The other ships were also meeting little by little the rest of the life boats occupied by the survivors of the catastrophe.

The general rescue was going to be a very short piece of work.
The most agile of the shipwrecked people, on reaching the deck, found themselves surrounded by sympathetic groups lamenting their misfortune and at the same time offering them hot drinks.

Others, after staggering a few steps as though intoxicated, collapsed on the benches.

Some had to be hoisted from the bottom of the boat and carried in a chair to the ship's hospital.
Various British soldiers, serene and phlegmatic, upon climbing on deck asked for a pipe and began to smoke vigorously.

Other shipwrecked people, lightly clad, simply rolled themselves up in shawls, beginning the account of the catastrophe as minutely and serenely as though they were in a parlor.