“That my papa and mamma are really drownd-ed,” said the little girl with quivering lips. “Some of the folks on their boat were saved. The papers said so.”
“Aye, aye!” exclaimed the sailor, his brows puckered into a frown. “Aye, aye, matey! that’s allus the way. Why, I was saved myself from a wreck. I was in the first officer’s boat, and we in that boat was saved. There was another boat—the purser’s, it was—was driftin’ about all night with us. We come one time near smashin’ into each other and wreckin’ both boats. There was a heavy swell on.
“Yet,” pursued the sailor, “come daylight, and the fog splitting we never could find the purser’s boat. She had jest as good a chance as us after the steamship sank. But there it was! We got separated from her, and we was saved, whilst the purser’s boat wasn’t never heard on again.”
“That was dreadful!” sighed the little girl.
“Yes, little miss. And the poor passengers! Purser had twenty or more in his boat. Women mostly. But there was a sick man, too. Why, I helped lower his wife and him into the boat ’fore I was called to go with the first officer in his boat. We was the last to cast off. The purser had jest as good a chance as we did.
“I guess I won’t never forgit that time, little miss,” went on the seaman, seeing the blue eyes fixed on his face, round with interest. “No! And I’ve seen some tough times, too.
“The ship was riddled. She had to sink—and it was night. We burned Coston lights, and our signal gun banged away for help, and the old siren tooted. The wireless top-hamper had been shot away in the fust place.
“We didn’t have no chance at all to save the ship. Some of the boats was smashed. Two was overturned jest as they struck the water. There wasn’t any of the life rafts launched at all. But we didn’t have much of a panic; the steerage passengers was jest like dumb cattle.
“They was goin’ back to Italy because of the war—the men to fight, the women and children so’s to benefit by the Government pay to soldiers’ families.”
This was mostly beyond Carolyn May’s comprehension, but she listened to the sailor with serious attention. The seaman told his story as though it really were unforgettable.