Through the Eye of the Storm

On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm ship's time.  Two hours and 40 minutes later the titanic sank. Upon receiving word that an iceberg was dead ahead, First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the obstacle and the engines to be put in full reverse. That decision proved to be fatal, but what other options were there?  We know that the Titanic was already at full steam and we know that directly in her path was a considerable sized iceberg. Critics over the years have said that if the Titanic had of hit the iceberg head on, that she could have survived the collision. Critics of those critics have said that the Titanic could not have survived such an impact with an immovable object such as this iceberg. So if you believe both schools of thought, the Titanic was in a damned if you do, damned if don’t scenario.

Let’s pretend for a moment and say that First Officer William Murdoch gives the order to not turn, but rather turn into the iceberg. We have all heard the stories that the Titanic was unsinkable.  I’m sure Murdoch had to have heard it a few times. Say he hits the iceberg head on, crushes through it, and the ship doesn’t sink. He becomes an instant hero. On the other hand, he gives the order to hit the iceberg head on, he doesn’t crash through it, and the ship sinks. Instant murder! Here in lies the impossible scenario, you have nothing to pull from, but your instinct. There is no guide book to say hey this is right or this is wrong. At that point, you just have to make a decision, because there is an iceberg dead ahead and not making a decision is making the decision to hit it.

In life, we will be handed many impossible situations where we will have to make a decision in a split second. Not all, if any, will be as drastic as the decision that Murdoch had to make. At the time, though, the tragedy you face may just feel as if life and death hang in the balance. How many of us have a gut reaction to steer our ships around the storm praying that we only scrape the side of our vessel and God allows us to survive. What kind of courage does it take to knowingly turn into the storm? My dad always said, “Son the shortest distance from one side to another of anything is through the center, this includes storms.” In my life, when tragedies would arise, I would always set my sails to go around the storm I was facing, taking three times longer to get to my destination.

I am not sure when I made this choice, but somewhere along the line, I found the courage when storms arise to turn into them instead of sailing around. By no means is it easier, sometimes it is some of the hardest seas you will sail in life, but the storm seems to pass quicker. Will I meet an immovable object inside the eye of one of these storms one day that will sink my ship? That is a real possibility, but I will go down with the ship clinging to the wheel knowing that I made the decision and I didn’t let the decision make me. I will know that I had the courage to make a decision under fire, whether it was right or it was wrong. God willing I survive, I will repair my ship and set sail again. So the next time someone yells “iceberg dead ahead,” what will you do?