passengers are coming out on deck, hesitantly in the noise and bitter cold.
CUT TO:
165 INT. ROSE AND CAL'S SUITE
From inside the sitting room they can hear knocking and voices in the
corridor.
RUTH
I had better go dress.
Ruth exits and Hockley crosses to Rose. He regards her coldly for a moment,
then SLAPS her across the face.
CAL
It is a little slut, isn't it?
To Rose the blow is inconsequential compared to the blow her heart has been
given. Cal grabs her shoulders roughly.
CAL
Look at me, you little--
There is a loud knock on the door and an urgent voice. The door opens and
their steward puts his head in.
STEWARD BARNES
Sir, I've been told to ask you to please put on your lifebelt, and come up
to the boat deck.
CAL
Get out. We're busy.
The steward persists, coming in to get the lifebelts down from the top of a
dresser.
STEWARD
I'm sorry about the inconvenience, Mr. Hockley, but it's Captain's orders.
Please dress warmly, it's quite cold tonight.
(he hands a lifebelt to Rose)
Not to worry, miss, I'm sure it's just a precaution.
CAL
This is ridiculous.
In the corridor outside the stewards are being so polite and obsequious they
are conveying no sense of danger whatsoever. However, it's another story
in...
CUT TO:
166 INT. STEERAGE BERTHING AFT
BLACKNESS. Then BANG! The door is thrown open and the lights snapped on by a
steward. The Cartmell family rouses from a sound sleep.
STEWARD #2
Everybody up. Let's go. Put your lifebelts on.
IN THE CORRIDOR outside, another steward is going from door to door along
the hall, pouncing and yelling.
STEWARD #2
Lifebelts on. Lifebelts on. Everybody up, come on. Lifebelts on...
People come out of the doors behind the steward, perplexed. In the
foreground a SYRIAN WOMAN asks her husband what was said. He shrugs.
CUT TO:
167 INT. WIRELESS ROOM
ON PHILLIPS, looking shocked.
PHILLIPS
CQD, sir?
SMITH
That's right. The distress call. CQD. Tell whoever responds that we are
going down by the head and need immediate assistance.
Smith hurries out.
PHILLIPS
Blimey.
BRIDE
Maybe you ought to try that new distress call... S.O.S.
(grinning)
It may be our only chance to use it.
Phillips laughs in spite of himself and starts sending history's first
S.O.S. Dit dit dit, da da da, dit dit dit... over and over.