“Lower the boat!” shouted O’Driscoll. The seaman shook his head. “We have no passengers!” “Damn the passengers! Do you want to fry?!” and O’Driscoll held his fist in the seaman’s face. O’Driscoll and I climbed into the lifeboat and standing unsteadily, took up to oars to push away from the ship’s side. Rykard stood between […]
Three Men – Part 3 Read More »
A day passed, heavy weather beset us, a falling glass, white tops extending to the horizon. In the wireless shop I was kept busy handling traffic for passengers, urgent telegrams to the world, less urgent replies. A ship two hundred miles west of our position reported a force nine winter gale, I wrote out the
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In a dark swirling sea, cunning, limitless and hungry, three men lie in a lifeboat built for forty. I am one of those men; Rykard, and O’Driscoll are my companions. I am the second wireless operator, O’Driscoll the assistant purser, and Rykard the third engineer. Our ship lies under ten thousand feet of water, its
Three Men – Part 1 Read More »
The atmosphere in the hotel was subdued; male staff at reception wore their customary morning suits, but in deference to the day all were adorned with black silk ties. A large photograph of Churchill, The Roaring Lion by Yousuf Karsh, stood in the lobby on an easel, draped in black crepe. Templeman and Cosby headed
Templeman: The Silent City – Part 3 Read More »
A man who looked like Adam Faith, but wasn’t, in the fashion of the day, turned to look left along Fleet Street. Templeman stiffened as the man, around twenty-five years of age, blond hair, neatly cropped and swept back away from his forehead, sheepskin jacket over a dark suit, white shirt and plain tie, strained
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A cold silence had fallen across the city. It was as if 7 million people were holding their breath; it was a pensive silence, an expectation, but no one knew for sure of what. In Fleet Street the crowds were a little thinner than at other locations; but all pressed forward for a glimpse, all
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