Or maybe I wouldn’t have.
Many did not.
But whether I felt it or not, eventually,
due to the people running about
due to the rumor that must have sped along the decks,
I would have figured it out.
Good grief.
We hit something.
You must be kidding.
I imagine that among my first thoughts would be,
What could we have hit?
Another ship?
It must have been another ship.
Nothing else would be big enough to even slow us down.
But if there were another ship,
wouldn’t somebody have seen it?
I don’t suppose that would have been my very first thought.
I don’t think anybody could avoid feeling that instinctive fear.
Are we going to sink?
But right away I’m sure reason would have set in.
We can’t sink.
This ship is unsinkable.
And besides, we couldn’t have hit very hard.
The collision was hardly even noticeable.
So I suppose I would have walked along the deck
towards the side of the ship where the strike took place
to watch the crew as they assessed and fixed the damage.
It’s pretty obvious they won’t be able to do much about it now though.
It’s too dark.
But they’ll probably put a man over the side in a sling to size it up.
And in the morning they’ll slow to a crawl and put a team in a skiff
so they can get a good look at it.
I wonder if we’ll lose much time on the trip.
My friends said they’ll be at the dock when we arrive.
Whatever time we lose, I hope the ship radios in our delay,
so people at the dock will know we’ll be late.
Tomorrow I’ll ask the steward to check and see if the radio room
will be sending a message
to inform them of our delay.
Actually I don’t suppose there’s any use in asking
until later in the day tomorrow
after the damage assessment crew re-boards,
and we get back underway.