The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-22

stop her-stop her-hard over
your wheel-hard over"
His voice ended in a vibrating
screech that sounded wild, weird, un-
canny in that awful silence. A hun
dred men stopped in their stride, or
work, paralyzed at the tones coming
from the bridge.
And then came the impact.
With grinding, smashing roar as
of thousands of tons coming together,
the huge liner plunged headlong into
the iceberg that rose grim and silent
| right ahead, towering over her in
spite of her great height The shock
was terrific, and the grinding, thund-
ering crash of falling tons of ice,
coupled with the rending of steel
plates and solid planks, made chaos
of all sound
The Admiral bit in, dug, plowed, kept
on going, going, and the whole for
ward part of her almost disappeared
in the wall of white. A thousand
tons of huge fakes slammed and slid
down her decks, burying her to the
fore hatch in the smother. A thous-
and tons more crashed, slid, and
plunged down the slopes of the icy
mountain and hurled themselves into
the sea with great splaShes, sending
torrents of water as high as the
| bridge rail. The men who had been
forward were swept away by the
avalanche. Many were never seen
again. And then, with reversed en-
| gines, they finally came to a dead stop,
with her bows damned a hundred
/ feet deep in the ice wall of the berg.
After that it was panic. All disci-
| pine seemed to end in the shock and
struggle Brownson howled and storm
ell from the bridge, and Smith shout
ed orders and sprang down to enforce
them The chief mate came on deck
in his underclothes and passed the
word to man the boats. A thousand
passengers jammed the companions
way and strove with panic and unhu-
man fury to reach the deck.
One man clad in night robe gain
ed the outside of the press, and, run
ming swiftly along the deck, fitted
like a ghost over the rail, and disap-
peared into the sea. He had gone
clean crazy, perfectly insane in the
panic.
Brownson tied down the siren cord,
and the roar shook the atmosphere
The tremendous tones arose above the
din of screaming men and cursing sea
men; and then the master called down
to the heart of the ship, the engine
room.
rs she going?" he asked.
water coming in like through 6
tunnel" came the response. Near
ly up to the CRATES now"
That was all The man left the
tube 10 rush on deck, and the captain
knew the forward bulkheads haC
gone; had either damned or burs
under that terrific impact. The shiT
was going down.
Brownson stood upon the bridge and
gazed down at the human tide below
him. Men fought furiously for places
2 in the small boats. The fireroom
crew came on deck and mingled with
the passengers. The coal dust showed
upon their white faces, making then
seem strange beings from an inferno
that was soon to be abolished. They
strove for places in the lifeboats and
hurled the weaker passengers about
recklessly. Some, on the other hand
) helped the women. One man dragged
two women with him into boat, kick
ing twisting, and roaring like a lion
He was a big fellow with a red beard
and Brownson watched him. The
mate struck him over the head with
hand spike for refusing to get out
of the boat, and his interest in things
ended at once and forever.
The crew, on the whole, behaved
we'll Officers and men tried to keeI
some sort of discipline Finally sil
> boats went down alongside into the
sea, and were promptly swamped by
the crowds above, who either slid
down the falls or jumped overheard
and climbed in from the sides. The
sea was still as a lake; only the Sigh
swell heaved it. Great fields of float
ing particles of ice from the berl
foated about, and those who had got
ten wet shivered with the cold
The Admiral, running at twenty-five
knots an hour, had struck straight in
to the wall of an iceberg that reached
l as far as the eye could see in the haze
] It lowered at least three hundred fee
D in the air showing that its depth was
e colossal, probably at least half mile
D It was a giant ice mountain that hGt
0 broken adrift from its northern home
and, drifting southwark, had survived
e the heat of summer and the breaking
n