Torpedoed!: A World War II Story of a Sinking Passenger Ship and Two Children's Survival at Sea
x PRoloGUE 1939 felt a rumbling jolt Some said it was like a cannon going off somewhere in the guts of the ship The intense impact of the explosion catapulted pas sengers into the air causing immediate death when they landed on the deck Some people were tossed over the ship’s rails into the deep Atlantic A young girl was killed by flying debris as she lounged in a deck chair Crewmen working near the crippled engines were killed instantly Kitchen workers were scalded by pots of hot liquids top pling from the massive stovetop burners Stairs leading to the upper decks from cabins below were blown to shreds leaving helpless passengers with no way out as rising waters filled their lungs Eleven-year-old Russell Park traveling with his par ents was returning to America after a vacation in Ireland Sitting with his dad in the library at the time of the explo sion Russell remembered hearing a loud bang Then he was aware of his dad pulling him out from beneath a table that pinned him to the floor People were scream ing and yelling He smelled something like hot metal or burning paint He was scared but not seriously hurt Florence Kelly 14 was on the Athenia with her mother The two were traveling home to Ohio after spending the summer in Europe When the explosion ripped through the liner Florence was walking on the deck She clung with all her strength to the railing try ing to steady herself When the bone-jarring rocking of the ship finally stopped Florence was left in total dark ness She knew her mother was in a nearby lounge It
PRoloGUE xi seemed like forever before the two were reunited just in time to find their way to a lifeboat Russell Florence and hundreds of other survivors made the treacherous descent into lifeboats crafts that seemed sturdy enough when they were snugly attached to the solid passenger liner but that were now quickly filling with water They were however the only means of survival The survivors endured hours of cold wet Russell Park and his parents visited Ireland in the summer of 1939 Library of Congress LC-USZ62-104598
xii PRoloGUE Florence and Mary Kelly spent the summer of 1939 on the British Isle of Man Library of Congress LOT 13415 no 701 LC-DIG-ppmsc-08688 conditions along with the constant fear that they might never make it ashore Throughout the night they bobbed on the vast Atlantic Ocean where as one survivor put it every wave is your enemy What had caused the explosion Some thought it was simply a mechanical problem But everyone was think ing about the announcement of war between Great Brit ain and Germany just hours before And some passengers said they had seen a submarine lurking on the surface of the water just before the explosion occurred Florence
PRoloGUE xiii thought it might have been an attack by an enemy plane yet she hadn’t noticed anything in the skies at the time If there were enemy subs or planes in the area were the lifeboats safe Had the captain had time to send a radio call for help As the night wore on distant lights pierced the hori zon and ominous shapes loomed in the distance The survivors crammed in the lifeboats worried about the advancing forms were they friendly rescue vessels or enemy attackers If the approaching lights and shapes were friendly crafts where would they take the survivors Back to Europe where war had broken out Would the survi vors be stranded unable to go home to America until the war ended If the approaching shapes were enemy ships what would the people on board do to the survivors Fire upon the helpless lifeboats Capture them and send them to prisoner-of-war camps What did the future hold for Russell and Florence Would they ever again see their friends and families back home in America
