"Immediately below our boat was the exhaust of the condensers, and a
huge stream of water was pouring all the time from the ship's side just
above the water-line. It was plain that we ought to be smart away from
it if we were to escape swamping when we touched the water. We had no
officers on board, and no petty officer or member of the crew to take
charge, so one of the stokers shouted, 'Some one find the pin which
releases the boat from the ropes and pull it up!' No one knew where it
was. We felt as well as we could on the floor, and along the sides, but
found nothing. It was difficult to move among so many people. We had
sixty or seventy on board. Down we went, and presently we floated with
our ropes still holding us, and the stream of water from the exhaust
washing us away from the side of the vessel, while the swell of the sea
urged us back against the side again.

"The result of all these forces was that we were carried parallel to the
ship's side, and directly under boat No. 14, which had filled rapidly
with men, and was coming down on us in a way that threatened to submerge
our boat.

"'Stop lowering 14,' our crew shouted, and the crew of No. 14, now only
20 feet above, cried out the same. The distance to the top, however, was
some 70 feet, and the creaking of the pulleys must have deadened all
sound to those above, for down she came, 15 feet, 10 feet, 5 feet, and a
stoker and I reached up and touched the bottom of the swinging boat
above our heads. The next drop would have brought her on our heads. Just
before she dropped another stoker sprang to the ropes with his knife
open in his hand. 'One,' I heard him say, and then 'Two,' as the knife
cut through the pulley rope.

"'The next moment the exhaust stream carried us clear, while boat No. 14
dropped into the water, taking the space we had occupied a moment
before. Our gunwales were almost touching. We drifted away easily, and
when our oars were got out, we headed directly away from the ship.'"

But although there was no sense of danger, there were some painful
partings on the deck where the women were embarked; for you must think
of this scene as going on for at least an hour amid a confusion of
people pressing about, trying to find their friends, asking for
information, listening to some new rumour, trying to decide whether they
should or should not go in the boats, to a constant accompaniment of
shouted orders, the roar of escaping steam, the squeal an