ould not be
launched. A lot of people made a rush for the boats, but I went down
to my cabin, took off my coat and vest and donned a lifebelt. On
getting up again I found the decks awash and the boat going down fast
by the head. I slipped down a rope into the sea and was picked up by
one of the lifeboats. Some of the boats, owing to the position of the
vessel, got swamped, and I saw one turn over no less than three times,
but eventually it was righted."

Not all of the women and children got off the liner into the small
boats. "Women and children, under the protection of men, had clustered
in lines on the port side of the ship," reported another survivor. "As
the ship made her plunge down by the head, she finally took an angle
of ninety degrees, and I saw this little army slide down toward the
starboard side, dashing themselves against each other as they went,
until they were engulfed."

Even under the stress of avoiding death the sight of the sinking hull
was one that held the attention of those in the water. One of the
sailors said afterward: "Her great hull rose into the air and neared
the perpendicular. As the form of the vessel rose she seemed to
shorten, and just as a duck dives so she disappeared. She went almost
noiselessly. Fortunately her propellers had stopped, for had these
been going, the vortex of her four screws would have dragged down many
of those whose lives were saved. She seemed to divide the water as
smoothly as a knife would do it."

Twenty minutes after the torpedo had struck the ship she had
disappeared beneath the surface of the sea. "Above the spot where she
had gone down," said one of the men who escaped death, "there was
nothing but a nondescript mass of floating wreckage. Everywhere one
looked there was a sea of waving hands and arms, belonging to the
struggling men and frantic women and children in agonizing efforts to
keep afloat. That was the most horrible memory and sight of all."

Fishing boats and coasting steamers picked up many of the survivors
some hours after the disaster. The frightened people in the small
boats pulled for the shore after picking up as many persons as they
dared without swamping their boats. Some floated about in the waters
for three and four hours, kept up by their lifebelts. Some, who were
good swimmers, managed to keep above water till help came; others
became exhausted and sank.

Probably the best story, covering the entire period from the time the
ship