Something held his arms down along his sides.

He was not afraid--oh no! only he just couldn't--that's all.

He was not afraid of death perhaps, but I'll tell you what, he was afraid of the emergency.

His confounded imagination had evoked for him all the horrors of panic, the trampling rush, the pitiful screams, boats swamped--all the appalling incidents of a disaster at sea he had ever heard of.

He might have been resigned to die but I suspect he wanted to die without added terrors, quietly, in a sort of peaceful trance.