Women and Children First: Bravery, love and fate: the untold story of the doomed Titanic. Gill Paul

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      Annie McGeown was lying in her bunk unable to get to sleep when the ship struck the iceberg. She’d been imagining the new home they would have in New York. It was hard to form a picture of it in her head, because all Seamus had told her was that it had three rooms – three! – and a yard out the back where the childrun could play. It was an apartment, a word that had been new to her until a few weeks ago. They would be on the ground floor and there were neighbours living upstairs, and more again above that. Annie wasn’t sure if they’d have to share a kitchen but she hoped not. She’d like her own kitchen, where other wives couldn’t pinch her flour and salt or leave burnt pans steeping in the sink. The lavvie would be out in the yard and everyone in the building would take turns. She hoped they were clean people; there was nothing worse than clearing up the mess others left behind.

      She thought about how she would decorate the apartment and turn it into a real home. She’d find fabric to make pretty window curtains, she’d embroider some pictures for the walls, and she’d pick wild flowers and put them in jars, just like those huge bouquets of flowers she’d seen up in the first-class lounge. She was a good housekeeper. She’d learned all the old tricks from her mother, like using vinegar and newspaper for the windows and wiping down walls with a solution of washing soda to discourage mould. She’d maybe plant some vegetables in the yard, if she could just find a few seedlings to start off with. Oh, but she had so many plans for their new life …

      Annie felt the ship turn sharply just before the collision. The movement almost made her roll on top of the baby. Then there was a jolt, and a noise that seemed to her like the sound of the big cogwheels grinding the corn at Dunemark Watermill. That was her first thought: why do they have a watermill at sea? She got up and crept to the porthole but outside all was black.

      The engine noise stopped abruptly and now the only sounds were her children snuffling and sighing in their sleep. Something’s broken in the engine, she thought. They’ll have to fix it. I hope it won’t make us late arriving in New York. I don’t want Seamus to be hanging around. He was taking the day off work to meet them, and she wanted them to have as much time together as they possibly could.

      In the corridor outside, she heard voices. People were emerging from their cabins to discuss the reason for the unscheduled stop. Annie stood with her ear to the door to listen, not wanting to go out in her nightclothes, but then she heard voices she recognised as belonging to her friends from Mayo. She pulled her coat over the top of her nightdress and quietly eased the door open.

      ‘You all right, love?’ Kathleen asked. ‘Did it wake you?’

      ‘What happened?’ Annie looked from one to the other and they shrugged, but a man further along the corridor had more answers.

      ‘We hit an iceberg. There’s a small hole in the front of the prow but they’ve closed the watertight doors so the water won’t flood in.’

      ‘Mother of God,’ Annie exclaimed, clutching her hand to her mouth. ‘Are you sure? Who told you that?’ She peered at the speaker, who was wearing an overcoat and cap, his face indistinguishable in the dim lighting.

      ‘I’ve come from downstairs. There’s an inch of water on G Deck and the staff are hauling the postbags up the steps so they don’t get wet. But they told me the damage is contained now. They’ll mop the floors and we can all go back to sleep.’

      ‘Holy Jesus,’ Kathleen gasped, crossing herself. ‘You think we’re going to go back to sleep while the ship’s taking on water?’

      The man sounded impatient. ‘It’s not taking on water any more. That’s the beauty of the design. They’ve closed off that area and we’re right as rain. That’s why she’s unsinkable.’

      ‘I don’t know, I still don’t like it,’ Kathleen murmured. ‘I’m going to find a steward.’

      Annie felt her guts twisting. She tried to focus on the positive things the man had said, but in her head all she could think was that they were in the middle of a vast, freezing ocean, there was a hole in the ship and she was alone with four children to look after. What would Seamus do if he was there? He’d probably go and find a crew member to ask about it. Well, that’s what Kathleen was doing. She couldn’t go because she had to mind the children. There was nothing she could do except wait.