e
oars--partly to increase their circulation and partly to keep the boats
head-on to the sea. The only hope of rescue lay in keeping afloat until
daylight, when the "S.O.S." call sent out before the sloop foundered
might bring them aid. The coast of Ireland lay 300 miles to the
south-east, and so intense was the cold that few expected to live
through the night.

The gloom of a winter afternoon gave place to darkness, and with the
fading of daylight the cold increased. Men became numb and were washed
unnoticed from the rafts. Others were dragged unconscious into the
already overcrowded life-boats, which sank so deep in the water with the
additional weight that green seas now splashed inboard and baling became
necessary. Limbs stiffened in the sharp frost and had to be pounded back
to life by unselfish comrades. Even under cover of the sails the cold
was so intense that only five women and two children were left alive by
midnight.

Through the long dark hours men struggled under the drenching showers of
bitter spray. When dawn broke, throwing a pale mystic light over the
acre-wide Atlantic swell, each one knew that life depended on the coming
of a ship before the light of day again faded in the west.

The snowing had ceased some hours before darkness lifted, and in the
clear morning cold men stood up painfully and searched the watery
horizon for the sign which would bring them life. Just before three
bells, as the boats rose on the bosom of the swell, a thin blur of smoke
could be seen low down on the eastern horizon. Had there been strength
left in the worn-out bodies there would have been a cheer, but now only
a slight stir of suppressed excitement and many a silent prayer.

The limit of human suffering and endurance had, however, not yet been
reached. Some twenty minutes later it became evident that the ship had
not received the wireless call and was passing too far off to be reached
by any sound signal short of a big gun. Slowly the trail of smoke
disappeared in the haze of great distance without even a glimpse of the
ship itself.

The spirits of all began to sink as hour after hour went by without
sight of the hoped-for sail. Then, about eight bells, one of the men
standing up in the centre of the first officer's boat gave a little
inarticulate cry and some few minutes later the dim outline of a big
ship hove in sight. The suspense was unbearable. Women to whom any sign
of religious emotion was alien knelt open