The final chapter opens with the narrator musing about how unprepared people are to face danger until it appears. No one can know until that person is tried what his or her capacity is for nobility or self-sacrifice. Morgan remembers narrow escapes he has had with death: climbing Mount Solaro and sailing the Suez Canal. Falling in behind a silent Thomas Andrews, Morgan is glowing with exhilaration, little understanding the magnitude of what he heard on Titanic's bridge. He receives his assignment, to help lower the lifeboats and avoid alarming people.
Morgan finds his friends in the foyer. The crowd has dispersed, but those remaining are in a boisterous mood. Ginsberg is building a house of cards. Hopper scoffs at the idea of having to abandon ship. Morgan tries to make them take the.....