A Night to Remember by Walter Lord is getting to a very intense point in the book. Now a little over half way through, the scenes depicted at this point take place between 2-4 hours after the Titanic struck the iceberg. Previously, the crew's attempts to have the 1st class women and children get off the boats in lifeboats quickly and smoothly went down the tubes fast, and as the ship sank more rapidly into the ocean, it was declared by the captain to be "every man for himself"- passengers and crew.
Now, the ship is almost vertical in the water, and everyone is completely hysterical, doing anything they can to escape with their lives and beat the freezing water around them. Almost all of the lifeboats have been lowered and launched, many not even containing 1/3 of their potential number of passengers. Vivid recollections from survivors who were inside the lifeboats recall stories of crewmen rowing the boats having to "beat people off with oars," simply to prevent them from crawling in and capsizing the boats. Now, there is little in the book that is light-hearted or humorous, however it is still interesting despite the seriousness and sadness to see how people managed to survive the Titanic.
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