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"But skipper," a crew member protested, "it's not like she was the QE II or the Nor is nothin' but a wasted hulk, a ship of the dead"

"Wasted hulk, your ass," Mooney shouted "That ship you see there is the most famous liner of all time So she's a little delapidated, and she's arrivin' a tad late So who gives a damn? Turn on the hoses and hit the siren"

It was a re-enactrander scale As the water spouted in great sheets over Mooney's fireboat, and his boat whistle reverberated off the city's skyscrapers, another fireboat followed his exaan to screa the shores of New Jersey, Manhattan, and Brooklyn joined the outpouring of noise followed by the cheers and yells from a million throats

What had begun with the insignificant shrill of a single whistle now built and built until it was a thunderous bedlaround and rattled everyin the city It was a moment that echoed across every ocean of the world

The Titanic had made port

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Thousands of greeters ja antlike nitaries, cordons of harried policemen, and a multitude of uninvited who climbed the shipyard fence Any attempt at security was futile

A battery of reporters and caplank and surrounded Admiral Sandecker, who stood like a victorious Caesar, on the steps of thefrom the reception room on D Deck

This was Sandecker's big ed him off the Titanic this day He never ood publicity in the naency, and this was one occasion where he was going to milk every line of newsprint, every second of national television, for all they orth He enthralled the reporters with highly colored exploits of the salvage crew and stared at the mobile camera units, and smiled and smiled and smiled The Admiral was in his own paradise

Pitt could have cared less about the fanfare; his idea of paradise at the moment was a shower and a clean, soft bed He pushed his way down the gangplank to the dock and otten clear when a TV commentator rushed forward and thrust a microphone under his nose

"Hey, fella, are you a e crew?"

"No, I work for the shipyard," Pitt said, waving like a yokel at the camera

The commentator's face fell "Cut it, Joe," he yelled to his carabbed a bummer" Then he turned andfor the crowd to keep their feet off his mike cord

Six blocks, and a whole half-hour later, Pitt finally found a cab driver asthe derelict

"Where to?" the driver asked