STOKEHOLE DRAMA

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 12 March 1920, Page 1

STOKEHOLE DRAMA

ROMANTIC MEETING OF EIGHT WOMEN MASQUEBADERS. Two more light-hearted girls than Ivy Boswell and Florence Waddington, the bobbed-hair stowaways, and the central figures in one of the most astonishing of war romances, surely never before stood in the dock at Liverpool Police Court. Ivy and Florence, fresh from their amazing exploits on an American naval liner, were the perfect embodiment of laughing defiance when they were charged with embarking at Liverpool on the United States transport Plattsburg without being in possession of a passport. LONDON COMPANIONS. Both girls belong to London, and' for some time Florence Waddington was engaged as an operator at one of the telephone exchanges in the City. They left London together, and came to Liverpool, where the Plattsburg was lying in the Huskisson Dock. Immediately after their arrival on Merseyside the girls, determined now at all costs to make the journey with their lovers, had their lovely tresses cut off and their hair cropped quite short. Sailors' suits and heavy boots were secured for them, and, masquerading as members of the crew, tliey walked coolly aboard the ship at midnight without arousing the slightest suspicion. Then the trials, tortures, and tribulations of the two heroines of the tale began in earnest. They selected the refrigerators as a hiding-place, and for 10 days remained concealed down in the depths of the ship.

AMONG THE BOILERS. "We decided to find a warmer quarter, and finally settled in the boiler-house, where we were very nearly roasted alive! It was here we found the other six girl stowaways—all, like ourselves, dressed in naval uniform." Altogether, the two girls—the eight girls, in fact—were in hiding for 20 days, and yet not one was detected either at Liverpool - when embarking, during the voyage, or when leaving the boat at New York. We ran great risks there," said Florence Waddington. "We soiled our faces to hide our looks, and stepped along the gangway in the ranks of the boys. " We got through all right, and thought our tremendous adventure was over. Itwould have been if one of the other girls had not been jealous of me. Ivy and I took situations ; n New York as domestic servants, and we were arranging to get married when the police stepped in. ;i Someone —this girl, I believe—had given us away. We had to appear before a Judge, and were ordered to be sent back to England." When they were remanded for eight days the girls turned laughingly on their heels and passed jauntily out of the dock.