Women and Children First by Gill Paul

her?’
    ‘She was in our cabin, changing the baby.’
    ‘I bet you don’t know your cabin number,’ Reg challenged. ‘Young lads like you would never remember.’
    ‘We do too. It’s E107.’ The older one was doing all the talking. He was a gangly lad wearing short trousers that he was too old for. Surely his mum could have got him some long ones for the voyage to cover those awkward kneecaps?
    ‘Let’s go up there, then. She’ll be worried about you.’
    On the way, he told them what he knew boys would want to know: that the ship had two four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines that drove the propellers, and a low-pressure turbine that recycled steam from the engines. He told them that it had a maximum speed of twenty-three knots but that they were currently only doing about twenty-one. He told them there were twenty-four double-ended boilers and six single-ended ones and that firemen worked day and night to feed coal into a hundred and fifty-nine furnaces. He told them the length and the breadth and the tonnage of the ship, and he was still talking when they arrived up on E Deck outside number 107.
    Hearing voices, Annie McGeown opened the door and immediately grabbed her sons and pulled them into the room. ‘What have they been doing? Oh, I hope they haven’t been up to mischief and causing trouble?’
    ‘Not at all,’ Reg told her. ‘We were just having a chat about the ship.’ He saw the boys’ expressions of surprise when they realised he wasn’t going to tell on them for going in the engine room. ‘They’re clever lads,’ he continued. ‘I bet they do well at school.’
    ‘I’m so grateful to you, Mr…’
    ‘Parton. Reg Parton.’
    ‘I’m Annie McGeown. I wonder, could I ask you a question? Is there somewhere I can warm the baby’s milk? I filled his bottle from a jug at lunch so I could give him a feed later, but he doesn’t like it cold. I haven’t seen any other babies down here and I don’t want to cause a fuss.’
    ‘Do you want it now?’ Reg asked. ‘I can pop down the corridor to our mess and get someone to do it straight away. Other times, you ask any steward in the dining saloon.’
    ‘Oh, if you’re sure it’s no trouble?’
    ‘Tell you what,’ Reg suggested. ‘Why don’t your two eldest come with me and they can bring it back again?’
    This was readily agreed and Reg led them along the corridor and through the crisscross metal gate into Scotland Road. He showed them where the crew dorms were, and the storerooms and the mess, then he took them to meet Mr Joughin, who warmed the bottle and gave them a teacake each. The boys kept nudging each other in their excitement. Finally, Reg showed them back to the gateway into third-class aft, and pointed them in the direction of their cabin.
    ‘Will we see you again?’ Finbarr asked wistfully.
    ‘I should think so,’ Reg smiled. ‘I’ll keep an eye out for you.’
    ‘Grand!’ Finbarr breathed, and Reg realised with amusement that they looked up to him. They must be the only people on the ship who did.
    Once they’d gone, he wandered back to his berth for a lie-down. He had a Sherlock Holmes novel with him but he wasn’t in the mood for it. He spotted an old newspaper among John’s things and pulled it out. It was dated the 8th of April, the day before they’d sailed. Reg climbed up onto his bunk and opened it.
    The headlines were all about two steamers that had collided on the River Nile, and they estimated around two hundred were dead. Reg shuddered. He hoped they had drowned rather than being devoured by Nile crocodiles. Seamen hate reading about deaths in the water so he quickly turned the page. The PM, Mr Asquith, was about to introduce his third Irish Home Rule Bill. Good luck to him, Reg thought. No matter what he offered, he’d never manage to keep all the parties happy. Some suffragettes had been chaining themselves to the railings at Parliament again. And then he came to the society pages and settled