Thursday, September 12, 1940
The first thing that Sonia saw in her cabin was a huge basket of fresh fruit and chocolate biscuits. Bon Voyage. Love, Daddy, said the card. Sonia and Barbara were sharing the cabin, so she supposed she’d have to share the basket. Still, it was more fruit than she’d seen in months.
“I’ll have the top bunk,” said Barbara as she popped a grape into her mouth. Sonia settled Lolly on the pillow of the lower bunk and carefully hung up her camel-hair coat.
Derek came rushing into their room through the door that connected their cabins. His face was covered in sticky pineapple juice. “Did you see? You can look out the porthole window right into the next boat! It’s filled with sailors and they waved at me!”
“Mummy,” Barbara called out, “I am going up on deck to write a letter to Alice.” Barbara was still angry and sullen about leaving. Sonia knew better than to talk to her when she was in this kind of mood. She decided to change into her new corduroy skirt. She wanted to make a good impression at lunch.
There were beautifully printed menus on their table in the dining room. Sonia’s mother told them that they could order anything that they wanted. There was curry and roast chicken and stew and soups—so much food! Derek had to be stopped from ordering one of everything.
There were other passengers sitting in the dining room but very few children. Sonia saw a teenage boy who looked very grown-up and sophisticated travelling with his mother, and she was glad she had changed into her new skirt. Mostly, the huge dining room was filled with adults.
Handsome Captain Nicolls came over to their table to introduce himself. He sat down beside Sonia’s mother and began to point out some of the celebrities on the boat.
“That’s Lieutenant Colonel James Baldwin-Webb, the MP for Wrekin. He’s on his way to New York to try and raise money for ambulances for the Red Cross. Over there, that’s Arthur Wimperis, a famous playwright and scriptwriter. Perhaps you saw The Scarlett Pimpernel? I understand it did quite well at the box office. Mr. Wimperis is on his way out to Hollywood.”
“Who is that?” Sonia’s mother asked, her eyebrows raised. Sonia couldn’t help staring. An exotic-looking woman wearing trousers and a beret was lighting a cigarette.
“That’s Ruby Grierson. She’s a documentary filmmaker. She is going to be making a movie while we sail,” said the captain.
“A movie!” said Derek, wiping brown sauce from the corners of his mouth. “Can I be in it?”
“Well, probably not. It is a movie about the child evacuees. We’ve got ninety evacuees from the CORB program on board,” the captain explained.
“But I’m an evacuee,” said Derek. “Aren’t I, Mum?”
“Yes, Derek, but these are poor children, travelling without their mummies,” their mother explained. “I expect that the movie will be about them because people want to know how the poor are managing during the war. That’s right, isn’t it, Captain Nicolls?”
“But if they are travelling without their mums, who is looking after them?” asked Barbara. “We don’t have to look after them, do we?”
“They have ten volunteer escorts,” explained the captain. “Nurses, chaplains, and so forth. Brave bunch of kids. A bit rambunctious. But you won’t see much of them. They’re at the other end of the ship.”
Suddenly, a blond boy about Sonia’s age came into the room wearing a bright red puffy silk vest. “Colin,” called the captain, “come over and join us.”
“What are you wearing that for? Are you a ’vacuee?” demanded Derek, pointing at the vest.
Sonia winced. Derek could be such an embarrassment at times.
“Derek. Manners.” said their mother.
“My mother made it for me,” said Colin politely. “She couldn’t come with me so she made me this special life vest.”
“She made it for you?” Sonia was impressed. She couldn’t imagine her mother sewing anything.
“Yes,” said Colin. “She told me I must never, ever take it off. She said I must even go to bed in it because if we are torpedoed, the vest will keep me afloat until the Royal Navy rescues me.”
The captain laughed. “Colin is a passenger, the same as you, Derek,” he said. “He is travelling by himself to Montreal.”
“When we get to Montreal, I’ll get on a train to New York,” Colin explained. “There’s a family there that are going to look after me while the war’s on. The Stickneys. I’ve never met them but they’ve already got another couple of English chaps. And they’ve got two maids. I’ve promised not to be any trouble.”
Sonia watched Colin carefully tuck his napkin over his life jacket. He seemed very calm and self-possessed. She couldn’t imagine travelling across the ocean to a foreign country all by herself. She couldn’t imagine living with strangers.
“There isn’t a chance of our needing to be rescued, is there, Captain Nicolls?” Sonia’s mother asked. “I know that some ships have run into U-boats, but with the children on board we’re safe, aren’t we?”
“Well, there’s always a risk, Mrs. Bech, and we take every precaution, of course. But this is a war and the Germans don’t always play by the rules.” The captain straightened up. “But never you fear. If we had to take to the sea, we’d be well provisioned until we were rescued.”
“Excuse me, captain.” A small man with a tidy mustache came over to their table.
“Ah, Mr. Davis,” the captain said smoothly. “May I introduce you to Mrs. Bech? Mrs. Bech and her three children are sailing with us as far as Montreal.”
Mr. Davis took Sonia’s mother’s hand. “Mrs. Bech. Forgive me for interrupting. The BBC asked me to file a story before we leave port, which I can only do from the captain’s bridge. I am so sorry to disturb your lunch.”
“Not at all,” she said politely.
The captain pushed his chair from the table. “If you will excuse me, I must arrange for Mr. Davis to use the equipment. Then I must see to some final details.”
Sonia’s mother smiled. “Of course, captain.” She turned to Mr. Davis. “I hope perhaps you will join us another time, when you are not so pressed.”
Derek stood up and saluted the captain. “Aye, aye sir. When will we set sail?”
Sonia yanked him back down. “You’re not a sailor, you know,” she hissed at him.
The captain hesitated. “Unfortunately, there’s been a bit of a delay to our plans. During all of that bombing last night, the Germans set mines out in the harbour. Our Navy boys have to clear them out of the way before we can get through. Looks like we’ll have to wait until tomorrow before we depart.”
Tomorrow. Although Sonia was anxious to get going, she knew that one more day wouldn’t make that much of a difference now that they were finally on the boat. Their new lives would begin tomorrow.
“That means we’ll leave on Friday the thirteenth,” said Derek.
“It’s always been my lucky day,” said Colin. “Are you superstitious?” he asked Sonia.
“Of course not!” said Sonja, suppressing a slight shiver.