e shock and the beating of the ship; I could see the
frightful breach stove in on the starboard side, half the length of the
vessel, and the sheathing and timbers spirting up; I could see that the
Cutter was disabled, in a wreck of broken fragments; and I could see
every eye turned upon me. It is my belief that if there had been ten
thousand eyes there, I should have seen them all, with their different
looks. And all this in a moment. But you must consider what a moment.

I saw the men, as they looked at me, fall towards their appointed
stations, like good men and true. If she had not righted, they could
have done very little there or anywhere but die--not that it is little
for a man to die at his post--I mean they could have done nothing to save
the passengers and themselves. Happily, however, the violence of the
shock with which we had so determinedly borne down direct on that fatal
Iceberg, as if it had been our destination instead of our destruction,
had so smashed and pounded the ship that she got off in this same instant
and righted. I did not want the carpenter to tell me she was filling and
going down; I could see and hear that. I gave Rames the word to lower
the Long-boat and the Surf-boat, and I myself told off the men for each
duty. Not one hung back, or came before the other. I now whispered to
John Steadiman, "John, I stand at the gangway here, to see every soul on
board safe over the side. You shall have the next post of honour, and
shall be the last but one to leave the ship. Bring up the passengers,
and range them behind me; and put what provision and water you can got
at, in the boats. Cast your eye for'ard, John, and you'll see you have
not a moment to lose."

My noble fellows got the boats over the side as orderly as I ever saw
boats lowered with any sea running, and, when they were launched, two or
three of the nearest men in them as they held on, rising and falling with
the swell, called out, looking up at me, "Captain Ravender, if anything
goes wrong with us, and you are saved, remember we stood by you!"--"We'll
all stand by one another ashore, yet, please God, my lads!" says I. "Hold
on bravely, and be tender with the women."

The women were an example to us. They trembled very much, but they were
quiet and perfectly collected. "Kiss me, Captain Ravender," says Mrs.
Atherfield, "and God in heaven bless you, you good man!" "My dear," says
I, "those words are better for me than a li