Twelve-year-old Hazel Rothbury reflects on the moments before the Titanic sank into the ocean and the ways that people responded to the threat of death. Some jumped into the water, some resigned to their fate on board, and some tried to save others. Many more, particularly crew members and third-class passengers, were trapped below deck and had almost no chance of surviving. Hazel was one of these people.

Hazel recalls a story that her father used to tell her about a Viking king who knew that he could never be as powerful as the heavens and earth. Unlike that king, the Titanic boasts the ability to “command the very tides of the ocean” and is said to be unsinkable (4). Hazel stands in line to board the steerage deck but doesn’t have enough money for a ticket. After walking for days and sleeping in barns, as well as promising her mother that she would go, Hazel attempts to find another way to board. Hazel’s father died two years earlier, and her mother struggles to meet the expenses of raising five children. As a result, Hazel’s aunt offered to take care of Hazel while she lives in New York and works at a garment factory.