The women tried
it for a few moments, and felt the cold creeping into their
bodies. Though exhausted from the hard physical labor they
thought work was better than freezing.
"Row again!" commanded Mrs. Brown.
"No, no, don't," said the coward.
"We shall freeze," cried several of the women together.
"We must row. We have rowed all this time. We must
keep on or freeze."
When the coward still demurred, they told him plainly
and once for all that if he persisted in wanting them to stop
rowing, they were going to throw him overboard and be done
with him for good. Something about the look in the eye of
that Mississippi-bred oarswoman, who seemed such a force
among her fellows, told him that he had better capitulate.
And he did.
COUNTESS ROTHES AN EXPERT OARSWOMAN
Miss Alice Farnam Leader, a New York physician, escaped
from the Titanic on the same boat which carried the Countess
Rothes. "The countess is an expert oarswoman," said
Doctor Leader, "and thoroughly at home on the water. She
practically took command of our boat when it was found that
the seaman who had been placed at the oars could not row
skilfully. Several of the women took their place with the
countess at the oars and rowed in turns, while the weak and
unskilled stewards sat quietly in one end of the boat.
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