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CHAPTER IX
IN THE DRIFTING LIFE-BOATS
SORROW AND SUFFERING—THE SURVIVORS SEE THE TITANIC
GO DOWN WITH THEIR LOVED ONES ON BOARD—A NIGHT
OF AGONIZING SUSPENSE—WOMEN HELP TO ROW—HELP
ARRIVES—PICKING UP THE LIFE-BOATS
Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters |  |
THE PESSIMIST
And the coward sat in his stern seat, terrified, his tongue loosened with fright. He assured them there was no chance in the world. He had had fourteen years' experience, and he knew. First, they would have to row one and a half miles at least to get out of the sphere of the suction, if they did not want to go down. They would be lost, and nobody would ever find them.
"Oh, we shall be picked up sooner or later," said some of the braver ones. No, said the man, there was no bread in the boat, no water; they would starve—all that big boatload wandering the high seas with nothing to eat, perhaps for days.
"Don't," cried Mrs. Brown. "Keep that to yourself, if you feel that way. For the sake of these women and children,
But the coward only knew that there was no compass and no chart aboard. They sighted what they thought was a fishing smack on the horizon, showing dimly in the early dawn. The man at the rudder steered toward it, and the women bent to their oars again. They covered several miles in this way—but the smack faded into the distance. They could not see it any longer. And the coward said that everything was over.
They rowed back nine weary miles. Then the coward thought they must stop rowing, and lie in the trough of the waves until the Carpathia should appear. The women tried it for a few moments, and felt the cold creeping into their bodies. Though exhausted from the hard physical labor they thought work was better than freezing.
"Row again!" commanded Mrs. Brown.
"No, no, don't," said the coward.
"We shall freeze," cried several of the women together. "We must row. We have rowed all this time. We must keep on or freeze."
When the coward still demurred, they told him plainly and once for all that if he persisted in wanting them to stop rowing, they were going to throw him overboard and be done with him for good. Something about the look in the eye of that Mississippi-bred oarswoman, who seemed such a force among her fellows, told him that he had better capitulate. And he did.
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CHAPTER IX
IN THE DRIFTING LIFE-BOATS
SORROW AND SUFFERING—THE SURVIVORS SEE THE TITANIC
GO DOWN WITH THEIR LOVED ONES ON BOARD—A NIGHT
OF AGONIZING SUSPENSE—WOMEN HELP TO ROW—HELP
ARRIVES—PICKING UP THE LIFE-BOATS
Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters | |