She had never dreamed of having to part from him. Yet in a way it made her hasten her steps. The sooner all the women and children were off, she realised the sooner the men could get away.Yet her nerve gave out the moment she set foot on the rope ladder. It began to sway perilously. It began to sway perilously as she started to climb down, and her descent was complicated by the fact that the bottom of the ladder had become twisted.
The seamen manning the life-boat below were doing their best to straighten it out, but the violent jerks they were giving it only increased Mildred’s nervousness. She decided to climb back to Tom and wait until he could leave with her.

THE RESCURER WITH A CHILD
Tom Finley saw her start to come back. So he leaned over and shouted:- :you must go on down.” And he waved her on.
She held on, still undecided, unable to make up her mind whether to climb up or go down. Then a steward got on the ladder, carrying a child. He started to climb down on top of her and she felt her panic grow. Yet she still thought he must stop before bumping into her.
The man, however kept on as though determined to push her off the ladder. Below the men in the boat still jerked at the ladder, trying to straighten it out.
For a moment she could see no way out of the predicament but to let herself go and fail. Then she twisted herself round until she was at the back of the ladder and clung there until the steward had gone past.
She hung on, hating him for his rudeness; but at least he had done one good thing- he had straightened out the ladder. Only later did she realise how right he had been to ignore her.
Her ordeal was by no means over. She had imagined that once she got to the bottom of the ladder it would be a simple matter to step into the boat. But when she neared the sea she saw how deceptive it could look from the deck of an Atlantic liner.
She stated the waves for a moment, waited until the boat came surging towards her. Then she let go. She was sure she had timed it perfectly; but the boat was already going away as she dropped into it. She fell and bruised her side.
Other women were simply refusing to jump. They clung to the ladder until the men in the boat reached up and grabbed them by the legs and helped them down.
There was almost a system about it, as the boat surged up thing was to get as many people away as possible.
This was understood by Jim Mitchell, ship’s-carpenter, who found himself temporarily in charge of the boat. If the Athenia started to go down, it might be necessary to pull away immediately. The more people in the boat, the more lives would be saved; the proposition was as simple as that.
Finally he was able to give his attention to the woman in the water. Both she and her young daughter were still crying for help while women still on the ladder were being helped into the boat” …

(To be continued in the next Sunday edition of the Guyana Chronicle.)