ATLANTIC JOURNEY IN WARTIME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23861, 11 January 1941, Page 1 (Supplement)

ATLANTIC JOURNEY IN WARTIME

On Board British Transatlantic Liner. IT'S nine o'clock at night, and this great ship pitches and rolls through heavy seas. The latest ne ws bulletin received on the ship's radio gives details of vessels which have just been sunk in the Atlantic —a grim reminder that at any moment a U-boat may pounce on us. Kvery light is blacked out. Kvery porthole is painted over and sealed. There are strict orders that there must be no smoking on deck alter sunset. Into the ship's lounge walks the tall, jovial purser, who beams on the silent passeimers seated round and shouts: "Take your partners for the 'Paul Jones.' please. Come along, now; all together; ladies in the centre, please; pentlemen on the outside!" The chairs are pushed back and the line ship's dance orchestra sets everybody hopping to "Here Wo Go Hound the Mulberry Bush," and "Life On the Ocean Wave." Mid-ocean Alarm There has surely never been anything quite like this on the Atlantic before —'267 children on board; rich ones, poor ones, Last Lnders, millionaires' sons; British busine<s men being sent on important missions: food and oh and arms buyers: hundreds of refugees Iron! all over Europe (iermans, Italians. Hungarians. Norwegians and Spaniards all mixed up in a "Paul Jones." while the .ship picks her way between the I-boats. .Many of the women have their lifejackets tied round their dance 1 rocks; no all take our iifejaekets to the dance. The captain's orders are that we shall keep them loosely tied on our shoulders all the time. I asked the ship's officer if the sea .was really rough. "Its not so rough 1

that we couldn't yet away in the boats if we were sunk," lie said. "I. advise you to sleep in your clothes lor the first lew days. (-Jetting torpedoed can bo quite a chilly business.'' He ought to know; he floated lor live hours in the water a month ago alter being torpedoed in the Atlantic. "Try to wear something that's warm, but something you can swim in," he said, and then hurried away to dance an old-fashioned wait/.. Ir was 'only when I tried to sleep tor those first few nights that 1 realised how noise-conscious the London bombs bad made me. Kvery creak of the cabin, tin l wind whining, every groan of the seasick passengers sounded like an airraid warning,

A "Qrim but Qay" Passage

By WALTER FARR

Suddenly, in the early morning, there was a colossal bang. The ship shivered, then the alarm was sounded, which meant that everyone had to take up emergency stations. The ship fell strangely silent, and swiftly people pulled tight the straps of their lifejackets. Women iiled out from their cabins combing their hair and powdering their faces. That ijoise. might have been an aeroplane bomb or a torpedo lor all we knew, yet there was not the slightest panic. Some time before we sailed the disaster to that liner full of children in the Atlantic was announced, but Liu: news had been kept from all the children in our ship. 1 never expected to see my cabin again, but somehow at such moments one automatically remains calm. One notices odd details. 1 remember 12-year-old John C'ushen, of Durham Hill Council School, Kent, walking calmly out of his cabin saying: "That was a funny noise. |j sounded to me like chairs falling down." Refugee from Germain, A girl told people around her as we waited: "It's all right. The ship's not sinking.''' She explained afterwards bow she knew. "1 was in the City of Benares that went down, drowning nil those children, so 1 know what it's like." she said casually. She had been rescued by a destroyer and taken back to Britain. On landing she took train for another port and later boarded our ship for her second attempt, to cross the Atlantic. She is Miss Jlelene , a refugee from Germany, and she says the only elfect on her of the disaster is that

she can't bear to hear a baby crying because it reminds her of the cries of those children who were drowned. We waited for ten minutes at the emergency stations, then came the "All clear." He lone said: "Thank goodness! 1 don't think .1 could have made a third attempt." I. was officially informed that the bang was caused by a depth charge. I am not allowed to tell you any more, except that the British Navy doesn't put down depth charges for nothing. That's the only serious shock we have had. Immediately after the "All clear" everything was normal again. "Danger Money" "Bacon and eggs or a nice haddock, sir; or would you like sausages or smoked ham:'" said the breaklast steward. "Some more butter?" There is no rationing aboard, as the ship takes on big stocks every time she arrives in America. \ou leave your ration books behind at the embarkation port. The stewardess of my cabin has been crossing the Atlantic ever since the war. She says the only thing that really Lightens her is going into an air-raid shelter on land. She'd rather run the torpedo gauntlet any time than be cooped up in a shelter'. They get t'2 per trip extra as "danger money." Among the greatest heroines of the war are Miss Alice Brady and Mrs. Thomson, a Royal Air Force officer's widow, who are the official escorts to 100 American-bound children—the last, to go this season. Their report shows that parents have nothing to worry about. Of 100 children, only lour were seasick, and there were only three cases of naughtiness. These escorts bravo submarines to watch the children day and night, wash their clothes, arrange their games, make a report on each child, wash them, see they eat properly—all for a salary of L'o per trip. Through the danger zone the children arranged and put on their own concert and went to the ship's cinema, where they saw Mickey Mouse and cowboy films. Through Thick Fog Once a day they have an hour's gym, then there's dancing, community singing and 'spelling bees. They have also invented their own entertainments, including stealing the purser's braces. One night he had to retire hurriedly From the lounge as a consequence. hater: We've just: come through a thick log, the siren blasting every Jew minutes. The captain leans over the bridge and shouts to t,hc advancing United States pilot boat: "Tell London we've arrived 0.K." Ffe says: "This is my 11th wartime crossing. We'll soon be hopping back to Fngland again, I hope. Between journeys I am in the Home Guard." The New York newspapers to-night say: "Another British ship has docked after an uneventful journey, except for one incident when it is believed a submarine tried to make an attack."