I now made my bed upon the second cabin
floor, where, although I ran the risk of being stepped upon, I had a
free current of air, more or less vitiated indeed, and running only
from steerage to steerage, but at least not stagnant; and from this
couch, as well as the usual sounds of a rough night at sea, the
hateful coughing and retching of the sick and the sobs of children, I
heard a man run wild with terror beseeching his friend for
encouragement. 'The ship 's going down!' he cried with a thrill of
agony. 'The ship's going down!' he repeated, now in a blank whisper,
now with his voice rising towards a sob; and his friend might
reassure him, reason with him, joke at him - all was in vain, and the
old cry came back, 'The ship's going down!' There was something
panicky and catching in the emotion of his tones; and I saw in a
clear flash what an involved and hideous tragedy was a disaster to an
emigrant ship. If this whole parishful of people came no more to
land, into how many houses would the newspaper carry woe, and what a
great part of the web of our corporate human life would be rent
across for ever!
The next morning when I came on deck I found a new world indeed.
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