toker and I reached up and touched her swinging above our heads.
The next drop would have brought her on our heads, but just before she
dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes, with his knife.

JUST ESCAPED ANOTHER BOAT

"'One,' I heard him say, 'two,' as his knife cut through the pulley
ropes, and the next moment the exhaust stream had carried us clear,
while boat 14 dropped into the water, into the space we had the moment
before occupied, our gunwales almost touching.

"We drifted away easily, as the oars were got out, and headed directly
away from the ship. The crew seemed to me to be mostly stewards or cooks
in white jackets, two to an oar, with a stoker at the tiller. There was
a certain amount of shouting from one end of the boat to the other, and
discussion as to which way we should go, but finally it was decided to
elect the stoker, who was steering, as captain, and for all to obey his
orders. He set to work at once to get into touch with the other boats,
calling to them and getting as close as seemed wise, so that when the
search boats came in the morning to look for us, there would be more
chance for all to be rescued by keeping together.

"It was now about 1 A. M.; a beautiful starlight night, with no moon,
and so not very light. The sea was as calm as a pond, just a gentle
heave as the boat dipped up and down in the swell; an ideal night,
except for the bitter cold, for anyone who had to be out in the middle
of the Atlantic ocean in an open boat. And if ever there was a time when
such a night was needed, surely it was now, with hundreds of people,
mostly women and children, afloat hundreds of miles from land.

WATCHED THE TITANIC

"The captain-stoker told us that he had been at sea twenty-six years,
and had never yet seen such a calm night on the Atlantic. As we rowed
away from the Titanic, we looked back from time to time to watch her,
and a more striking spectacle it was not possible for anyone to see.

"In the distance it looked an enormous length, its great bulk outlined
in black against the starry sky, every port-hole and saloon blazing with
light. It was impossible to think anything could be wrong with such a
leviathan, were it not for that ominous tilt downward in the bows, where
the water was by now up to the lowest row of port-holes.

"Presently, about 2 A. M., as near as I can remember, we observed it
settling very rapidly, with the bows and the bridge completely under
water, and con