Atlantis (1913)

Dr. Fred V. Kammacher, a young physician living a short distance from Berlin, has been disappointed in his bacteriological researches and to add to his mental and physical distress, his wife, Angele, develops symptoms of brain derangement. The couple are the fond parents of three children and when Dr. Rasmussen, the family physician advises that Angele be taken to a sanatorium, Kammacher is threatened with a general breakdown. He reluctantly consents to the pleadings of his mother to seek rest away from his home and makes his first sojourn in Berlin. While there he accepts an invitation from an old friend to attend a matinee performance, at which Miss Ingegerd Halstrom, a famous danseuse, appears in her latest creation, "The Dance of the Spider." Kammacher falls under her charm and is introduced by her father after the performance. But he is disillusioned when he finds her bestowing her attention indiscriminately upon the gallants who surround her. He leaves in disgust and upon later receiving ill tidings from home, departs for Southampton, where he engages passage on the liner "Roland," bound for America. He is seeking to forget the troubles that beset him. Through a curious twist of fate, Ingegerd and her father also have taken passage on the same steamship and Dr. Kammacher, upon the renewal of the acquaintance, finds himself more closely attracted toward the young dancer. Dr. Kammacher is sorely puzzled over the whimsical nature of Ingegerd and during one of his trouble slumbers dreams that he has landed on the island of Atlantis, the mythical realm which, according to the ancient Greeks, disappeared under the crest of the sea, only to resume its activities on the sands at the bottom of Neptune's domain. Here he meets old friends and is enjoying their greetings when a violent shock rouses him from his slumbers. In a dense fog the "Roland" has struck a hulk and water pours in volumes into her hold. The boiler room is flooded, but the stokers stick bravely to their posts and officers and crew exert every effort to restore calm among the passengers. Realizing that hope is fast fleeing, the captain orders the life boats lowered and in an instant pandemonium reigns on board the doomed vessel. Scantily clad passengers from the saloon scramble to the upper deck, while the panic stricken emigrants in the steerage madly trample each other in their wild frenzy to reach the boats. Fearful of delay, scores plunge into the angry ocean seeking rescue from those in pitching life boats. A watery grave is the fate of hundreds and gradually the "Roland" lists and sinks into the bosom of the relentless ocean. With difficulty, Dr. Kammacher rescues Ingegerd, but her father is among the victims. For many weary hours, filled with mingled hope and despair, the little group huddle together in the life boat, the men taking their turns at the oars. Toward morning the tossing craft is sighted by a cargo steamer bound for New York and Kammacher, Ingegerd and their fellow survivors are taken aboard and start again toward the New World. Sandy Hook, the Statue of Liberty and the impressive skyline of New York are vividly depicted and finally the steamship pier, where the rescued are besieged by newspaper reporters anxious to learn the particulars of the sinking of the "Roland." Unthan, one of the survivors, otherwise known as "The Armless Wonder" is the center of a curious group while Dr. Kammacher is taken in charge by Will Snyder, an artist and an old-time friend of the young physician. Fate decrees that Ingegerd at this point drops out of the life of Dr. Kammacher. It is related that she repeats her success as a dancer and in a whirl of gayety soon forgets her fancied attachment for the man who had saved her life. From the hour of his arrival in America, the sojourn of Dr. Kammacher is varied and filled with innumerable moments of interest. Dr. Schmidt, an old friend, invites him to seek rest in his mountain cabin, standing among the snowdrifts beyond the Canadian border. He accepts, but before leaving pays his farewells to Eva Burns, a young sculptress, whom he had met during one of his rounds of the studies in company with Snyder. Fever overtakes him in his mountain retreat and almost at the same time he receives news of the death of his wife. Miss Burns nurses him back to health. The story does not end at this point and while the finale may be guessed at, the evolving of the details supplies a number of strong and appealing scenes.