CHAPTER VI

"WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST!"

COOL-HEADED OFFICERS AND CREW BRING ORDER OUT OF
CHAOS--FILLING THE LIFE-BOATS--HEARTRENDING SCENES
AS FAMILIES ARE PARTED--FOUR LIFE-BOATS LOST--INCIDENTS
OF BRAVERY--"THE BOATS ARE ALL FILLED!"

ONCE on the deck, many hesitated to enter the
swinging life-boats. Tho glassy sea, the starlit
sky, the absence, in the first few moments, of
intense excitement, gave them the feeling that there was
only some slight mishap; that those who got into the boats
would have a chilly half hour below and might, later, be
laughed at.

It was such a feeling as this, from all accounts, which
caused John Jacob Astor and his wife to refuse the places
offered them in the first boat, and to retire to the gymnasium.
In the same way H. J. Allison, a Montreal banker, laughed at
the warning, and his wife, reassured by him, took her time
dressing. They and their daughter did not reach the Carpathia.
Their son, less than two years old, was carried into
a life-boat by his nurse, and was taken in charge by Major
Arthur Peuchen.