Question: The Mary was famous for its
rolling...?
You're telling me. That was where I rolled up the bulkhead
and back again, when everything was smashed. 'Cos that was a
terrible storm.
Question: Which particular storm are you talking
about?
Well they've got it on record it was the worst storm that ...
Question: The one at Christmas time?
Yes. That was terrible. I never seen so much smashed
crockery in...and things smashed. Never in my life.
Portholes stoved in. There was alleyways running with water.
Oh, it was dreadful. That was when Captain Grattidge was on
there. He was the Commodore.
Question: How long did it last, for the whole five days
was it?
Yes, it was pretty bad, it was pretty bad.
Question: So you had some sick passengers?
Oh, my goodness. And trying to get stuff to them.
Question: And you had to clean up that I suppose.
How did you help them?
Well you were always taking them dry biscuits, and Canada Dry, or
going in to try and console them. Oh it was...
Question: Because they were frightened I suppose.
They were frightened. They were frightened. When I was
on the Aquitania once, we were taking a lot of Polish people.
And that was very sad. And when I used to look at their
papers and I'd look at them and I'd think 'you can't be'.
They were like old women and yet they were young. And that
was dreadful. Now we had a storm....
Question: Where were you taking them from?
We used to pick them up at Cherbourg I think it was, and then they
were going across to Canada, and we had this storm and they turned
in the cabins into dormitories and ‘course there was two or three
bunks...and honestly that was awful. Those poor people.
They were so frightened. We had to get the Captain down to
speak to them and he had to sign their wills. They'd made
wills. There was two little children there and they used to
follow me and cling onto my dress everywhere I went. They
were lovely those children. I often wonder what happened to
them because we took them off at Halifax, and you know sometimes
when we'd finished our work and came ashore those people still
herded in those sheds waiting for the trains to take them.
And it used to be so sad. And on one occasion one of the old
passengers, one of the women … on the side of their bunk they used
to have like a little shelf, and of course she happened to be on
the top bunk, and she had her false teeth in this mug on this
shelf. And she made me understand it had come down and it was
on the deck, would I get it for her. Laugh? I never
laughed so much, never. I was down on my hands and knees and
this ship was going like this and I'd reach out under the bunk to
get these blessed teeth and they'd go somewhere else. And
there was I crawling all underneath these bunks, chasing these
false teeth. Well I got them eventually, but the state I was in
afterwards...I wasn't any good for anything because I laughed so
much you know, it was so funny.
Question: Which ship was this?
That was the Aquitania, because we did take these poor
immigrants. But that was a funny experience, a really funny
experience.
