Women and Children First!

“Just think! The Titanic! That beautiful new liner, the Queen of the Atlantic! The Unsinkable! You will be there on her maiden voyage!” Ruth Becker knew that her father was saying this to cheer her up, to make her feel glad even though he would not be able to go with them.

It was February 1912. Ruth Becker was twelve years old, and her parents, Allen and Nellie Becker, had spent nearly fifteen years as  Adventist missionaries in India. Now Mrs. Becker and the three children were to return to America, and Mr. Becker could not go with them. The doctor had said he must take a rest “for a while” up in the mountains of India, because he was suffering from a sever rash that covered his whole body.

               “Can’t we wait until you can come with us?” Ruth asked.

               And Marian, who was only four, added cheerfully, “Lets all wait for Papa!”

               “But remember what the doctor said about baby Richard,” Mrs. Becker reminded her daughters. “He told us to get him out of India’s damp climate as soon as possible. That’s why we must go now.” Then to her husband she said, “We’ve looked forward to this trip home for so long, it’s a real disappointment that you won’t be with us, Allen.”

               “Cheer up Nellie,” he said. “Ruth will be a big help to you in caring for Marian and Richard. And it won’t be long before I’ll be going home too.”

Besides being held back by the skin rash, Mr. Becker wanted to stay and finish out the remaining months of his mission term. “You will have a fine trip” he continued.” “The ship from Bombay to England is a good one. Then you will take the Titanic to New York. There are plenty of people to envy you on that trip, for not everyone who wanted to go on the Titanic’s maiden voyage was able to get passage.”

All the girls wanted to know why, and Allen Becker did not know it then, but he was to learn the reason in just a few weeks. On April 18^th he would receive a cablegram that would show him why he had been delayed in India.

Ruth and her mother, with sister Marian and baby Richard, sailed from India and reached Southampton, England. They boarded the beautiful new Titanic for their voyage across the Atlantic to New York.

The Titanic had 2,207 passengers and crew registered aboard when she began her voyage that chilly spring morning. The ship had been advertised as unsinkable. The built-in water-tight doors in her hull were believed to make it impossible for this luxury liner to go down.

On the fifth night of the voyage, that fateful night of April 14, Ruth and her mother were awakened – not by a sound but by sudden quietness. The Titanic’s giant engines had stopped. The time was nearly midnight. Then the ship seemed to come to life! There was the sound of people rushing around in the halls and on the upper decks. There were quick steps as a steward knocked on the door of Becker’s stateroom and called, “Everyone’s ordered up on deck! Come at once!”

               “Do we have time to dress?” Mrs. Becker asked.

               “Madam,” the steward answered, “you have time for nothing!” and he hurried to the next room.

Ruth and her mother quickly awakened the two smaller children, helped them into their shoes and socks, and put their coats on over their pajamas. Then Mrs. Becker took her money, and they hurried up the seven flights of stairs to the top deck.

Other passengers were already there, and more were coming, some fully dressed, others with only dressing gowns or coats over their night clothes. There was a cold wind, and ice was strewn about the deck.

The passengers were not told at once what had happened, but the ice on the deck could mean only one thing. The Titanic had struck an iceberg! It had torn a 100-metre gash in her hull. This startling news began coming out when everyone was ordered to put on life jackets, and the crew began to ready the lifeboats. Women began to cry quietly. Children clung whimpering to their mother’s skirts. But even then, many of the people did not consider the situation serious. After all, wasn’t the Titanic unsinkable? To think otherwise was unthinkable!

According to the unwritten law of ships and the sea – “Women and children first” – the passengers were sent to their lifeboat stations, and the women and children were ordered into lifeboats. Some refused to go, preferring to stay with their husbands, for many still believe the Titanic would not sink. Apart from the fact that there were not nearly enough lifeboats as were needed.

As ruth and her family waited their turn, Mrs. Becker realized that in a lifeboat on the wind-whipped waters they would need more than their coats to keep them warm. “Ruth, go back to our room and get some blankets. There’s plenty of time if you hurry,” she told her daughter.

Ruth hurried on the errand, and soon returned with three of the ship’s blankets. Then Marian and baby Richard were placed in a lifeboat, and the crew called out, “That’s all! We’re full!”

               “No. No!” Mrs. Becker cried. “They are my children. Let me be with them!”

She was finally helped into the lifeboat, but as she reached out to help Ruth aboard someone shouted, “No more! Fill the next one!”

An officer grabbed Ruth and put her in the next lifeboat. When it was finally afloat in the dark waters, she discovered she was still clutching the three blankets. The men who were rowing her lifeboat were stokers who had been working in the hot boiler room, as a result they were scantily clad. Out on the icy North Atlantic, soaked from the sea and surrounded by icebergs, these men were really suffering from the cold. Ruth gave her blankets; someone tore them into pieces, and each crewman was covered and kept from freezing.

Ruth watched the Titanic as long as she could. She could see the rows of lighted portholes. But row by row the lights went out as the ship settled down in the water. Finally, she couldn’t see the ship at all. Ruth did not realize then that hundreds of people were trapped and drowning as the ship went down.

About 80kms from the Titanic a much smaller ship, the Carpathia, was bound out of New York for a cruise to the Mediterranean. The Carpathia’s radio operator had received the Titanic’s distress signals and they raced with all possible speed to the rescue. But that took four hours, long after the Titanic went down. They circled about and picked up the people in the lifeboats bobbing about in the sea.

Just after daybreak Ruth was helped aboard the Carpathia. A warm blanket was wrapped around her, and she was hurried to the dining area for something hot to drink. There she found her mother and the two other children. Mrs. Becker grabbed her oldest daughter in her arms and wept and prayed.

It took three days to get back to New York. Fog hung low and thick, and the Carpathia had to proceed slowly and cautiously, with fog horns blowing almost continuously.

Ony 704 passengers and crew survived the Titanic disaster. 1503 people died that night, most of them going down with the ship, while the remainder drowned swimming in the ice-strewn -2C waters of the North Atlantic.

In New York, Mrs. Becker sent a cable gram to Mr. Becker. “Arrived New York safely. All 4 of us are safe.” Mr. Becker, up in the remote mountain area of India, puzzled over the cablegram. “Why did they go to the expense of cabling me?” he wondered. “Of course they arrived safely. They went on the Titanic!”

Later that day he learned the news of the Titanic disaster. Then he understood why his family had cabled him. Now they all also could understand plainly why God had Mr. Becker waiting in India. If he had sailed on the Titanic with his family, the rule of the sea – “Women and children first” – would have meant certain death for him. God knew what would happen and had mercifully prevented the father from making the trip with his family. He joined them in America 8 months later.

Ruth became Mrs. Ruth Blanchard and worked as a school teacher, and she never forgot how God had preserved the life of her missionary father. Allen died in 1956 aged 86, Nellie died in 1961, aged  85, Ruth Died in 1990 at the age of 91.