Living in a Giant Life-Buoy 



Within are accommodations for 

 a dozen shipwrecked passengers 



UNDERNEATH, the ship's engines vi- 

 brate steadily, the big propellers at 

 the stern driving all on board nearer 

 and nearer England. 



Then comes a roar — a thud. All through 

 the ship runs a great shudder. There is a 

 \iolent rending and tearing, and up from the 

 boiler-room comes a huge puff of smoke, the 

 hiss of escaping steam, the shriek of dying 

 stokers and the smell of fire. 



There is no need for explanation. It is 

 evident enough that a submarine has 

 launched a torpedo only too effectively. Up 

 on deck rush passengers and crew. Their 

 one thought is the lifeboats. Has the ship 

 lifeboats? 



It has. They're of 

 a new kind. They 

 look like enormous 

 tops all ready to spin. 

 Inside are rows upon 

 rows of seats. There 

 are four or five of the 

 giant boats (buoys 

 they are) scattered 

 along each side of the 

 ship, next to the rail. 

 Into hatches in the 

 uppermost side of 

 these curious buoys 

 call them by 

 right name) — 

 the people — so 

 to each buoy. 



(let's 

 their 

 pour 

 many 

 The ship is listing 

 rapidly. Also the fire 

 seems to be gaining 

 headway. Smoke 



rolls out of the stack 

 and surges through 

 openings in the deck 

 and from cabin win- 

 dows. At the far end 



All that is left when 

 the ship sinks, is a little 

 colony of lifeboats, or 

 rather, life-buoys, 

 floating away from the 

 wreck. Many people 

 can be housed in rela- 

 tive safety inside 



of the ship water already reaches the rail. 



Stragglers scramble madly about the deck. 

 Suddenly hatches are clamped down on the 

 lifeboats at the water-logged end of the great 

 ship. The life-buoys half slide, half float off 

 into the water, some of them dipping a 

 fathom or two beneath the surface as a re- 

 sult of their momentum. In a moment, 

 however, they bob up like corks. 



Suddenly the looming bulk of the huge 

 ship upends itself, water sliding in great 

 sheets off of the exposed portion. Down the 

 ship plunges, wallowing and eddying as it 

 goes under, smoke and flame pouring from 

 the superstructure. Stragglers and the life- 



^'i'i 



