-a trifling incident, but
evidence that Mr. Ismay made no use of his position for his own personal
ends. He said nothing, and went away to another boat, where he succeeded
in being more useful, and it was not till afterwards that an
awe-stricken steward told the Fifth Officer who it was that he had
chased away with such language. But after that Mr. Ismay was among the
foremost in helping to sort out the women and children and get them
expeditiously packed into the boats, with a burden of misery and
responsibility on his heart that we cannot measure.

One can imagine a great bustle and excitement while the boats were being
sent away; but when they had all gone, and there was nothing more to be
done, those who were left began to look about them and realize their
position. There was no doubt about it, the _Titanic_ was sinking, not
with any plunging or violent movement, but steadily settling down, as a
rock seems to settle into the water when the tide rises about it.

Down in the engine-room and stokeholds, in conditions which can hardly
be imagined by the ordinary landsman, men were still working with a grim
and stoic heroism. The forward stokeholds had been flooded probably an
hour after the collision; but it is practically certain that the
bulkheads forward of No. 5 held until the last. The doors in those aft
of No. 4 had been opened by hand after they had been closed from the
bridge, in order to facilitate the passage of the engineering staff
about their business; and they remained open, and the principal bulkhead
protecting the main engine-room, held until the last. Water thus found
its way into some compartments, and gradually rose; but long after
those in charge had given up all hope of saving the ship, the stokehold
watch were kept hard at work drawing the fires from under the boilers,
so that when the water reached them there should be no steam. The duty
of the engine-room staff was to keep the pumps going as long as possible
and to run the dynamos that supplied the current for the light and the
Marconi installation. This they did, as the black water rose stage by
stage upon them. At least twenty minutes before the ship sank the
machinery must have been flooded, and the current for the lights and the
wireless supplied from the storage plant. No member of the engine-room
staff was ever seen alive again, but, when the water finally flooded the
stokeholds, the watch were released and told to get up and save
themselv