that's nothing; I shall go back and
turn in," and he actually went back to bed and slept for half an hour,
until he was turned out to take his station at the boats.

The steerage passengers, who were berthed right aft, heard nothing and
knew nothing until the news that an accident had happened began slowly
to filter down to them. But there was no one in authority to give them
any official news, and for a time they were left to wonder and speculate
as they chose. Forward, however, it became almost immediately apparent
to certain people that there was something grievously wrong; firemen on
their way through the passage along the ship's bottom leading between
their quarters and No. 1 stokehold found water coming in, and rapidly
turned back. They were met on their way up the staircase by an officer
who asked them what they were doing. They told him. "There's water
coming into our place, Sir," they said; and as he thought they were off
duty he did not turn them back.

Mr. Andrews, a partner in Harland and Wolff's, and one of the
_Titanic's_ designers, had gone quietly down by himself to investigate
the damage, and, great as was his belief in the giant he had helped to
create, it must have been shaken when he found the water pouring into
her at the rate of hundreds of tons a minute. Even his confidence in
those mighty steel walls that stretched one behind the other in
succession along the whole length of the ship could not have been proof
against the knowledge that three or four of them had been pierced by the
long rip of the ice-tooth. There was just a chance that she would hold
up long enough to allow of relief to arrive in time; but it is certain
that from that moment Mr. Andrews devoted himself to warning people, and
helping to get them away, so far as he could do so without creating a
panic.

Most of the passengers, remember, were still asleep during this half
hour. One of the most terrible things possible at sea is a panic, and
Captain Smith was particularly anxious that no alarm should be given
before or unless it was absolutely necessary. He heard what Mr. Andrews
had to say, and consulted with the engineer, and soon found that the
whole of the ship's bottom was being flooded. There were other
circumstances calculated to make the most sanguine ship-master uneasy.
Already, within half an hour, the _Titanic_ was perceptibly down by the
head. She would remain stationary for five minutes and then drop six
inches or a f