One chilly evening in Belfast, Ireland, in 1907, my family huddled around the dinner table.
It was late, and there was barely enough coal to keep the fire going.
My name is Rashida and my sister's name is Jamila.
We sat shivering and hungry. Our parents had just finished work—Papa as a shipbuilder and Mama as a cook.
Mama dished out steaming lamb and vegetables.
Papa, usually very talkative at dinner, was unusually quiet.
When we finished, he spoke. "Last year we left our homeland of Lebanon and immigrated to Ireland.
We work hard here, yet we can't save money!
Some Irish people treat us like dirt!
I have heard about America, a land full of immigrants.
Anybody who works hard there can buy land and have a decent life!"
Mama frowned.
"Let's leave Ireland and take a boat to America!" Papa continued excitedly.
"We can't afford the tickets!" Mama exclaimed.
"We must be patient and save," Papa said confidently, his eyes shining.
"It may take years, but eventually our dreams will come true!"
My mother smiled, and I knew everything would be all right.
A new home didn't sound so bad!
On that same chilly evening in 1907 in Belfast, another plan was being hatched over dinner.
The two men at this dinner were from a shipping company and a shipbuilding company.
The topic of conversation was ocean liners, specifically, a plan to build three ships that would be bigger and faster than any other ship.
They would be called the Olympic, the Gigantic, and the Titanic.
Three years later, the men's dream came true; the order to construct these three great ships was read out to the workers in the Belfast shipyards.
As my father and the other men listened to the specifications for the Titanic, they gasped.
They had never built a ship of this size and power!
It would be almost 3 football fields in length and 12 stories high.
The Titanic was advertised as "practically unsinkable," because the ship would have special watertight sections.
Papa heard the Titanic's captain, Edward Smith, say that the ship "could be cut in half, and each half would remain afloat almost indefinitely."
People were amazed, and many bought tickets for its maiden voyage, including my own papa.
A third-class ticket from England to New York was about $35, equivalent to $1,000 today.
This was far less than a first-class ticket, which was around $2,500, or $60,000 today.
The Titanic was ready for departure on April 10, 1912, from Southampton, England.
Thousands of people stood on the dock to wave good-bye and witness this historic event.
Papa, Mama, Jamila, and I waved to the crowd excitedly. We were off to America!
Over the first few days, Jamila and I explored the lower decks.
We met a crewman who told us the Titanic had a swimming pool, Turkish saunas, a gym,
and a darkroom—only for the first-class passengers of course.
Jamila and I played with the other children in third class. Their families were immigrants too.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, thousands of immigrants were arriving in New York every day.
They mainly came from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Eastern Europe.
Some came from the Middle East, like me!
On the third night on the Titanic, I felt a little bump. I immediately woke up Papa.
He went away and talked to a sailor and found out that the ship had hit an iceberg!
Papa said, "They're going to launch the lifeboats, but they said we'll be back on board for breakfast.
Nothing to worry about!" He told Jamila and me to hold Mama's hand.
We all left the cabin and went down the corridor to find the stairs.
They were locked! Hundreds of scared and confused third-class passengers were clinging to the locked gates.
How could we get to the lifeboats?
Papa quickly led us one way, and then another way, and eventually we found some stairs.
"What about everyone else?" I asked Papa as we hurried along. He didn't answer.
At last Mama, Papa, Jamila, and I arrived on the deck!
The officers called out for women and children to get into the lifeboats.
Papa kissed us and told us he would see us soon.
We tried to get into a lifeboat, but they stopped us because we were third-class passengers and not first class.
"First class has priority, ma'am," an officer told my mother, who was very upset.
After several lifeboats had been launched, many of them only half-full, Mama, Jamila, and I were allowed in.
I looked desperately around for Papa. He was helping people into a lifeboat.
Some people refused to get in because they believed the Titanic could never sink.
As our lifeboat was lowered onto the water, we could hear the ship's band playing as the huge ship creaked and moaned.
As our boat rowed away from the sinking ship, Mama and I could hear the panic on board.
People were rushing about on the deck, looking for lifeboats and screaming.
Mama put her hands over my ears and Jamila's. It was horrible.
I saw the huge ship tip so that one end stood straight up in the water, and then it disappeared into the deep, dark ocean.
The ship was gone, the screams were gone, and Papa was gone.
I tried not to think as we waited in the lifeboat.
At dawn a ship called the Carpathia picked us up.
As we stood on the deck, wrapped in blankets, I waited for Papa's arrival in a lifeboat.
But Mama said, "You won't see Papa anymore, Rashida," and turned back to look at the sea.
Of all the 2,201 people on board the Titanic, only 711 survived. Why did this "unsinkable" ship sink?
Perhaps the ship was going too fast, iceberg warnings were ignored, or the ship's design was defective.
The ship's owners had dreams of its success.
Its passengers had dreams of a new life in America.
But that night all of their dreams sank with the great ship, the Titanic.