QUOTATION SOURCES

Documented quotes from interviews, oral accounts, and other sources are below.

p. 2	“. . . your preliminary application has been considered by the Board and they have decided that KENNETH J. SPARKS is are suitable for being sent to . . . CANADA.”	National Archives DO 131/91
p. 6	“And there will be a new overcoat . . .”	Sparks interview National Archives DO 131/91
	“‘penny cannon’ fireworks.”	“The Night We Were Torpedoed,” Observer Series, January 23, 2003
p. 7	“a little so-and-so . . .”	Sparks interview
	“she wasn’t supposed to have children.”	Sparks interview
p. 8	“a clout round the ear hole or the cane at school.”	Sparks interview
p. 16	“If it’s going to hit us, it’s going to hit us.”	Sparks interview
p. 25	“German planes are diesel. They throb. Ours hum.”	Sparks interview
p. 30	“She waves me good-bye, and that’s it.”	Menzies, p.17
p. 37	“It’s just a bad habit.”	Sparks interview
p. 39	“We’re like seeds in a pod.”	Nagorski, T., p. 27
p. 51	“No diseases must be allowed . . . to infiltrate the Dominion!”	O’Sullivan, p. 21
p. 53	“The biggest thing we’d seen till then were the old paddle steamers in the Thames.”	Sparks interview
p. 54	“Out of this world! And if it weren’t for this . . . , we’d never see anything like it.”	Steels, Imperial War Museum
p. 57	44 boys to port, 44 girls to starboard
	Note: Sources disagree about this fact, but two eyewitnesses, Ken Sparks (later a Navy man) and Rory O’Sullivan, confirm this arrangement.
	“The girls to starboard, the boys to port . . .”	O’Sullivan, p. 22
	“boys on the port (left hand) side and girls on the starboard (right hand).”	Sparks account written as an adult
p. 60	“If you didn’t make your own toys, you didn’t get any.”	Sparks interview
p. 62	“It’s a floating palace, is what it is!”	Nagorski, T., p.35
	“three different kinds of knives and forks”	Barker, p. 28
p. 63	“Fish and chips is my favorite.”	Sparks interview
p. 66	“After the wartime food, . . . there aren’t words to describe it. . . . We’ve never eaten so much in our lives.”	Menzies, p. 41
p. 86	. . . everything you could think of for a kid.”	Smith, p. 138
p. 88	“. . . the most magnificent long cigarette holder [I’ve] ever seen!”	Menzies, p. 50
p. 89	“. . . pay their respects to the sea, a bit green round the gills, but ready to take on more ballast!”	O’Sullivan, p. 23
	“. . . it’s a Christmas dinner every meal.”	Nagorski, T., p. 47
p. 90	“Here, on this route, the first two days may contain an element of danger, but afterwards we should be quite all right.”	Nagorski, B., p. 199
p. 98	“Blimey, if I go home without that coat, [Mum] will kill me.”	Sparks interview
p. 100	“The hatches have been blown off, the emergency lights are on. Electrical sparks . . .”	Sparks, IWM
p. 104	“It’s all right, it’s only a torpedo.”	Huxley, p. 27
p. 105	“. . . like monkeys.”	Sparks, IWM
p. 114	“. . . like a Christmas tree . . .”	Menzies, p. 100
p. 117	“. . . went to its own grave.”	Sparks, IWM
p. 129	“He looks like a duck, coming out of its hole.”	Nagorski, T., p. 209
	“thirty feet of timber, shorter than a London bus.”	Fethney, p. 141
p. 133	“Water, water, everywhere Nor any drop to drink.”	“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1798
p. 139	“One of the wheels had buckled so [someone] chucked it. Dad said, ‘Here, you can mend that.’ And I did. . . .”	Sparks interview
	“I made a go-cart out of old pram wheels. . . . the rag-and-bone man.”	Sparks interview
p. 145	“I was over the moon . . . [My Mum] kept hanging on to me. It was like trying to get away from an octopus. . . . Even [my Dad] had a few tears in his eyes. But . . . I couldn’t wait . . . .”	Menzies, p. 14
	“One of my great-grandmothers ran off with a Jewish sailor, I think.”	Capel interview
p. 146	“He sleeps through anything.”	Nagorski, T., p.4
p. 149	“Why are you going swimming, mister? “To keep in practice, in case we get torpedoed again.”	Barker, p. 187
	“. . . a proper screwball” “Come on in, lads” “I love swimming!” “Ignore the man.”	Menzies, p. 164 Nagorski, T., p. 202 Sparks interview Nagorski, T., p. 202
p. 150	“Now my wife, she’s got a way with kids, she has. Keeps ’em fit as fleas, and stands no nonsense, neither.	Huxley, p. 58
	What do you know about kids? Got none of your own, nor likely to have, either.”
	“You’re right on both counts. And what of it?”
p. 151	“No offense, of course.”	Huxley, p. 59
	“What’s the use of worrying, it never was worthwhile. So, pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and smile, smile, smile.”
		Song credit on p. 302
p. 154	“sardines. Yech!”	Sparks interview
p. 155	“Allah the Compassionate was wise and would send storms if He thought best.”	Nagorski, T., p. 214
p. 159	If we aren’t going to be picked up one way, we are going to get to Ireland. Nobody has the slightest intention of ever giving up hope. No.	Sparks, IWM
p. 161	“Without a lie, you could have put two double-decker buses in it!”	Smith, p. 140
	“I shared a bunk bed with Alan at home. “I’d read to him and he would read back to me. He could tie his shoelaces and he’s only five.”	Capel interview
p. 166	“. . . water in a carafe, changed every day? I remember trying the water and it was so good, nice chilled water.”	Menzies, p. 40
p. 172	“Don’t you realise that you’re the heroes of a real adventure story?
	There isn’t a boy in England who wouldn’t give his eyes to be in your shoes!
	Did you ever hear of a hero who snivelled?”	Huxley, p. 54
p. 176	“I reckon you could . . . mend the boat with them if you got holed.”	Menzies, p. 157
p. 177	“. . . how we eye the water ration! . . .	O’Sullivan, p. 30
p. 178	“They must be frozen to death.”	Sparks, IWM
p. 179	“They weren’t expecting to come out toward the Atlantic.”	Sparks, IWM
	“They’re used to a hot country and the cold North Atlantic isn’t anybody’s fun.”	Menzies, p. 164
p. 186	“. . . as if to say what are you doing here in my waters?”	Sparks interview
p. 193	“It’s like candy, is what it is. . . .”	Nagorski, T., p. 238
p. 201	“What’s the matter now?” Down-’earted ’cos she didn’t pick us up? That’s nothing to worry about. We’ll see plenty more ships tomorrow, now we’ve reached the sea lanes.”	Huxley, p.68
p. 220	“Drink . . . give me a drink . . . I am going mad!”	O’Sullivan, p. 35
p. 221	“il va mourir . . .”	Nagorski, T., p. 257
p. 222	“Water? Is that all? Of course you want water. We all do. You’ll get your water in the morning! Now you forget about it. Is that all that’s wrong with you?”	Huxley, p. 75
	“My feet are cold.”	Huxley, p. 198
p. 233	“a speck in the sky . . .”	Yorkshire Post, September 27, 1940
	“Look, an aeroplane!”	Ibib
p. 235	“It’s a Sunderland— a Flying Boat.”	Sparks interview
	“We pray that the plane will come close enough to see us, and bring us help.” . . . too much to hope.	Daily Mirror, Sept 27, 1940
	“Please God, let that pilot see us . . .”	Nagorski, T., p.266
p. 237	“I learned the signals in the Army Cadets. . . .”	Sparks interview
p. 238	“Oh boy!” “We’re going to fly home!”	Nagorski, T., p. 267
p. 242	“Safe at last.”	Sparks, IWM
p. 246	“Paul can’t walk at all, his legs had really gone.”	Menzies, p. 169
	“fingers and toes came off in the dressings. . . .”	Johnson, p. 115
p. 248	“. . . like royalty. There is nothing they don’t do for us.”	Sparks, IWM
p. 249	“I’ve never had sandwiches so thick— a tin of salmon between two slices of bread an inch wide. Gorgeous! And hot sweet tea to revive us.”	Smith, p. 153
p. 253	“It doesn’t matter about the bombs falling. We are no longer COLD.”	Smith, p. 153
	“There’s nothing worse than being wet and cold and not being able to get warm.”	Sparks, IWM
	“Ice cream and fish and chips!”	Daily Express, Sept 27, 1940
p. 256	“. . . Hunting Gordon— darkish green with a yellow-ish stripe…” . . . not “likely I’ll wear it once I get back to London, is it?”	Sparks, IWM
p. 259	“DELIGHTED CONFIRM OFFICIALLY THAT YOUR BOY IS SAFE AND WELL LANDED GLASGOW. IF YOU WISH TO FETCH HIM THIRD CLASS RETURN FARE WILL BE PAID. IF NOT, HE WILL BE ESCORTED BACK TO YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. PLEASE WIRE OR TELEPHONE YOUR INTENTION. REJOICE AT SURVIVAL OF YOUR GALLANT SON.”
		National Archives DO 131/20
p. 260	“Mummy, I have not got Peter for you”	Nagorski, T., p. 286
p. 261	“Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I dreamed that I saw him safe in a boat.”	Montreal Daily Star, September 27, 1940
	“I thought . . . we were being evacuated but they said, ‘We have good news.’ I answered, “You’re going to tell me my boy is alive,’ and they said, ‘Yes!’”	Daily Express September 28, 1940
	“A miracle has happened.”	Montreal Daily Star, September 27, 1940
	“We thought we had lost both boys. It’s a miracle that Derek has been snatched back from the grave.”	Nagorski, T., p. 286
p. 263	“KINDLY ESCORT HOME KENNETH SPARKS. IMPOSSIBLE TO COME = SPARKS”
		National Archives DO 131/91
p. 270	Presented to Kenneth Sparks By his neighbors in admiration Of his dauntless courage When torpedoed in S.S. City of Benares September 17, 1940
		Sparks interview The Daily Mirror, December 4, 1940
	“Now we can look at [his bike] without crying”	Daily Express, September 28, 1940
p. 271	“When we first heard that the ship had gone down, we read that boys in one boat were heard singing ‘Roll Out the Barrel.’ It’s Kenny’s favorite song, and I knew he was in that boat. I could see him standing up and singing in his new grey overcoat. Every time I thought about the singing, it made me go on hoping.”	Daily Express, September 28, 1940
p. 279	“The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave the King. And the King will never leave.”
		http://bmsf.org.uk/buckingham-palace-at-war/
p. 286	“unswerving devotion to duty assisting passengers at their boats and again during his 8 days in the No. 12 Lifeboat.”
	“showing a very high standard of discipline which had a marked effect on the other native members of the crew. “
		Letter to Commander, Holbrook, October 14, 1940 University of Glasgow Archives GB248 UGD, 131/1/37/208
p. 288	“We were survivors, not heroes.”	Smith, p. 154
	“touched to hear that the German crew had been moved to tears on returning to their base in Lorient and discovering that the Benares cargo was mostly children.”
		Blake Simms in The Independent, September 17, 2010
p. 297	“had nothing in common, except the Indian Ocean,” “Among them were Chinese and East Africans, Arabs and Malays, Bengalis and Goans, Tamils and Arakanese.”
		Ghosh, p. 13
	“The saved include . . . thirty-six Lascar seamen.”
		Daily Express, September 23, 1940
p. 299	“could find no mention of Indian seamen being admitted in September/October of 1940.” records “are incomplete and the registers for 1940 have not been preserved.”	NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde archivist