Titanic: The Long Night (31 page)

“I
want
to live in a garret, and make it on my own.”

“Then do it. I’m just saying if you wanted to, you could probably live in the nicest garret in all of New York City.”

They were on deck by then, the chilly fog having emptied it of all but the hardiest of strollers. When Elizabeth began talking again about how glad Max’s parents would be to see him, he kissed her to shut her up. They were driven inside a few moments later by lightning, thunder, and a vicious wind. They stayed inside until a steward walking by called out, “Fire Island just ahead. Only a few more hours and you’ll be safely in New York.”

When the storm ended, leaving a chill mist in its wake, they returned to the rail, and were soon joined by other survivors anxious for a glimpse of New York. Elizabeth, in her anticipation of finally arriving safely home, failed to notice the young Irish couple standing off to her left, also seeking refuge from the storm.

But Katie Hanrahan noticed Elizabeth, and clutching Paddy’s hand tightly, she smiled with satisfaction. The pretty girl had found her handsome young man. He, too, had survived the terrible disaster at sea. Perhaps that was his reward for saving Bridey and Kevin.

They looked happy to be together again.

And although she had never met the girl or the young man, the sight of the two of them standing at the rail holding hands and looking toward the shore together filled Katie with a deep sense of peace.

She had set out for America with only high hopes and a vision for the future. She was landing on its shores with a greater appreciation of life itself and with Paddy Kelleher’s hand in hers. They had lost Brian, someone they both loved deeply, but they had survived. They would mourn Brian. But they would never stop being thankful for their own lives.

Though she knew they would never forget the long, terrifying voyage, it was over now. Malachy and Lottie would be waiting for them when they stepped off the
Carpathia.
They would whisk her and Paddy off to Brooklyn, feed them hot soup and fresh bread, and listen with wide, disbelieving eyes to the tale of the sinking of the
Titanic.

It would be a tale they would tell many times. But for all the telling, it never would lose its horror.

She was about to step on the shores of America for the first time. And for her, as for all the others who had not been swallowed up by the dark sea, life would begin anew.

A
LIGHT, CHILLY MIST
was falling on the city of New York as the seven hundred survivors of the sinking of the
Titanic
, at nine-thirty
P.M.
on Wednesday, April 17,1912, disembarked from the steamer
Carpathia
via fore and aft gangways. Wealthier passengers evaded a host of reporters and photographers lying in wait for them and were whisked away in private cars by relatives and friends.

Max Whittaker’s parents greeted him with unabashed joy.

Elizabeth Farr and her mother were met by Martin’s grieving parents and taken immediately to the elder Farrs’ Manhattan town house.

Malachy and Charlotte Hanrahan of Brooklyn, New York, were forced to endure a long, chilly wait near Pier 54 for their niece from Ireland, as third-class passengers were the last to depart the
Carpathia.
It was close to eleven o’clock on the dreary, dismal April night when this last group of survivors began emerging from the aft gangway.

Other third-class passengers had lost everything but their lives. Without funds for hotel rooms or further travel, they were remanded to the care of the Women’s Relief Committee or the American Red Cross.

There were no reporters waiting when this last group of one hundred seventy-four
Titanic
survivors straggled out into the open air. This oversight proved beneficial to Patrick Kelleher who, three years later, published a moving account of what that last night on the
Titanic
was like for passengers in third class, a story no one else had ever told as movingly as Paddy did.
The Long, Dark Night
received rave reviews, and though Paddy wrote novels throughout his life, it was that first book that made his fortune.

It was dedicated to the memory of his brother, Brian.

Katie Hanrahan found, to her great distress, that New York City was not to her liking. On the funds from the sale of his first book, Paddy took her back to Ireland, where they married and lived out their lives in Dublin, raising three children: Brian, Eugenie, and Fiona. Katie taught piano and voice to children in the area and when she wasn’t starring in local theater productions, studied English grammar at length in order to do Paddy’s “grammarizin’ ” for him.

Elizabeth Langston Farr graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, with a degree in Literature. She taught at a private girls’ school in Manhattan, becoming headmistress four years after her marriage to Maxwell Whittaker. She continued at the school throughout her life, with Max’s support. They had no children, but Elizabeth considered herself surrogate mother to the girls in her school and was not discontented.

Max achieved modest success as a painter.

Nola Farr remarried three years after the
Titanic
disaster, to a French ambassador, and moved to Paris.

Though she missed her mother, Elizabeth put off visiting her as long as possible, reluctant to board a ship again.

But when she and Max eventually traveled to France, they sailed without incident, enjoying a safe and pleasant trip.

Ballard, Robert D.
Exploring the Titanic
. New York: Scholastic. Canada: Madison Press, 1988.

Eaton, John P. and Charles A. Haas.
Titanic
:
Triumph and Tragedy.
2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. London: W.W. Norton &Company, 1988,1994.

Lord, Walter.
A Night to Remember.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955.

Lynch, Don and Ken Marschall.
Titanic, An Illustrated History.
New York: Hyperion. Canada: Madison Press Books. 1992.

Diane Hoh (b. 1937) is a bestselling author of young-adult fiction. Born in Warren, Pennsylvania, Hoh grew up with eight siblings and parents who encouraged her love of reading from an early age. After high school, she spent a year at St. Bonaventure University before marrying and raising three children. She and her family moved often, finally settling in Austin, Texas.

Hoh sold two stories to
Young Miss
magazine, but did not attempt anything longer until her children were fully grown. She began her first novel,
Loving That O’Connor Boy
(1985), after seeing an ad in a publishing trade magazine requesting submissions for a line of young-adult fiction. Although the manuscript was initially rejected, Hoh kept writing, and she soon completed her second full-length novel,
Brian’s Girl
(1985). One year later, her publisher reversed course, buying both novels and launching Hoh’s career as a young-adult author.

After contributing novels to two popular series, Cheerleaders and the Girls of Canby Hall, Hoh found great success writing thrillers, beginning with
Funhouse
(1990), a Point Horror novel that became a national bestseller. Following its success, Hoh created the Nightmare Hall series, whose twenty-nine novels chronicle a university plagued by dark secrets. After concluding Nightmare Hall with 1995’s
The Voice in the Mirror
, Hoh wrote
Virus
(1996), which introduced the seven-volume Med Center series, which charts the challenges and mysteries of a hospital in Massachusetts.

In 1998, Hoh had a runaway hit with
Titanic: The Long Night
, a story of two couples—one rich, one poor—and their escape from the doomed ocean liner. That same year, Hoh released
Remembering the Titanic
, which picked up the story one year later. Together, the two were among Hoh’s most popular titles. She continues to live and write in Austin.