ts as the steel
bulkheads gave way or decks blew up; saw the lights flicker out, flicker
back again, and then go out for ever, and the ship, like some giant sea
creature forsaking the strife of the upper elements for the peace of the
submarine depths, launched herself with one slow plunge and dive beneath
the waves.

There was no great maelstrom as they had feared, but the sea was
swelling and sinking all about them; and they could see waves and eddies
where rose the imprisoned air, the smoke and steam of vomited-up ashes,
and a bobbing commotion of small dark things where the _Titanic_, in her
pride and her shame, with the clocks ticking and the fires burning in
her luxurious rooms, had plunged down to the icy depths of death.

XIV

As the ship sank and the commotion and swirl of the waves subsided, the
most terrible experience of all began. The seas were not voiceless; the
horrified people in the surrounding boats heard an awful sound from the
dark central area, a collective voice, compound of moans, shrieks, cries
and despairing calls, from those who were struggling in the water. It
was an area of death and of agony towards which those in the boats dared
not venture, even although they knew their own friends were perishing
and crying for help there. They could only wait and listen, hoping that
it might soon be over. But it was not soon over. There was a great deal
of floating wreckage to which hundreds of people clung, some for a
short time, some for a long time; and while they clung on they cried out
to their friends to save them. One boat--that commanded by Mr. Lowe, the
Fifth Officer--did, after transshipping some of its passengers into other
boats, and embarking a crew of oarsmen, venture back into the dark
centre of things. The wreckage and dead bodies showed the sea so thickly
that they could hardly row without touching a dead body; and once, when
they were trying to reach a survivor who was clinging to a piece of
broken staircase, praying and calling for help, it took them nearly half
an hour to cover the fifty feet that separated them from him, so thick
were the bodies. This reads like an exaggeration, but it is well
attested. The water was icy cold, and benumbed many of them, who thus
died quickly; a few held on to life, moaning, wailing, calling--but in
vain.

A few strong men were still making a desperate fight for life. The
collapsible boat, which Bride had seen a group of passengers attemptin