Page:How the Mail Steamer Went Down.pdf/1



took in 158 mail bags and 342 passengers at Queenstown, and there was a good deal of confusion as the steamer headed away to the west, for we had shipped 560 passengers in all at Liverpool, and it was a pretty tight fit in the steerage. I stayed on deck till after eleven at night. 'She's going it,' I said, by way of opening conversation. 'Yes, by the hokey, she's doing sixteens now, and if the wind only comes round she'll score eighteens like a winking.'