The mere sight of this dismal cleft with its super-saturated air space made active the choking sensation of which she was just beginning to be aware.
"I--cannot breathe!" she sobbed, and she would have slipped off into the welter of angry foam beneath had not Hozier tightened a protecting arm round her waist.
"Stoop down!" he said.
She had a dim knowledge that he unbuttoned his coat and drew one of its folds over her head.

Ah, the blessed relief of it! Freed from the stifling showers of spray, she drew a deep breath or two.

How good he was to her! How sure she was now that if he had been spared by that disabling shell he would have saved them all! Bent and shrouded as she was, she could see quite clearly downward.
The ship was breaking up with inconceivable rapidity.

Already there was a huge irregular vent between the fore deck and the central block of cabins topped by the bridge.

And a new horror was added to all that had gone before.