Harold Lowe has managed to claw his way up the career ladder of the British merchant marines, rising from a ship's boy to a master mariner with one of the world's elite passenger lines. Along the way, he's learned to master not only his craft, but...
Here it is: the culmination of Corrine's ordeal, the rendering of her fate.
But this is not the end. Oh, no; there is still a story to tell.
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Corrine lay across the thwart in the swamped boat, staring up at the heavens. The stars whirled above in the ebony sky, oblivious to the human suffering below. She had never seen them look so sharp and cold.
She was past shivering; her body had become numb, almost warm. Despite the miserable conditions, she felt sleepy and comfortable.
The other occupants tried not to jostle her, but they were too close to death themselves to try and lift her out of the freezing water. So she lay there, and in her half-dreaming state, she remembered snatches of a song she had heard in the days before she left Southampton. Its haunting, melancholy lament had so moved her that she sought it out at every opportunity, and now she hummed a few bars of the refrain:
Last night the stars were all aglow
Last night I loved, I loved you so
My heart was glad for you were near
I held your hand and called you dear, my dear
And then the stars grew dim and cold
The moon grew pale, my heart grew old
My dream is o'er, to live no more
Last night was the end of the world
"Harry," she murmured. "Harry..."
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The little boat, its sail filled with the brisk morning breeze, was moving along at a nice clip now - they must have been making almost five knots, estimated Seaman Joseph Scarrott. And the sky was slowly lightening. Although he was grateful he was alive to see another dawn, Scarrott knew that the shouts and moans of the dying would haunt him all the rest of the days. But he had done his duty, done what he could for them, he told himself. He had gone back with the rescue boat, anyway, and for that he could hold his head up high.
Nobody spoke much. There wasn't much to say, was there? The men - and one woman - they had picked up from the freezing waters lay on the bottom of the boat, and the crew tried to keep them as warm and comfortable as possible. But now it was time to head back to the raft of boats they had left behind, the ones with all the women and children, and see what there was to do for them. Only God knew how long they would be stranded in the now-empty sea-
Wait. He thought he had seen something in the water. He squinted. It almost looked like a piece of wreckage... but then he saw arms waving frantically. He hailed the officer - Lowe, he said his name was - who was fixing the sail, and pointed. His eyes widened, and he immediately changed course to head toward it.
