sure that the end
had come. I had the greatest difficulty in holding my breath until I
came to the surface. I knew that once I inhaled, the water would
suffocate me. I struck out with all my strength for the surface. I got
to the air again after a time that seemed to me unending. There was
nothing in sight save the ocean strewn with great masses of wreckage,
dying men and women all about me, groaning and crying piteously. I saw
wreckage everywhere, and what came within reach I clung to. I moved from
one piece to another until I reached the collapsible boat. She soon
became so full that it seemed as if she would sink if more came on board
her. We had to refuse to let any others climb on board. This was the
most pathetic and horrible scene of all. The piteous cries of those
around us ring in my ears, and I will remember them to my dying day.
'Hold on to what you have, old boy,' we shouted to each man who tried
to get on board. 'One more of you would sink us all.' Many of those whom
we refused answered, as they went to their death, 'Good luck; God bless
you.' All the time we were buoyed up and sustained by the hope of
rescue. We saw lights in all directions--particularly some green lights
which, as we learned later, were rockets burned by one of the
_Titanic's_ boats. So we passed the night with the waves washing over
and burying our raft deep in the water."

It was twenty minutes past two when the _Titanic_ sank, two hours and
forty minutes after she had struck the iceberg; and for two hours after
that the boats drifted all round and about, some of them in bunches of
three or four, others solitary. Almost every kind of suffering was
endured in them, although, after the mental horrors of the preceding
hour, physical sufferings were scarcely felt. Some of the boats had
hardly anyone but women in them; in many the stokers and stewards were
quite useless at the oars. But here and there, in that sorrowful,
horror-stricken company, heroism lifted its head and human nature took
heart again. Women took their turn at the oars in boats where the men
were either too few or incapable of rowing; and one woman notably, the
Countess of Rothes, practically took command of her boat and was at an
oar all the time. Where they were rowing to most of them did not know.
They had seen lights at the time the ship went down, and some of them
made for these; but they soon disappeared, and probably most of the
boats were following each other aimles