he ship might arrive off the Irish port at a reasonable hour in
the morning; but no sooner were the Irish passengers and the
supplementary mails shipped than the word went quietly round among the
officers that the "Old Man" was bent upon breaking the best previous
record for the run across the herring pond and setting up a new one
unassailable by any other craft than the _Everest_ herself. And
certainly when, as the liner passed Daunt Rock lightship shortly after
nine o'clock on the Sunday morning following her departure from
Liverpool, and the moment was carefully noted by chronometer, the omens
were all most favourable for the weather was fine, though cold, with a
light northerly wind and smooth water, and with her turbines running at
top speed the chief engineer reported that the hands in the stokeholds
were keeping a full head of steam without difficulty. At noon the
patent log showed that the _Everest_ was within a fraction of eighty
miles from the lightship; and Captain Prowse already began to picture
himself as holding the blue ribbon of the Atlantic.

And so things continued without a hitch or break of any description
until half the journey across the Atlantic had been accomplished; the
weather remained fine, with light winds, no sea, and very little swell
to speak of, while the ship ran as smoothly and steadily as though she
were travelling on land-locked waters instead of in mid-Atlantic.

Meanwhile she kept in almost hourly touch with other ships going east or
west, reporting her position and progress and asking from time to time
for the latest news; but it was not until Tuesday afternoon, about three
o'clock, local time, that she got any intelligence of the slightest
moment, this being a message from the homeward bound liner _Bolivia_, to
the following effect--

"Warning! S.S. _Bolivia_, New York--Liverpool, Latitude 45 degrees, 7
minutes North, Longitude 37 degrees, 57 minutes West. Just cleared
large area consisting of detached masses of field ice with several
bergs, through which we have been working for the last three hours.
Very dangerous. Advise ships approaching it to observe utmost caution,
particularly at night time."

This message was duly handed to Captain Prowse in his own cabin by the
wireless operator, who waited while the skipper read it, to see whether
the latter desired to address any inquiry to the _Bolivia_. But after
cogitating over it for two or three minutes, the skipper crumpl