d-bye, old man, and good luck," he said, in tones which rather
surprised Pitman, for they seemed to imply that the good-bye might be
for a long time. His boat was lowered down into the water, unhooked, and
shoved off, and joined the gradually increasing fleet of other boats
that were cruising about in the starlight.

There was one man walking about that upper deck whose point of view was
quite different from that of anyone else. Mr. Bruce Ismay, like so many
others, was awakened from sleep by the stopping of the engines; like so
many others, also, he lay still for a few moments, and then got up and
went into the passage-way, where he met a steward and asked him what was
the matter. The steward knew nothing, and Mr. Ismay went back to his
state-room, put on a dressing-gown and slippers, and went up to the
bridge, where he saw the Captain. "What has happened?" he asked. "We
have struck ice," was the answer. "Is the injury serious?" "I think so,"
said the Captain. Then Mr. Ismay came down in search of the Chief
Engineer, whom he met coming up to the bridge; he asked him the same
question, and he also said he thought the injury serious. He understood
from them that the ship was certainly in danger, but that there was hope
that if the pumps could be kept going there would be no difficulty in
keeping her afloat quite long enough for help to come and for the
passengers to be taken off. Whatever was to be the result, it was a
terrible moment for Mr. Ismay, a terrible blow to the pride and record
of the Company, that this, their greatest and most invulnerable ship,
should be at least disabled, and possibly lost, on her maiden voyage.
But like a sensible man, he did not stand wringing his hands at the
inevitable; he did what he could to reassure the passengers, repeating,
perhaps with a slight quaver of doubt in his voice, the old
word--unsinkable. When the boats began to be launched he went and tried
to help, apparently in his anxiety getting rather in the way. In this
endeavour he encountered the wrath of Mr. Lowe, the Fifth Officer, who
was superintending the launching of boat No. 5. Mr. Lowe did not know
the identity of the nervous, excited figure standing by the davits, nor
recognize the voice which kept saying nervously, "Lower away! lower
away!" and it was therefore with no misgivings that he ordered him away
from the boat, saying brusquely, "If you will kindly get to hell out of
this perhaps I'll be able to do something!"-