Review Detail

Bess Walden, who is fifteen, and her brother Lewis, who is 10, are sent out of East London by their parents during the Blitz. After a brief stay in an orphanage, they are lucky enough to get passage on the SS City of Benares. Bess meet another girl, Beth, who is also a bit heavier and has had trouble making friends, as Bess has. They become close friends, and spend time together on the very fancy ship, although each girl has a couple of younger roommates to help take care of. Bess is concerned because her brother is with boys on the ship, and she can't watch him as closely as she would like, although he seems to be in good hands with Ken, an older boy (whose story is told in Lifeboat 12), and chaperone Michael Rennie. Aside from a bout of seasickness, Bess and Beth are generally doing well until the ship is torpedoed in the middle of the night. Trying to escape with their roommates, they find that the stairs have collapsed, and Bess is frantic to be separated from Louis. The girls manage to get into a lifeboat, but it capsizes. The water is freezing, and all around them people perish, including Michael Rennie, who had managed to save many of the boys in his care. The girls encourage each other to hold on, and are eventually rescued by a British ship. Bess is reunited with her brother after he sees her green bathrobe hanging up. There is some additional information about various aspects of the ship, including the lack of information that remains about the Indian Lascars who were working on the ship and perished.