"How far away were the cries from your life-boat?"
"Several hundred yards, probably, some of them."
"Describe the screams."
"Don't, sir, please! I'd rather not talk about it."
"I'm sorry to press it, but what was it like? Were the
screams spasmodic?"
"It was one long continuous moan."
The witness said the moans and cries continued an hour.
Those in the life-boats longed to return and pick up some of
the poor drowning souls, but they feared this would mean
swamping the boats and a further loss of life.
Some of the men tried to sing to keep the women from hearing
the cries, and rowed hard to get away from the scene of
the wreck, but the memory of those sounds will be one of the
things the rescued will find it difficult to forget.
The waiting sufferers kept a lookout for lights, and several
times it was shouted that steamers' lights were seen, but they
turned out to be either a light from another boat or a star
low down on the horizon. It was hard to keep up hope.
WOMEN TRIED TO COMMIT SUICIDE
"Let me go back--I want to go back to my husband--I'll
jump from the boat if you don't," cried an agonized voice
in one life-boat.
"You can do no good by going back--other lives will be
lost if you try to do it.
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