 

 

MRS. White remains standing is only passing by.

 

KATE                      Hello, Margo, how did it go?

 

MRS. WHITE         Good heaven, and they let you march on your lunch hour?

 

MARGO                  (nods) We went all the way up to Wall Street this time. My feet hurt!

 

KATE                      I wished I’d been able to march with you. I don’t think they are ever going to call me as a witness.

 

MARGO                  That’s a shame Kate, a story about it could help our cause of suffrage.

 

KATE                      How? When they find out I lobby for female emancipation, they’d ask if I questioned the life saving policy. Without thinking twice I climbed right on to a boat of all female passengers, just three male crewmembers.

 

MRS. WHITE         Oh, my dear, we all have selfish survival instincts, even subconsciously. And these stories of bravery among men? They didn’t think she’d go down, they made jokes of us needing a pass to get back on in the morning.

 

MARGO                  After she was gone, I don’t hear many stories of men wanting to row back and save anyone.

 

KATE                      Men or women.

 

MRS. WHITE         Equal rights doesn’t have to mean equal risk.

 

MARGO                  I would have chosen to meet my fate along side my husband as a few first class women did.

 

KATE                      Better death than dishonor? What if you had young children?

 

MRS. WHITE         Titanic was conceived, built and destroyed by man’s hands. Let them die first until women are treated equally. 

 

FIREMAN              (sets down paper) I work in the belly of the ship, shovelling coal and breathing soot.  We’ll hire women, any takers?

 

MRS. WHITE         You have a point young man.

 

MRS. WHITE goes back to hearings area.

 

MARGO                 Oh, you were you the lead stoker. (begins to scribble notes) Is it true that three new boilers were lit the day of the sinking?

 

FIREMAN              Yes, she’d never gone faster.  The sooner we were past the ice the better I say.  Well, except for the part about most of me pals drowning like trapped rats.

 

KATE                    How did you make it up in time?

 

FIREMAN              Blind luck.  I stayed helping the engineers until the water rushed in, I scrambled up an escape ladder.  By the time I made it to the Promenade deck I saw two boats left.

 

MARGO                 What officer was in charge? 

 

FIREMAN              No officers, I was put in charge.  The woman just seemed to appear up from aft.  We were filled to capacity, almost 70 people.  I learned the horrors later.  From where I was there is no story of half full boats of men dressed in velvet.  Our boat had one first class passenger, only a few crewman or men and all.  Mostly steerage passengers dressed like rag dolls, plenty who spoke no English, yet treated with a certain respect.  

          

KATE                    By being full you were spared having to consider going back?

 

FIREMAN              I suppose.  I’ll testify, best I can.

 

MARGO                  I wish I’d been given pass inside the hearing room today.

 

FIREMAN               Aw, lassie. The truth ain’t in there. All week I’ve been at the port listening to crewman gabbing to other seaman.

 

MARGO                  But each one seems to have a different version of the same story.

 

FIREMAN              Well, there’s greed and saving face, but it ain’t always dishonesty, the mind plays tricks.  And not just by time passing.  On me boat, some swear they heard the band playing almost till the end. Others said no.  The minute after she went down, some people say they saw her snap apart in two. 

 

WANE                   (sets paper down briefly) My dear fellow, I saw Titanic break in half.  Too much weight on her stern.

 

FIREMAN              A bloody myth.  I know that ship and where the power turbines are.  Her lights couldn’t have stayed on that long if she broke apart.

 

SENATOR              I call lookout Fredrick Fleet!

 

 

Section 7: Senator and Fleet on the sighting of the iceberg

 

Lights come up in the hearings area.

 

WANE goes back to glancing at his paper. The lights stay up in the waiting area. Action resumes in hearings area. Unlike most witnesses FLEET is nervous and uncomfortable, clutching his cap.

 

SENATOR              How far off was this "black mass" when you saw it?

 

FLEET                    Don’t know.

 

SENATOR              I understand you’re not good at estimating distances.

 

FLEET                    Not good with numbers, but I see plenty good.

 

SENATOR              Why were there no binoculars in the crow’s nest?

 

FLEET                    Don’t know, they were there, then after we left South Hampton they wasn’t there.

 

SENATOR              What’s missing was a chain of communication.

 

LIGHTOLLER        Glasses are not always used. They can narrow the view. It’s a matter of opinion.

 

SENATOR              (holding up paper) Admiral Peary was just interviewed. The very discoverer of the North Pole says on a clear night, such as the night the Titanic foundered, binoculars would have been very valuable at seeing the berg earlier.

 

SENATOR              (to Fleet) And when you rung up the bridge by phone in the crow’s nest and after you told the officer about the berg what did he say?

 

FLEET                    He said "thank you."

 

The spectators moan at such a travesty. ["Thank you" became a headline in many of that day’s stories.]

       

Section 8: Comments regarding the evacuation procedures

 

While the characters in the waiting area make comments those in the hearings area do not freeze and the lights stay up. They just talk softly or look at paper work while the action is directed back to the hallway area.

 

SENATOR              What we see is a ship rushed into its maiden voyage. No general alarm given. No chain of command, no organized routine of evacuation… Mr. Lightoller, you put people aboard the lifeboats regardless of class, nationality or pedigree?

 

LIGHTOLLER        Yes.

 

SENATOR              Do you know of gates being locked to prevent steerage passengers from going up top?

 

LIGHTOLLER        From the beginning I saw some second and third cabin passengers entering lifeboats. Language was a barrier. And no one was there to give proper instructions of which boat deck to go to.

 

FIREMAN               I heard several gates were locked after the collision, I believe it, but I’ll deny saying it.

 

KATE                      A group of us were escorted up without a problem.

 

WANE                    That’s just it, you had to stay below until escorted.

 

MARGO                 Wasn’t the way the was ship designed one of the barriers to going to the boat decks?

 

FIREMAN              Yes, but the biggest barrier is class. The poorest of people often accept their fates with no hope.  After years of second class conditioning.

 

KATE                    I agree, some of the people I met in steerage told me this was the first time they had ever had running water or indoor plumbing.

 

WANE                   That’s why they come here in droves, plenty of poor Americans would have stormed through those gates same as a rich man would have.

 

FIREMAN               Unless you were a first class woman or child, surviving the night was the luck of the draw. Standing in the right place at the right time.

 

SENATOR              Did you see families separated?

 

LIGHTOLLER        I did.

 

SENATOR              25 percent of steerage survived. 42 percent of second class and 60 percent of first class! More men from first class survived then children from steerage!

                              

LIGHTOLLER        I was in charge of the port side. Only later did I learn First Officer Murdoch was starboard letting couples on and often single men.

 

FIREMAN               They won’t tell you how Officer Murdoch must have panicked.  Not just because he didn’t have enough lookouts.  Murdoch tried to turn a ship big as a city sharply to miss the berg. That left the vulnerable side of the ship open. He ended up shooting himself in the head, you know.

 

MARGO                 That is hearsay.

 

SENATOR              Why, would Officer Murdoch let so many men on?

 

LIGHTOLLER        Scores of woman looked down and didn’t want to go down ropes into a cold black sea. It seemed safer on the ship. We were led to believe the lifeboats were only a precaution. Captain Smith didn’t want a panic.

 

SENATOR              So when no one else near seemed willing to go, you simply lowered a half-full boat? One boat only had 12 passengers!

 

LIGHTOLLER        It was a confusing night sir.

 

FIREMAN               Sure we come up with our own versions, but look at the consistent agreed upon facts on how unorganized things were that night.

 

WANE                    It’s no rumour Captain Smith lost his mind.

 

FIREMAN              But the big shots will look harsh if they attack the dead.

                             The biggest curse of the Titanic is that the Captain was the most popular of any captain on any steam line. Yet his wits had never been tested.

 

SENATOR              Then when the ship was listing and people began to crowd the boats you still didn’t fill them to capacity…Yes, yes, no one thought she’d founder.

 

LIGHTOLLER       Towards the end boats were filled up, sir.

 

SENATOR             We hear of so many passengers being asked to help man boats. Yet you say it took only two crewmen to man a boat. Out of 20 boats that would be 40 saved. Why were 214 members of the crew saved and put before children!

 

LIGHTOLLER shrugs and says nothing.

 

FLEET                    I was ordered onto boat six!

 

KATE                      Could it be true survival often simply meant which side of the boat deck you chose to walk up?

 

MARGO                  (looking at notes) A single man in third class got aboard one crowded boat while a famous millionaire with a pregnant wife was refused a seat in another boat lowered with plenty of room.

 

[The pregnant bride and soon to be widow of Col. John Jacob Astor, ended up covering a crying 21 year old Irish immigrant with her shawl to keep him from being pulled out.]

 

FIREMAN              White Star ain’t the problem, it’s all of civilization, that’s what’s on trail here.

 

End of the two scenes going back and forth.

 

Section 9:  What the band played and differing accounts.

 

The lights go down on stage left as WANE, FIREMAN, MARGO and KATE exit.

 

SENATOR can make transitions in whom he’s questioning by pausing, finding a note in his file, then pacing over to the different witness.

 

SENATOR              Mrs. Shelley, you’ve written an affidavit that states Mr. Ismay showed you the Marconigram warning of ice. And rather than slowing down he said "we’ll put on more boilers to speed out of it"?

 

MRS. SHELLEY     No, I said that’s what Mrs. Ryerson told me.

 

SENATOR              (reading) Yet, in her sworn affidavit she makes no mention of it. Only of how the band kept playing and how the ship broke in half.

 

MRS. WHITE         I say the ship went down intact, because the funnel toppled over some say she broke in two.

 

SENATOR is frustrated at how casually they change subjects, he is about to interrupt, but lets them talk as this is an informal inquiry, not a trial.

 

MRS. SHELLEY     She broke in two as if cut like a knife, I swear. And the band did keep playing. "Nearer my God to thee."

 

LIGHTOLLER        (a bit upset) I disagree. Wireless officer Harold Bride was in the water close by.  He claims they were playing "Autumn."

 

MRS. WHITE         No, it was a ragtime number.

 

MRS. SHELLEY     Ragtime, at a time like that?

 

SENATOR              Every Marconigram of ice warnings should have been

                             posted on the bridge, not passed around. We’ll reconvene     

                             after lunch.     

 

SENATOR rushes out for lunch, probably with MRS. BIDWELL.  Then MRS. WHITE and SHELLEY can have a debate.

 

[Perhaps need to add a few more lines here for MRS. SHELLEY: class distinctions, how poor people have to know their place. How quickly the newly rich abandon their class. Something like that. Part for the play’s message and to give the actress playing MRS. SHELLEY more lines.]

 

As lights go down in hearing area,  PHOTOGRAPHER and, MARGO, walk into the hallway area where a slick looking REPORTER is standing.

        

PHOTOGRAPHER         Oh, not another slippery Times reporter.

 

MARGO                        They breed like rabbits.

 

REPORTER                  Our circulation has sky rocketed since

                                    the sinking. (to photographer) Can we hire you away 

                                    for a handsome raise?

 

PHOTOGRAPHER          I’ve always admired the Times reporters.

 

MARGO                         What about me?

 

REPORTER                    Margo, now I can afford to marry you and you can

                                      quit working.

 

He is kidding, but puts his arm around her, minor sexual harassment.  She

nudges him away.

 

MARGO                          Anything to beat the competition.   I know you    

                                      made a deal with Marconi to buy the exclusive

                                      stories from his wireless officers.

 

REPORTER                     The New York World is not a bunch of angels either.

 

MARGO                           The press was banned from boarding the Carpathia.   

                                       Yet we know your managing editor slipped on and

                                       went straight to the wireless room.

 

REPORTER                     Having Guglielmo Marconi at your side opens

                                      doors.  That’s yesterday’s scandal, today it’s the

                                      mystery ship everybody’s talking about.

 

PHOTOGRAPHER            It’s no mystery. The freighter the Californian was

                                      nearby, they sent the Titanic one of the ice

                                      warnings. Like sane men they stopped their ship

                                      for the night.

 

MARGO                           Button up your mouth!

 

Margo is fuming and remains upset her photographer for sharing

Information but there’s nothing she can do. [The New York Times really did

have a deal with 37 year old Marconi, the Bill Gates of his day. The

paper rose to prominence that still continues generally as a result of

having the most complete Titanic coverage.]

 

REPORTER                      So you think the captain of the Californian saw

                                        the distress rockets and still didn’t wake up their

                                        wireless officer?

 

PHOTOGRAPHER              He didn’t want to risk his ship, how was he to 

                                         know it wasn’t a beat up fishing vessel nobody’d

                                         miss?

 

MARGO                             Careers begin and end thanks to the Titanic’s long

                                         reach.

 

As they exit SENATOR  rushes out to the hall followed by MRS. BIDWELL.

 

SENATOR             I want you to get Marconi back on the stand.          

 

MRS. BIDWELL     William Alden, you can’t.  Go after Taft, Roosevelt, King

                             George perhaps, but not him.

 

SENATOR             Those just getting on duty in the bridge were only aware of

                             two ice warnings, under-paid, over-worked Marconi

                             employees were forced to put  commercial traffic above

                             navigational.  And often the operators were so busy

                             sending birthday wishes, they couldn’t leave the cabin to

                             deliver messages to the bridge!

 

MRS. BIDWELL     But ultimately the SOS on his equipment saved 705

                            people.

 

SENATOR             Yes, but it’s a monopoly and I am a trust buster.  They

                            stalled messages after the rescue, they made a deal with

                            the Times so Officer Bride would be paid a small fortune

                            for his story.  Shares of Marconi Company stock have

                            quadrupled. 

 

MRS. BIDWELL     There will now be regulations. The monopoly will die off

                             soon when radio waves are perfected and any

                             crew member can use a wireless.

 

SENATOR             (sighs) I can’t help taking swings at handmade hallos.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     Perhaps you could call the Pope as a witness?

 

SENATOR              I won’t be happy until God testifies. (walking away)

 

MRS. BIDWELL     And under oath at that.  “I now call God as my witness!”

 

(They laugh, as SENATOR exits, LOWE comes up to MRS BIDWELL.)

 

LOWE                    I don’t care for you sense of humour, Mrs. Bidwell. It’s     

                             blasphemy

 

MRS. BIDWELL     Officer Lowe, I respect that your boat was the only one to 

                             go back for survivors. And I realize you are a

                             religious man, but no type of God would want you

                             preach to me.

 

LOWE                    I beg your pardon!

 

MRS. BIDWELL     God created the “Latins” and “Italians” you bad mouthed 

                             for rushing the boats.   You almost didn’t pick up that  

                            Japanese business man floating on wreckage because there

                             might be others more worthy of rescue. 

 

LOWE                    It’s 1912, one can be excused of such minor character

                             flaws.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     Senator Smith has defended black men in criminal court, 

                             made sacrifices to his career by supporting people from

                             races you may not approve of!    

 

LOWE                    You Americans have slave owners portraits printed on

                             your money…Miss, I am a hero this month, I promise to

                             try to change later.

 

Black out.

 

[In the movie the wreckage Rose is floating on is supposed to be based on

the one the Japanese businessman used.]

 

Section 10:   Lowes testimony (the only lifeboat to go back to look for survivors)

 

Lights come up on hearings area.

 

SENATOR              I call Fifth Officer Harold Lowe.

 

LOWE enters and takes his seat on the panel.

 

SENATOR              I understand you were the skipper of the only lifeboat to go back and look for surviving swimmers?

 

LOWE                     Yes, I transferred the passengers from my boat into other boats to make room for up to 60.  But we waited too long. Only saved three.

 

SENATOR              Prior to that you were lowering lifeboats on the starboard side. Did Mr. Ismay assist you?

 

LOWE                     I did not know who he was at the time. When it comes to doing the right thing I answer only to God. Unlike some other members of the crew, I will not twist the truth to protect the company.

 

SENATOR              You finally demanded Mr. Ismay stand back?

 

LOWE                     Yes, though he was trying to help, I found him overanxious, waving his hands saying…"lower away! lower away! Lower away!"

 

LOWE’S imitation of pompous ISMAY is superb, the ladies who are already smitten with Lowe giggle.

 

SENATOR              Did you fire shots from your revolver while your boat was being lowered?

 

LOWE                     Yes, as we passed the lower deck a mob of people began swarming the boat, it would have pitched us all over into the sea.

 

SENATOR              Witnesses say you fired into a crowd of immigrants.

 

LOWE                     No, only to either side of the ship.

 

SENATOR              Do you believe reports that First Officer Murdoch shot himself dead after killing a passenger?

 

LOWE                     Yes. And he realized he’d be blamed for letting too many men aboard the lifeboats.

 

SENATOR              Why didn’t you load the boats to capacity?

 

LOWE                     At first few wanted to leave the ship. Then we were of the understanding that too many people would cause the lifeboats to buckle in the middle.

 

SENATOR              (waving file) Those boats were designed to hold up to 65 men. They were lowered from davits in Belfast with 65 burley Irishman. Why was there never a boat drill as scheduled?

 

LOWE                     It was another failure in the chain of command and information. The morning of the drill was at the same time Captain Smith liked to conduct Sunday mass.

 

SENATOR              You who only answer to God could have made it your business to learn more. Men were resting on their oars while there was room for 500 more people on those boats!

 

Section 11:   Lightroller’s survival

 

MRS. WHITE         (an outburst) The officers should have left the ship last.

 

LIGHTOLLER        I didn’t leave the ship, the ship left me. I was washed off the plunging bow. I eventually swam until I found a collapsible lifeboat floating upside down.

 

SENATOR              OK, back to you Mr. Lightoller, did any other swimmers try to climb on board?

 

LIGHTOLLER        Yes. Once the crewmembers recognized me, they pulled me up. Wireless officer Bride was the last man invited on board.

 

SENATOR              One more man after that and you’d have capsized?

 

LIGHTOLLER        I didn’t see anyone whack any swimmers with an oar like I’ve heard. So many people were in the water.

 

MRS. SHELLEY     You couldn’t hear anything but the boat break-up, then all those people in the water crying for help.

 

MRS. WHITE         Such a roar. The mass of screams were dreadful.

 

Lights go down in hearings and hallway areas. CHORUS softly sings or hums "near, my God to Thee"

 

Section 12:   Renactment of the lifeboats not turning back

 

Several actors move to two rows of benches under a spotlight. A couple oars and a lantern should help. Not all passengers had life vests and some were in pajamas and blankets. We hear faint sounds those still on board and sounds of the ship breaking up.

 

PASSENGER          She’s gone under! Pointed right up in the air!

 

Several lifeboat passengers begin to sob in terror. Those in the boats say they didn’t hear loud screams of those left behind until they were swimming. So the mass of screams start now.  Passenger, may also be crewmen, and Lowe could just be a generic crewman.

 

PASSENGER          Our husbands!

 

PASSENGER          If all those men standing near the boat had been better dressed, you’d have let them on too.

 

PASSENGER          Listen to them. Let’s row back, we’ve plenty room to save a dozen lives or more.

 

PASSENGER          We’ll all die! No one touch those oars!

 

PASSENGER          I say we take vote!

 

LOWE                     It’s suicide to go back now, we will wait.

 

PASSENGER          I can’t stand the sound.

 

PASSENGER          Can you tell what some of them are saying? It’s “save one life.”

 

PASSENGER          Our boat would be swamped and sink for sure.  That would be less lives, not more.

 

PASSENGER          There’s other life boats out here with more room, and it won’t be long until a rescue ship or two will be here, first they’ll save those in the water. 

 

LOWE                     We will sing.

 

PASSENGER          Are you mad!?

 

LOWE                     Were going to sing to block out the screams. Everybody, it’s an order.

 

Lowe begins to sing, though in obvious sorrow, but with a sense of duty. Slowly some of the others join him as the screams of swimmers get louder.

 

LOWE THEN CHORUS

Pull for the shore, sailor, and pull for the shore!

Heed not the rolling waves, but bend to the oar;

Safe in the lifeboat, sailor, cling to self no more!

Leave the poor stranded wreck, and pull for the shore.

 

NOTE: Survivors really did sing this song in boat 13. The song Lowe actually had them sing was "Throw out the life-line" Screams stop, lights come back up on SENATOR as he talks to the audience.

 

Section 13:   Senator comments on lifeboats not returning and Ismay wants to go home to England

 

SENATOR              (to audience) Yes, several boats really sang to do anything to block out the bone chilling screams. There are reports crewman made threats to anyone who wanted to row near the crowd.

 

We begin to hear faint sounds of screams again. Generic crewman walks

up, he looks haggard, nervous about taking the Senator’s time. He is

treated kindly. (Senator Smith was on first name bases with all the

crewman by the end of the hearings.)  The scene could have brief crowd

cheers/screams in the back ground.

 

CREWMAN            Senator Smith?

 

SENATOR              Yes, sir.

 

CREWMAN            I still hear the screams and can’t block ‘em out.  I have all this time to think.   You see I never had no more than a few days off working me whole life till now. You set us up in a hotel and I thank you for making them gave us an extra dollar a day spending money.

 

SENATOR              I try to treat all men equally.

 

CREWMAN             You ever seen a baseball game?

 

SENATOR              Of course.  I follow the Detroit Tigers.

 

CREWMAN             Ya know that big Stadium park up Broadway?

             

SENATOR              Why I’ve seen Ty Cob hit a home run there.

 

CREWMAN            Well, that’s what it sounds like.  Me mate and me was walking a ways by it, and when something big happens, the crowd roars.  From a distance, it sounds like the cries for help we heard from the swimmers that night.

 

SENATOR              Are you a religious man?

 

CREWMAN             I voted for our boat to stay away from the swimmers, don’t know if God will have me now.  (begins to walk away seeming lost) Back home I lives near a football field in South Hampton. 

 

MRS. BIDWELL has walked up.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     He looks like a ghost.  Yet it was mostly the woman majority in the boats that collectively voted not to go back.  Woman soon to be widows.

 

SENATOR              Right as she was going down the closest life boats did pick up several swimmers. What we keep seeing is stories of gallantry while the ship was sinking.  Such personal sacrifice. "Sit right here, take my blanket. Let me row."

 

MRS. BIDWELL      It seems God was there during the final hours till Titanic vanished. Then when it comes to these half full boats at least trying to pick up swimmers, only one boat went back!

 

SENATOR              But the screams are gone in an hour or so. Dead silence. Then God and gallantry is back. "Here take my jacket, oh, no, you board the rescue ship first. Oh, no hot soup for me until everyone else has had some."

 

Slowly the sound of hushed screams begin again while he talks, they get louder, like voices in his head. So he talks louder.

 

Where was God during that hour!? When he was needed most! The boats could have let a few of the nearest swimmers on and rowed off before being swamped. But I wasn’t there.

 

In the end I believe some men willingly gave their lives, I believe plenty of people wanted to go back. But the numbers and the reality are: one boat out of 20 went back and saved three!

 

ISMAY calmly enters, unaware of the screams.  The SENATOR is looking overworked and weary.

 

ISMAY                    Excuse me Senator?!

 

ISMAY says this loud enough for SENATOR to hear when he’s still several feet away. The minute he speaks, the screams stop instantly. SENATOR turns to talk to him.

 

ISMAY                    The hearings are all but over now. No one has been able to prove any of the charges against me. May I go home?

 

SENATOR              No. (rubbing eyes)

 

ISMAY                   May I ask you something that has been gnawing at me?

 

SENATOR              Only if it doesn’t involve big ships.

 

ISMAY                   As a boy I went to only the finest boarding school in London…I preformed in the annual light opera.

 

SENATOR              I believe half of that.

 

 ISMAY                  How could a boy even begin to support a family simply by singing in the street?!

 

SENATOR              At 12 I made double what the average family earned! My popularity lead to me being hired as a newspaper reporter at age 19.

 

ISMAY                   I am not doubting you, since childhood I’ve only been surrounded by people with old money. I am dying to know how you did it.

 

SENATOR              Popcorn.  I’d jump into the crowd singing and dancing with a bag of pop corn in each hand.  Sold one bag after another.

 

ISMAY                   (impressed) Ah, you would buy it in bulk and pop it your self.

 

SENATOR              Only because our butler was gone.  Off playing golf with his butler.

 

ISMAY                   Popcorn does have an enormous profit margin.

 

Ismay walks away satisfied.  Suddenly SENATOR has a brief flash back to

40 years ago.  Perhaps only in his mind.   I have included the entire lyrics,

so if you use them, you can trim them as you see fit. 

 

Instead of a boy dancing, or maybe the shadow of a dancing boy in the back

ground, I picture tired SENATOR lost in thought for a moment as he

reminisces of his boy hood while the CHORUS softly sings.

 

During this time the rest of the characters can be going about their business

in little groups as the hearings dominate their lives.  They silently chat or

read, or point at another group and gossip.  Crewman can pantomime a

sea story, reports pester people.  Arguments, debates etc.

 

This song does sort of fit in as there is so much talk about money and what

with the next section being about Wane being a con artist gambler.

 

CHORUS:

De Camptown ladies sing dis song, Doo-dah! doo-dah!

De Camptown race-track five miles long, Oh, doo-dah day!

I come down dah wid my hat caved in, Doo-dah! doo-dah!

I go back home wid a pocket full of tin, Oh, doo-dah day!

Gwine to run all night!

Gwine to run all day!

I'll bet my money on de bob-tail nag,

Somebody bet on de bay.

De long tail filly and de big black hoss, Doo-dah! doo-dah!

Dey fly de track and dey both cut across, Oh, doo-dah-day!

De blind hoss sticken in a big mud hole, Doo-dah! doo-dah!

Can't touch bottom wid a ten foot pole, Oh, doo-dah-day!

Chorus

Old muley cow come on to de track, Doo-dah! doo-dah!

De bob-tail fling her ober his back, Oh, doo-dah-day!

Den fly along like a rail-road car, Doo-dah! doo-dah!

Runnin' a race wid a shootin' star, Oh, doo-dah-day!

Chorus

See dem flyin' on a ten mile heat, Doo-dah doo-dah!

Round de race track, den repeat, Oh, doo-dah-day!

I win my money on de bob-tail nag, Doo-dah! doo-dah!

I keep my money in an old tow-bag, Oh, doo-dah-day!

 

Section 14:   Kate finds out that Wane is a conman

 

Stage goes black. Lights back on as action quickly moves to the waiting

area. KATE is alone with WANE.

 

WANE                     Darling, we really need to get away from all this. By Wednesday I’d hoped we could take the train to Niagara Falls and get married.

 

KATE                      I told you I have a rally to go to on Wednesday.

 

WANE                     They’ll be other rallies.  I want you to be Mrs. Wane Wheelwright.

 

KATE                      Yes, but it’s so soon.

 

Enter FLEET with a MARGO.

 

FLEET                    Hold it right there, Mr. baby bottom hands, I asked around at the port about you.  Then I talked to this newsman woman, happens she was turning over rocks same as me looking for information about just what bloomin’ rock you crawled out from under.

 

MARGO                 You said a reporter wrote a story about you and sent it to the Denver Daily Express. I found out there is no such paper!

 

WANE                    I am actually from a small hamlet outside Denver!

 

MARGO                 With a bank and a daily paper!?

 

FLEET                   Lies!  You’re a gambler, a card sharp you is.  You cleaned out several sailors just last night.

 

WANE                    A small poker game among bored crewman waiting for the investigation to release them.

 

FLEET                   (To Kate) His hands are smooth and fast.

 

KATE                    You cheat at cards?

 

WANE                    No, I’m just a very good player.  As if sailors are loaded with money for me to take.

 

MARGO                  Kate, I’m afraid your fiancée made the big killing by selling his story to the New York Globe.

 

WANE                    It’s nonsense.

 

FLEET                   He’s a con artist, little lady.

 

KATE                    Why would he want to marry me, he knows I’m poor.

 

WANE                    Because I love you.

 

FLEET                    Even a man who cheats at everything can still fall in love. What could be a better wife for a travelling card sharp then a pretty girl who’s always off busy protesting?

 

MARGO                 A tug boat rented by the Globe pulled alongside the Carpathia and yelled for Titanic crewman to jump in the harbour, that they’d be fished out right away and given money for their stories.  They were careful to make sure the men had identification that could be verified.

 

KATE                    Is that where you went, you didn’t help the doctor!  (to Kate)  But his name wasn’t in the newspaper!

 

FLEET                   Stole a dead man’s work papers he did!

 

MARGO                 Mr. Fleet, I told you he must have used his papers to forge new ones for the papers of a first class Steward who was on the crewman’s list but cancelled at the last minute.

 

FLEET                   Because he killed him back in Queenstown!

 

MARGO                 No, why does everything have to be exaggerated?  

 

FLEET                   Couldn’t use Wheelwright ‘cause he made it up!

 

WANE                    If it seemed real enough to be hired by White Star, why not use it to sell a story?!

 

(Fleet is trying to figure that one out)

 

KATE                    How could you do this to me!

 

WANE                   It’s not how it looks, darling.

 

MARGO                You were hoping to get out of town before you got caught.  

                            We know you’re wanted by the New York police.  But we won’t say a word to the police for 24 hours.

 

WANE                    And why’d would you do that?!

 

MARGO                 Before you disappear into a new life with a new name I want you to give me an exclusive story about being a con artist who works on board luxury liners.

 

KATE                    (upset at Margo) Bribery, extortion.  Oh, is that how you got promoted, by being more of an aggressive immoral, cut throat than a man!  Is that equality!?

 

MARGO                 I’m also protecting you from a con man!

 

WANE                    Kate, I love you.  My real name is Wane Wheelwright and I am not wanted by the police.  You’re using an old reporters trick.  And The Globe would get in trouble ratting me out. Yes, I sometimes am a liar but I do not cheat at cards.  My family does own a ranch, I grew up cleaning out ignorant ranch hands, and found crewmen on ocean liners made them look like geniuses.

 

FLEET attacks WANE.  WANE’S hand comes out of the sling. He grabs Fleet by the collar and practically lifts him up. He’s about ready to punch him. MARGO tries to pull WANE off.

 

FLEET                   You sniffling swine…Hey, your hand was never hurt! 

 

KATE                     You were so smart and charming, why do all this?

 

WANE                    Because I am the laziest man alive!  I didn’t want to row.  I was so charming no one noticed I did nothing as a Steward.   My brother kicked me off the ranch because I faked injury so often.  But that is in the past.   Meeting you and almost dying made me want to change.

 

KATE                      Almost dying? How about if I kill you right now! (looking at Margo) Everybody is thirsty for blood!

 

WANE                     But I love you.

 

FLEET                    I’m chokin’ up it’s so romantic.

 

KATE                      (to Wane) I’m a modern independent woman, I always end up calling off my weddings anyway!

 

WANE is truly heartbroken, he begins to leave.

 

MARGO                  Can’t you give me just a few quotes?

 

WANE                     How’s this, drown me right now!

 

WANE exits.          

 

KATE                      Good bye whatever your real name is!

 

WANE pops back in.

 

WANE                     IT’S WANE WHEELWRIGHT!

 

Exit WANE.

 

MARGO                  Will I see you at the rally on Wednesday?

 

KATE                    I thank you for your help, but I am not happy about the price you are paying, you can’t be equal by cheating using your sexuality or vulnerability as a woman.                

Exit MARGO.

 

KATE                      I owe you a lot of thanks Mr. Fleet.

 

FLEET                    Least I did somethin’ good, maybe the old man upstairs will give me some repentance.

 

KATE                      Don’t worry, God loves you, wherever she may be.

 

 

Section 15:   Senator with a defiant Ismay

 

Lights go down as KATE and FLEET exit. Lights come back up on SENATOR and ISMAY.

 

SENATOR              (shakes his head) By the way, women were given the vote in 1920. And there were two real marriages by survivors who started their courtships about the rescue ship.

 

ISMAY                    Why tell me that? Are you tired?

 

SENATOR              Exhausted.  I’ve worked non-stop. Mr. Ismay, I’m a man used to finding answers!

 

ISMAY                    I’m used to having anything I want! Now I’m ruined. But I’m numb. I don’t have the nightmares or hear the screams like everyone else. Why can’t the dead and the era of building too big too fast be to blame? Did you have to put on a show?!

 

SENATOR              To make it easier to get new safety legislation!

 

Enter LIGHTOLLER.

 

LIGHTOLLER        That would have taken care of its self. Last week the crew of the Olympic staged a minor mutiny by refusing to go back out to sea until White Star provided lifeboats for everyone on board. Senator, you and your wife crossed the Atlantic on White Star a few years ago.  Captain Smith gave you a tour.  Did you scream and shout when you saw they didn’t have a full compliment of lifeboats?

 

SENATOR              The fact that we’re all guilty of complacency will be in my final report!  This inquiry may ruin my political career, but I held nothing back!

 

LIGHTOLLER        Except you were afraid to publicly criticize Captain Smith or Gulielmo Marconi etc…

 

SENATOR              I had to do what is right beyond my personal beliefs.

 

LIGHTOLLER steps back and doesn’t involve himself in the conversation for

a while. Perhaps Ismay motions him to step back.

 

ISMAY                    Assume I’m greedy with no soul. I proved I want to live! I am worth 40 millions dollars in 1912! Why would I cut corners on a ship with an unlimited budget, a ship I was going to be a regular passenger on!…The three men who were directly responsible for the safety of the ship that night perished without answering your questions. Then since God isn’t returning your phone calls, you turn me into the devil!

 

SENATOR              Watch your mouth!

 

ISMAY                    Senator, perhaps there is a God. But have you considered that maybe I don’t think there’s such things as ghosts?

 

MRS. BIDWELL walks by and hands a slip of paper to SENATOR.

 

ISMAY                   Oh, Mrs. Bidwell, let’s hear your latest rant.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     This goes beyond Marine legislation.  The scope of this disaster has brought attention to the gap between the classes.  Congress is considering investigation into working conditions of the poor, such as in factories that claim to be safe and modern.

 

ISMAY                   Are you saying we won’t always see the rich travelling with maids, man servants and steamer trunks? 

 

MRS. BIDWELL      Maybe. And word has it in a few years they’ll be an income tax to take a bite.  They’ll always be the super rich, but they will try to hide it better.

 

ISMAY                   Oh, yes Senator, you are a social doctor who’s preformed the first autopsy of the Gilded age.

 

MRS. BIDWELL      And you English will have to recognize the woman’s right movement.

 

ISMAY                   We have suffragettes in England!  You may have heard that until 10 years ago we had a queen with some degree of power for 63 years!

 

MRS. BIDWELL     Queen Victory was for show.  America will have a female President before you have a female Prime Minister!   

 

 

SENATOR              (laughs) I will believe God is a woman, before I’ll believe a woman could ever be elected president.

 

MRS. BIDWELL gives SENATOR a fuming look.

 

SENATOR             Not that I wouldn’t personally approve of either.

 

MRS. BIDWELL     I have to leave now.

 

SENATOR             Aren’t you going to stay till the end?

 

MRS. BIDWELL     I was never real, you two are real.

 

SENATOR             You are a composite of real people!

 

MRS. BIDWELL     But I change as the story keeps being retold, you are 

                            always a hero with faults and Ismay is always a villain with

                            no redeeming qualities. 

 

SENATOR             Will I see you again? 

 

MRS. BIDWELL     Maybe next time I’ll be a boy, dancing beside you on the

                            streets of Grand Rapids.

 

She exits. 

 

ISMAY                   Did you hear that?   I’m always a villain with no 

                             redeeming qualities.  Why don’t you ever mention how

                             much I donated to the widow’s fund? A scapegoat trapped

                             in eternity.  And why do I always have

                             to look so sinister? Every movie, every mini-series. 

 

SENATOR              I’ve never even made it that far. I’m largely forgotten

                             even in Michigan.  Ever since Henry Ford became the

                             favourite son.  And why don’t you do something about

                             your personality!

 

ISMAY                   Many photos exist of me smiling, yet you always make

                             me dark and brooding.

 

SENATOR               If life isn’t fair why should death be?

 

ISMAY                   Can I go back to England now?

 

SENATOR              Yes!

 

ISMAY motions LIGHTOLLER to follow. They exit. Puppy dog.

 

SENATOR                (to audience) What Ismay had waiting for him was the

                               British inquiry which lasted longer and cost much more

                               than the American investigation.

 

Section 16:          Senator and Lowe – Hero or as guilty as the others?

 

as LOWE enters.

 

SENATOR              (nodding) Officer Lowe.

 

LOWE                     You know I hate Ismay. But he is innocent of every major crime he’s charged with. If he’d perished or if the top brass had lived, his name wouldn’t be ruined.

 

SENATOR              After the wireless operator, you seem to be the only hero.

 

LOWE                     No, there’s no legends of self-sacrifice among the living. I believe my entering a lifeboat saved lives. The shots I fired may have accidentally killed someone. I was aware when boat drills were ignored. I too was complacent, wanted to be promoted. We all have to find peace with God… Titanic was simply too big. You’re methods of finding answers were too big. When we don’t have all the answers we ask "where was God?"

 

SENATOR              And then more and more these days we expect the government to solve our problems.

 

LOWE                     The Lord would never leave us. Perhaps God can’t be everywhere at once, but the love for our fellow man can be. (exits)

 

ISMAY                    (pops his head back in). Senator, may I –

 

SENATOR              YES, YOU CAN GO HOME! (pause)

 

SENATOR              (to audience) Ismay never returned to the U.S. JP Morgan died less than a year later. No criminal charges were ever filed against the company or any individual.  Any strain on U.S. relations with Great Briton dissolved as we fought alongside each other during War One.

 

                             As for Titanic’s passengers, very little insurance money was ever paid out. The carefree spirit of the times was blamed.

 

Naturally there was sweeping marine legislation to avoid future sea catastrophes. A year after Titanic, major investigations began in working and living conditions of the poor. Then just two years later income tax and World War One brought an end to the super rich ruling supreme.

 

 

Section 17:            Fate of the others

 

ISMAY, LIGHTOLLER, LOWE and FLEET have lined up single file behind

SENATOR.

 

SENATOR              As soon as I let J. Bruce Ismay go back to England he was called to testify at the British Titanic inquiry. He was raked through the coals there and in the press. Though for the second time he was cleared of wrong doing, he was forced out of White Star lines and retired from public life forever the scapegoat.

 

ISMAY                    At least I outlived you by five years.   

 

ISMAY exits with nose in the air, BRIDE was behind him. Unless the

doubling up of characters makes this impractical.

 

SENATOR              Harold Bride, became a valuable wireless officer during World War One, then became a salesman and raised a family, staying out of the limelight. He died in 1956.

 

                               Charles Lightoller served in World War One and returned to White Star but never was promoted to captain because he’d chosen to support Ismay. He died in 1952.

 

LIGHTOLLER        Tell them.

 

SENATOR              (sighs) During World War Two while almost 70 years old he took his family’s yacht to Dunkirk and rescued 130 men. The overcrowded boat was bombed and machine-gunned along the way, but because of his skill as a seaman no hands were lost.

 

(Exit LIGHTOLLER, Lowe was behind him.)

 

Harold Lowe, after becoming a commander in World War One he returned home to Wales and worked in local politics. He died in 1944, rarely talking of the Titanic but always recognized for his selfless duty.

 

(whispers to audience while LOWE exits)

 

He had the best funeral of any of us…

 

Frederick Fleet stayed at sea for 24 more years, but was never forgiven for revealing that the binoculars were missing. Shortly after his wife’s death in 1965 he hung himself from the clothesline in his back yard.

 

FLEET                    Do you have to tell everyone that! (exit Fleet)

 

SENATOR              As for me. My state got more conservative. My liberal stunts wore thin, I didn’t run for president but stayed effective in the senate for seven more years then went back to being a businessman. I slowly lost my spark and grew isolated. Now I’m a tiny footnote, but in my day I was a tiger.

 

And did God ever answer me? In some ways the world woke up and changed for the better, lives were saved with improved safety standards only a catastrophe like the Titanic could have brought. And how could God have not been at a place where in the face of death the band played on?

 

Slowly everyone comes back out and sings, "nearer thy God to thee." When they start bowing it becomes a liveler "It was sad when the great ship went down." SENATOR is encouraged to sing, he finally joins in maybe does a jig or two.

 

THE END