AR Voyage to England

The morning of our departure was occupied by a frantic effort to somehow separate my official travel arrangements from my uncle’s own documents. I remember the morning of that day as one of repeated taxi rides, all very new and special to me, one to a photographer, and others to one or perhaps several consulates. I was, of course, not with the Neufelds, nor with my sister Evangeline, nor with my brother Frank. It was a poignant experience for me to see my brother Frank, apparently deep in thought, walk slowly across the toll bridge to the ship, as our taxi also crossed that bridge to deliver me to the Neufelds and to the other members of my family only a few minutes before the stipulated boarding time. Actually, this ship lifted anchor much later in the afternoon at about four o’clock, and then proceeded slowly down the Elbe River to the North Sea, eventually to put us all ashore at some city in the south of England.

This trip across the North Sea and across the English Channel was something else! Although my aunt Margaret and uncle Wilhelm, who was ailing with worsening liver cancer, had taken a cabin on deck, the rest of us younger passengers were traveling steerage below deck in a space separated by a medial board wall or partition, men and boys on one side, women and girls on the other. Our quarters were not only below deck, but were located at the forward end of this rather small ship, reached by very steep stairs, and provided with a long community table attached to the central dividing partition. There were several tiers or layers of narrow, interconnected beds, if one can call them that, of cast iron piping, so arranged that each bed or sleeping space had at least one side or one end accessible to an aisle. Each of these adjoining sleeping spaces was provided with a coarse and very narrow, grossly overstuffed, and therefore very hard and unyielding straw tick. The ticks were so overstuffed that I was unable to lie upon one of them, but had to settle for the most part just lying beside it. And, if such bedding would have made sleeping a problem, the worst of the situation was that our room was near the front end of the boat, which in the heavy seas were traversing maintain a constant oscillating motion, now up, which made us feel pressed hard onto our bed, and then down, which made us feel almost weightless. Needless to say, many steerage passengers became violently sea sick, resulting in vomit all over the floor and upon the steep stairs leading up to the deck, to the rail and to some fresh air!

Thus passed the night we traveled over the North Sea, which calmed somewhat by daybreak, when we were able to leave our “beds” and seek greater calm fresh air and a view of the sea on deck.

In the morning, we landed at a sea port in England well to the south of London. Then we had to cross England by rail to reach Liverpool whence we were scheduled to sail to America. I found the train trip across England a memorable experience. In contrast to Russia and even to Germany, the climate in England was relatively warm, and the countryside during the winter season was amazingly green. And, in contrast to the large black steam locomotives pulling the trains, the English train engines were very small and brightly painted, some red and some green, reminding me of toys.