Some jump, some fall, each dotting the water's surface like the period at the end of a sentence. Then, the stern slips under the water, plunging everyone into a coldness so intense it is indistinguishable from fire. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. The inchoate wail of 1500 souls slowly fades to individual cries from the darkness. We know you can hear us! Save one life! 700 survivors stand by in lifeboats built for 1200, afraid to act for fear of getting swamped. They tell themselves that the voices from the water do not belong to their husbands or their loved ones. They are merely the cries of the damned....
-- From James Cameron's Titanic