July 1948
Jack and Anna had been planning the family holiday at Chesapeake since war’s end when they discovered the entire family had survived the horrors of the shocking conflict in Europe and the Pacific.
Julie and Harry were taking time off from their medical practice in London and flying to New York then on to Washington. From there they would meet Tom and Peter and drive to Chesapeake. They decided to leave Lara with her nanny, as they felt the trip would be too arduous.
Lucy, the matriarch of the family was now seventy-one yet quite active, and had been living at the Chesapeake beach house since the death of her husband Gene.
On 3rd July the family all arrived at the house. It was first time in years that the clan had got together for a holiday.
At six that evening the dinner bell was rung by Anna, summoning everybody to meet in the summer room overlooking the bay. She asked Peter to pop the corks on two bottles of 1928 vintage Krug. Joe, her first husband had been storing it in the wine cellar below the house for many years.
‘I would like everybody to charge their glasses. Here’s to the Doherty family - long may we live.’
‘Hear, hear!’ they all responded.
‘Mother, this champagne is magnificent! Where on earth did you find it?’ asked Tom.
‘My little secret, darling, But I can tell you there’s more where that came from.’
Jack rose and proposed another toast.
‘Here’s to my father Joe and to my stepfather Gene. May they both rest in peace.’
‘Thank you, darling,’ his mother smiled.
After the toasts were over they moved into the dining room where Sarah the maid had set a beautiful table.
The meal was wonderful, incorporating seafood and roast loin of lamb. The wine was Californian.
‘Well everybody, it wasn’t too long ago that I was sitting in the dust with my bowl and a handful of rice. When I was marched through the gates of River Valley Road Camp my weight was one hundred and eighty pounds. When I was liberated, I was down to ninety pounds. And now here I am with the people I love most in the world eating fine food and drinking excellent wine. I thank God I am alive. By the way I now weigh one hundred and seventy pounds.’ Tom’s eyes welled with tears.
‘A toast to Tom.’ Lucy held her up glass and everybody followed her lead.
‘Unfortunately, Julie and I can tell a very similar story to Tom’s. All we would like to say is we are very happy to be with you all - alive,’ Harry said.
‘May I suggest we retire into the lounge room. I have another surprise for you all.’
The family did as requested, and found waiting for them were brandy balloons and a very impressive bottle of cognac.
‘This bottle of cognac has been in our cellar for as long as I remember, unopened. It is Louis XIII. I quote,
‘It’s one century in a glass,’ Louis XIII’s cellar master Pierrette Trichet said, holding a crystal glass filled with amber liquid. ‘The idea is to be very humble in front of this glass and pay respect because it represents the effort and the know-how of one century.’
‘Peter, may I ask you to pour a glass for each of us please?’
‘Certainly, Mother.’
‘Tomorrow I have arranged to take the launch out on the bay. We will enjoy our 4th of July lunch cruising. I have asked Joe Wilcox to act as skipper so we can enjoy ourselves without worrying about steering the boat as it were.’
Gradually the family retired to their bedrooms except Peter and Tom.
‘How are your legs holding up Pete?’
‘Yeah, they’re OK. I get pain when it gets cold.’
‘You’d better move to California then.’
‘That’s not such a bad idea, Tom. Actually, I’m seriously thinking of doing just that.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, I’m thinking of leaving the Marines and enrolling at Stanford. I want to do a post-grad in neurosurgery.’
‘Wow, that’s a big one. Why neurosurgery?’
‘I saw so many head wounds in the war. I felt helpless not being able to help the poor bastards. I also look at Julie and Harry and the fantastic work they’re doing changing people’s lives. I’d like to make a similar contribution.’
‘Good on you Pete. That’s great.’
‘So how goes it with you, Tom?’
‘It’s been hard. Real hard. I suffered like you wouldn’t believe under the Japs. When I was fighting, it all seemed worthwhile. You were doing something for your pals and your country. Once captured you felt worthless. A failure somehow.’
Tom opened up and recounted the hell ships and his survival of the A-bomb at Nagasaki.
Peter was aghast.
‘I knew it must have been hell, but I had no idea.’
‘Yeah! It was fucking horrible. Don’t tell Mom. It would distress her too much.’
‘Sure.’
They hugged each other and retired for the night.
4th July 1948
The Dohertys had breakfast together in the summer room: pancakes with strawberries, blueberries and vanilla ice cream; red white and blue.
The men each took a basket of wine while the women carried the food, which was to be the Independence Day lunch.
Once they had boarded, the skipper asked the Doherty men to cast off the ropes and they were underway. The weather was perfect; blue skies with the odd puffy white cloud. The only fault was that the wind had picked up and was quite strong. This was of no concern to the Intrepid - she was one hundred feet long and powered by an eight hundred horsepower diesel engine.
About an hour out from the shore the women started to prepare the lunch in the galley while the men were on deck talking, smoking and generally enjoying themselves.
At 1 pm Julie called the boys down to have their lunch. Harry had just lit a large Cuban cigar and was annoyed that he had to throw it over the side; however he did as he was told. The group, including Joe the skipper, were seated at the yacht’s dining table and before them were various dishes, all decorated with the stars and stripes.
‘Well, just eighteen months ago who would have thought this could possibly happen?, Sitting down to a fabulous fourth of July lunch on a luxury yacht in the middle of Chesapeake Bay,’ Tom said.
‘I agree Tom. We’ve all very lucky considering what we’ve all been through,’ agreed Pete.
‘I smell smoke. Can anybody else smell it?’ asked Julie.
‘It’s probably the smoke from Harry’s cigar still lingering about,’ said Pete. ‘Bloody cigars! They’ll kill you one day Harry.’
‘No, it’s not cigar smoke. I quite like the smell of a fine cigar.’ there was an edge of concern in Julie’s voice.
‘The hot plates aren’t on are they Mum?’
‘No. I haven’t used them today. We cooked up at the house.’
‘Look! There’s smoke coming in under the galley door. There must be a fire up on deck!’ Joe was panicked.
‘You ladies stay down here. We’ll check out what’s happening,’ instructed Pete.
‘Shit! The doors locked. No that’s impossible. Must be jammed.’
The four men tried to push the door open but it wouldn’t budge. They grabbed the fire extinguisher and began bashing the door with the heavy cylinder. Not what it was designed for in the case of a fire. The galley was filling with smoke causing everybody to start coughing uncontrollably. They tried bashing the portholes with the fire extinguisher but it made no impact. Harry told the women to lie on the floor below the smoke cloud although that seemed to make no difference. The heat emanating from the fire became intense, singing the hairs on the men’s arms.
What Harry or any of the others hadn’t realised was that the cigar had blown back onto the rear deck. It had landed on a loosely coiled rope and began to smoulder. The wind and the cruiser’s movement fanned the small fire. Within a few minutes it had become a major outbreak. Unfortunately the blaze was located over the reserve fuel tank and set off an explosion that could be heard miles away. Intrepid burned furiously and within thirty minutes was a smouldering wreck barely above the waterline.
All on board perished.
The Dohertys had survived the war, the POW camps and the Titanic. Now they were all gone, except for Lara.
The End