The next day, Beryl left home for Liverpool, where she would board the passenger liner SS City of Benares.On Friday 13 September 1940, the City of Benares left Liverpool bound for Quebec and Montreal in Canada.The ship was carrying 90 child evacuees, accompanied by adult escorts, as well as other passengers. "Barbara managed to climb a rope onto a lifeboat, while her mother, Sonia and Derek spent six hours in the Atlantic before being picked up by HMS Hurricane - but not before despair had set in.Derek said: "Our mother told us 'let's just undo our lifebelts and we'll go to sleep in the water'. City of Benares was Commodore Ship; Crew: 209; Convoy Staff 6; Casualties: 121 crew, 51 passengers, 77 children and six escorts lost.. Armament: . Bess Cummings was one of the last survivors of the sinking of the SS City of Benares, which was torpedoed by a U-Boat in 1940 with 400 passengers and crew onboard, including 90 children. Photo courtesy of the Allen Collection. These are external links and will open in a new windowJust before midnight on September 17 1940, the Bech children were among 100 evacuees on board the SS City of Benares, who were woken from their sleep by a German torpedo.Minutes later Sonia and Derek were clinging to their mother in the North Atlantic, while their elder sister Barbara had disappeared down a rope that they prayed had led to a lifeboat.Four days earlier they had set sail from Liverpool destined for Canada where they were to begin a new life - far away from deadly German bombs. In the event they were the only entire family to survive a tragedy that would claim the lives of 87 children and 175 adults - and put an end to the short-lived policy of overseas evacuation.The steam passenger ship was holed by the torpedo and sank in the early hours of 18 September, 600 miles off Ireland after its Royal Naval escort had deployed elsewhere.It was one of the worst sea tragedies involving children of World War II.The German U-48 submarine's repeated torpedo shots caused wide-scale panic and terror among the 400 passengers as lifeboats were launched and children and grown-ups scrambled for life jackets.The evacuees, many of whom were travelling with their mothers, had ironically been selected for the voyage because of their vulnerability to bombing in their home towns and cities.The Children's Overseas Reception Board, which had been set up just three months earlier to co-ordinate the evacuation of 210,000 British children to Canada, New Zealand and Australia, was disbanded following the tragedy. Report of interview with the 4th Officer, Mr. R. M. Cooper. She was launched on 5 August 1935, and completed in October 1936. In total, 260 of the 407 people on board were lost.
Of the 90 child evacuees aboard only 13 survived. Degaussing: . We also have a detailed page on the British steam passenger ship City of Benares.
John Farren ""We rushed out onto the deck and the lifeboats had already been lowered into the sea which was very rough and we were on a sinking ship with no lifeboat and we wondered what was going to happen next. The steam ship had left Liverpool on 13 September on its 2,500 mile voyage They were oil fired and drove a single screw via single reduction gearing, giving her a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h). Testimonany Films for BBC, 2005, BBC History. Just before midnight on September 17 1940, the Bech children were among 100 evacuees on board the SS City of Benares, who were woken from their sleep by a … ed. These are external links and will open in a new window City of Benares was built by Lithgows Ltd, Port Glasgow. "The idea was that by evacuating children out of the way it would somehow stiffen British resistance and we'd be much better equipped mentally and physically to face off a German invasion," explained Imperial War Museum historian Terry Chapman.The Merseyside Maritime Museum estimates that 170,000 children were evacuated to the British Dominions or the US during World War II.But the children on board the SS City of Benares never reached Canada.Sonia said: "Little did we know at 10 o'clock that night that a U-boat had spotted us and was out for us. This is a listing of people associated with this ship. The SS City of Benares was actually torpedoed on the 17 Sept not 16th. 15 minutes after the torpedo hit, the vessel had been abandoned, though there were difficulties with lowering the lifeboats on the weather side of the ship.
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