The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantis, by Gerhart Hauptmann

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Atlantis

Author: Gerhart Hauptmann

Translator: Adele Seltzer and Thomas Seltzer

Release Date: December 6, 2005 [EBook #17241]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIS ***

Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

ATLANTIS

A novel by Gerhart Hauptmann

Translated by Adele and Thomas Seltzer

NEW YORK
B.W. HUEBSCH
1912

Copyright 1912 by
S. FISCHER, VERLAG, BERLIN

Copyright 1912 by
B.W. HUEBSCH

_All rights reserved_

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

ATLANTIS

PART I

I

The German fast mail steamer, _Roland_, one of the older vessels of the
North German Steamship Company, plying between Bremen and New York, left
Bremen on the twenty-third of January, 1892.

It had been built in English yards with none of those profuse, gorgeous
gold decorations in a riotous rococo style which are so unpleasant in the
saloons and cabins of ships more recently built in German yards.

The crew of the vessel included the captain, four officers, two engineers
of the first rank, assistant engineers, firemen, coal-passers, oilers, a
purser, the head-steward and the second steward, the chef, the second
cook, and a doctor. In addition to these men with their assistants, to
whom the well-being of that tremendous floating household was entrusted,
there were, of course, a number of sailors, stewards, stewardesses,
workers in the kitchen, and so on, besides two cabin-boys and a nurse.
There was also an officer in charge of the mail on board. The vessel was
carrying only a hundred cabin passengers from Bremen; but in the steerage
there were four hundred human beings.

Frederick von Kammacher, to whom, the day before, the _Roland_ had been
non-existent, telegraphed from Paris to have a cabin on it reserved for
him. Haste was imperative. After receiving notification from the company
that the cabin was being held, he had only an hour and a half in which to
catch th