There was only one woman.

She stood a little back, partly supported in a man's arms, her face buried in her hands.

Alan looked at the man, and he knew from his appearance that she was the woman who had screamed.
He heard the splash of the boat as it struck water, and the rattle of oars, but the sound seemed a long distance away.

Only one thing came to him distinctly in the sudden sickness that gripped him, and that was the terrible sobbing of the woman.

He went to them, and the deck seemed to sway under his feet.