McKinley - Undercurrents

The SS Arcadia had left Liverpool six weeks earlier. Now it was the tenth of March in the year 1894, and the storm came off the western shores of Australia with little warning.

The Captain fought to keep his ship bow on to the hurricane winds and titanic seas, but he was beginning to suspect it was a losing battle. Hed already watched, helplessly, as three of his crew were washed overboard as they attempted to repair a hatch cover, and now two of the three masts had been snapped off like matchsticks. The decks were leaking, the cargo scattered to kingdom come, but the funnels had held and the mighty engine still throbbed in the engine room. He knew his ship had seen other storms and survived them, just as he had done, and he refused to give in. There were 1,500 passengers in his care as well as his crew. It was his duty to bring them safely to land.

He peered through the rainlashed window into the black night. This storm could have tossed them miles off course, and with no moon, no stars, it was impossible to fix their position. Riding the shifting, rolling deck beneath his feet, he took a firmer grip on the great wheel and began to pray. This coastline was littered with submerged islands of coral and pinnacles of rock. Even Arcadias steel hull couldnt survive being battered against them.

In the firstclass stateroom on the upper deck, Eva Hamilton clung to Frederick. It was dark. So black she couldnt see his face or the gleam of her new wedding ring. Yet her fear was laced with excitement, a dreadful thrill that they were at the height of a great adventure. Nothing could have prepared her for this.

The great ship plunged with stomachchurning ferocity, lifted her bow and tossed them both from the bed to the floor. This cant go on, shouted Frederick above the banshee wail of the wind and the thunder of the ocean. Three days weve been riding this storm. The hull wont take it.

Shes lasted this long, Eva yelled back as they again found one another in the darkness. We have to keep faith in the Captain.

He didnt reply, merely tightened his grip around her waist.

Eva sat on the floor, her face pressed to his chest, her back hard against the oak panelling. The storm had begun as a darkening of the skies to the east. The Captain had assured the passengers all would be well, and that this was merely a routine hazard off these western shores. Yet, as the wind picked up and began to howl and the waves towered so high they blotted out the horizon, the passengers had sought refuge in their cabins no longer exhilarated but terrified.

Her own fear was beginning to surface and she hastily turned her thoughts to more pleasant things as she attempted to remain rooted in one position. They were on their way to a new life in a new country. Frederick would take up his role as Her Majestys Land Surveyor and she would settle down to manage his home and take part in whatever society Melbourne had to offer.

Their first home would be gracious once the furniture was unpacked from the hold, and shed daydreamed all through the long engagement of the time when she could hold soirees and tea parties with the ladies of that region. Her trousseau was carefully packed away in trunks, the dresses and tea gowns folded in linen to protect them from the sea air. What a swathe she and her handsome husband would cut amongst the colonials, for no doubt they were hopelessly out of touch with London fashion.

Her pleasant thoughts were interrupted by a fierce crash that seemed to shudder right through the ship. The Arcadia plunged, then lifted her bow, rising higher and higher until it seemed as if they were suspended from the sky itself.

Eva screamed as they were sent slithering up the wall and thudded against what she guessed was the ceiling. Crockery smashed all around them in the darkness. Furniture crashed and splintered and the chandelier shattered in a million pieces as it hit something hard. All excitement for the adventure was swept away in a moment of pure terror.

Freddy, she screamed as she clutched his lapels. Were going to sink!

Hold on to me! he yelled in her ear. Whatever happens, dont let go.

Eva didnt need telling twice. Frederick was warm and solid and the only anchor she had. She wasnt about to lose her hold on him.

The bow crashed back into the heaving sea and came to a shuddering standstill. A thousandton wave towered over the Arcadia, now helplessly caught in the jaws of the reef.

The captain looked up at it, knowing this was the end. His last thoughts were for the poor souls in steerage and the men in the engine room as the wave released its full force and fell with a giant hammer blow on the helpless ship and broke its back.

Eva screamed. Water was pouring in. The storm plucked at her with icy fingers, trying to rip her away from Frederick into the howling blackness beyond the cabin.

Weve got to get out of here. Frederick yanked her to her feet. We must stay together, he shouted above the wind. Hold on tight and dont let go.

Eva grasped his hand. She was soaked through and chilled to the very bone for she was still in her dinner gown. She couldnt see, and didnt know which way they were going. She had to have faith in Fredericks sense of direction.