for the Mediterranean on April 13th. Round she went and plunged back
westward to take a hand in saving life. And the third steamship within
short sailing of the Titanic was the Allan liner Parisian away to the
eastward, on her way from Glasgow to Halifax.

While they sped in the night with all the drive that steam could give
them, the Titanic's call reached to Cape Race and the startled operator
there heard at midnight a message which quickly reached New York:

"Have struck an iceberg. We are badly damaged. Titanic latitude 41.46
N., 50.14 W."

Cape Race threw the appeal broadcast wherever his apparatus could carry.

Then for hours, while the world waited for a crumb of news as to the
safety of the great ship's people, not one thing more was known save
that she was drifting, broken and helpless and alone in the midst of a
waste of ice. And it was not until seventeen hours after the Titanic
had sunk that the words came out of the air as to her fate. There was a
confusion and tangle of messages--a jumble of rumors. Good tidings were
trodden upon by evil. And no man knew clearly what was taking place in
that stretch of waters where the giant icebergs were making a mock of
all that the world knew best in ship-building.

TITANIC SENT OUT NO MORE NEWS

It was at 12.17 A. M., while the Virginian was still plunging eastward,
that all communication from the Titanic ceased. The Virginian's
operator, with the Virginian's captain at his elbow, fed the air with
blue flashes in a desperate effort to know what was happening to the
crippled liner, but no message came back. The last word from the Titanic
was that she was sinking. Then the sparking became fainter. The call
was dying to nothing. The Virginian's operator labored over a blur of
signals. It was hopeless. So the Allan ship strove on, fearing that the
worst had happened.

It was this ominous silence that so alarmed the other vessels hurrying
to the Titanic and that caused so much suspense here.

CHAPTER IX. IN THE DRIFTING LIFE-BOATS

SORROW AND SUFFERING--THE SURVIVORS SEE THE TITANIC GO DOWN WITH THEIR
LOVED ONES ON BOARD--A NIGHT OF AGONIZING SUSPENSE--WOMEN HELP TO
ROW--HELP ARRIVES--PICKING UP THE LIFE-BOATS

SIXTEEN boats were in the procession which entered on the terrible hours
of rowing, drifting and suspense. Women wept for lost husbands and sons,
sailors sobbed for the ship which had been their pride. Men choked back
tears and sought to comfort th