SOS Lusitania (4 page)
Authors: Kevin Kiely
T
he persistent smell of seawater gradually changed and became mixed with the heavy fumes of burning coal as the tender approached the
Lusitania
that looked ghostly in the night except for the sections lit up on deck. Soon we were alongside, tying up to a floating jetty and above us was the great black wall of the liner with loud, humming engines droning and wailing, making ready for the voyage. The huge hull blotted out the stars in the sky that twinkled as if they were hanging from the mesh of deck railings. I heard voices and saw faces peering down.
The jetty had a gangplank that sloped upwards and this wide stairs was the means of boarding the liner. Passengers moved up the gangplank, holding on to ropes while the touts that
carried the luggage moved more slowly under their load. The foreign lady suddenly seemed more relaxed as our turn came. She went ahead and I plodded after her with the luggage. It was bad enough on the flat jetty, but each step upwards was a bit scary as I was worried I might fall backwards, luggage and all. I took each step slowly and managed to keep my balance. The lady was on deck first, watching me closely, and as soon as I had made it aboard she called me to stop, almost as she would a dog: ‘Halt!’
The steward, who held a lantern, examined her ticket; it was like a little jotter of printed yellow pages, and bore the words FIRST CLASS. ‘Baroness von Leiditz, welcome aboard. Your first class cabin awaits you,’ he said with a deep bow, and the pages of her ticket flapped in the breeze. He took a key from a wooden box and handed it to her. ‘Stateroom 13. There are signs along the way. It is not very far. Take the promenade deck until you reach the lounge and music room, then go down a half-flight of stairs.’ He gave me a sharp look and jerked his head in the direction of her cabin. ‘Do you know the way, boy?’ he asked. I nodded, suddenly realising that running away from home would mean telling a few lies.
The Baroness waited for me to raise the load of luggage, then we headed for the promenade deck. The lounge was
thronged with people, and in the music room there was a bandstand where musical instruments lay on chairs and band members stood around smoking.
Sure enough, after scuttling down the small staircase we reached a wide door marked ‘Stateroom 13’. The Baroness clicked the lock and opened the door, and I nearly fell in with my heavy load. She turned up the gaslights in front of a mirror and the cabin glowed in a warm light. It was like our livingroom in Park Terrace, except the table, chairs and sofa were more posh. There were shelves with magazines and books and lots of cupboards. A bottle of liquor and two glasses stood on a side table. Ahead were two doors and between them was a mirror the same size as the doors. On one door was the word ‘Single’, on the other, ‘Double’.
‘I will pay you the five dollars after you do one more task,’ the Baroness announced. She went into each room, put on the lights, rummaged around and came out. I noticed she had other keys which she must have found inside. ‘I want you to divide the luggage between the two rooms.’ She looked at each suitcase for a few moments. ‘Yes. Take these into the single room.’ She tapped two of the suitcases with her fingernail. I carried the suitcases into the room on the left, resting them against the single bed. There was a chair,
a cupboard, and framed photographs of liners on the wall. I heard her speak again and hurried out. ‘Now, these suitcases in there,’ she pointed to the double room. ‘That will be my room and this is all I need until I reach New York,’ she explained slowly, becoming friendly for a moment.
The double room had a wide bed with a lamp on each side, lots of pillows above the neatly folded-back sheets and blankets, as well as a colourful covering that looked like a flag touching the floor on three sides. There was a mirror in front of a low table. Two chairs. Two cupboards and a big door marked ‘bathroom’, beyond which I glimpsed a bath, a basin and a toilet. The window even had curtains. It was like a room in a palace, fit for a king and queen.
Outside, the Baroness took out a small purse that had stitching on it of a black eagle with outstretched wings. ‘Here,’ she said, and handed me a crisp, green banknote.
‘Thank you, Ma’am,’ I said, unable to remember her long name and stuffed the money in my pocket.
‘Now, boy,’ she said, ‘I need to send a message urgently. I will give you another dollar if you help me find a cabin steward.’ She yawned and sat at the table. Opening a drawer she took out a pen, a folio with notepaper and envelopes that had the word
Lusitania
printed on them, along with a picture of the
liner with its four funnels. ‘One final task and then off with you, boy.’
‘Yes, Ma’am.’ I happily crinkled the five dollar bill in my pocket and watched as she wrote. I stared at the large handwriting and the number that she formed, using the delicate fountain pen: LVSTANA=397. She folded the paper with a swift glance at me, but I just stood there and looked dumb. She wrote a name on the envelope and pushed the notepaper into it.
We went out of her cabin, leaving the door unlocked. Then a very unfortunate thing happened. As we moved about in the throng of people looking for a steward, I suddenly spotted my father at the end of the corridor. He was examining some documents and signing them, while two stewards waited for them.
I went into shock. What would I do? I needed a place to hide – and quick!
I let the Baroness go ahead of me, then I slipped back quickly towards her cabin. It was the only thing I could think of. I darted back in through the cabin door. I could not let Dad see me. I would plan my next move in the cabin.
N
o sooner was I inside the cabin than there was a loud knocking on the door. I ran into the small bedroom and shut the door. It was dark, but I didn’t dare switch on the light – anyway, light from the main room streamed through the slats in the door. I gazed out – it was like looking through my opened fingers.
Then, suddenly, I heard a deafening noise like thunder as the liner began to heave and sway. The pit of my stomach reeled as I realised that we had set sail for America! There was no going back now. I was a stowaway and I was on my way to New York. I sat on the bed and put my face in my hands. What would I do now? Where would I stay for the voyage without running into Dad? How long did it take to get to New York?
My mind raced in panic with questions I could not answer.
I was jerked out of my panic by laughing voices as people entered the cabin. I crouched close by the bed thinking it must be my dad and the Baroness. So the game was up and I would have to face punishment. I deserved it for running away from home.
‘Oh that is so funny, Mr Crowley,’ the Baroness was saying. ‘You were knocking on my cabin door and I was knocking on your cabin door.’ She slammed the door to the corridor with a loud bang. ‘I have lost that boy who was supposed to be helping me. No matter! I do not need him now.’
‘And have you the German codebook?’ I heard the man’s booming voice on the other side of the door. I tried not to move a muscle.
‘Well,’ she seemed hesitant, ‘I will give it to you in New York.’
‘But in Berlin, Baroness, you told me you would get it. I need it now. I must crack that code.’ His words came out slowly and he sounded very annoyed.
‘The codebook – the
Signal Buch der Kaiserlichen Marinerkehrsbuch
, as we call it – is most valuable. I must be sure of proper arrangements. We will sort it out in New York.’
‘Really, Baroness, it will take a long time to understand the
code. I want to work on it now on the journey. I have told you that my superiors will pay two million pounds in gold for it.’
As I listened my mouth grew dry. Cold sweat came out on my forehead and my hands shook. I knew I was hearing information that was dangerous. I didn’t really know what a codebook was, but two million in gold meant that this codebook was very valuable indeed.
‘Two million! But in Berlin you told me the British Secret Service would pay millions for the codebook. Two million is nothing. I am giving you the secret codebook of the German Imperial Navy. This is a most important document. I am committing treason by giving this to you. For two million? I do not think so, Mr Crowley.’ Her voice was sharp and rasping like a machine that needed oil.
‘You agreed to two million, Baroness von Leiditz.’ His voice boomed too.
‘Mr Crowley, I am giving you the German Navy’s secret codebook to allow the British Navy to win the war – and you are offering me only two million! Is that plain enough for you to understand? I will wait till New York when you can get me more money.’
‘We have our other business to attend to, of course. Let me go to my cabin, Baroness, and I will bring along a suitcase
with samples of the merchandise you wanted to purchase.’ He spoke in a quieter voice.
‘Very well,’ she said, almost in a whisper, and let him out the door.
What was I hearing? I had been thrown into a dangerous world of codebooks and war. I heard the Baroness moving into the bedroom next door. Then she came back out and approached the room I was hiding in. I curled up on the floor and closed my eyes tight. Suddenly I heard the key snap shut in the door. I was locked in!
A short time later there was a loud knock on the cabin door again. I decided to peep through the slats this time and saw the outline of a man dressed like a circus ringmaster, with a top hat, a black tailcoat, a shirt with a wing collar and a colourful bow-tie. He was carrying a suitcase that must have been really heavy because he gasped as he put it down. Then I noticed a cane in his other hand, with an egg-shaped knob and a steel spike at the end.
‘Well, open it!’ ordered Baroness von Leiditz.
He took out two guns and put them on the floor. I could see them clearly. They were made of black iron, with wooden handles and triggers like teeth.
‘A Vicker’s Light and a Bergmann,’ he announced. ‘You
can trust me, Baroness von Leiditz. Here are the weapons you wanted to see.’ Crowley grinned with an evil face and took off his top hat to mop his brow with a handkerchief. I noticed that his head was bald, a great dome of pink flesh above his ears.
‘I don’t trust spies,’ the Baroness said firmly.
‘Are
you
not a German spy?’ Crowley said. ‘How do I know that the codebook is real? We
have
to trust each other, Baroness, to get our business done in New York. You sell me the codebook and I get you the gold. I introduce you to the arms dealer and you set up that deal you wanted for the von Leiditz dynasty to supply the German Army with extra weapons like these. Simple. Then your family is back in with the Kaiser, and all is well.’ He sat down, and the bulk of his weight filled the narrow, upright chair.
‘The von Leiditz dynasty is bankrupt,’ she confided sadly. ‘We did not get the contracts from German High Command to make battleships. My brothers are in the reserve army riding horses and training soldiers for the battlefields. It is an insult to our great family. My father is a great man. He sits all day lamenting our loss. Our name is superior to the von Tirpitz family, you know, or to any other military family. And my dear sister had to marry below her dignity and below our family dignity.’
‘Really, Baroness, this is getting very far away from the business in hand.’ Crowley sat upright.
‘You want to know about the codebook, Mr Crowley?’ The Baroness sounded as if she were going to weep. ‘My sister married the despicable Kapitän Walther Schwieger, the scruffy captain of a submarine. What a disgrace to our family!’
Crowley shifted impatiently, but realised that he needed this information.
‘Kapitän Schwieger was on a week’s leave in our castle,’ she continued. ‘What a low person he is. One night he spoke too much over the wine at dinner – he spoke of the codebook. While he and Monika, my sister, were out horse riding I found the codebook in his luggage. I stole it and then I burned their little chalet to the ground – Father had given the chalet that is near the lake on our estate to Monika as a wedding present for her and Schwieger. Everything was destroyed, but once he knew that the codebook was burnt I saw the relief on his face. He would be able to get a copy at the naval base in Wilhelmshaven.’
‘Baroness von Leiditz, you are a very determined woman,’ said Crowley, knotting his fingers and cracking his knuckles. ‘I will be staying at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Room 666. On examination of the codebook, my New York contact,
Roger Maguffin, will pay you. We will have to agree on the price. But let us leave that until we meet again.’
Suddenly I sneezed loudly. They stopped talking immediately. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I fell against the door because my legs had got pins and needles from being in the same position for so long. In a flash, Baroness von Leiditz snapped the key on the door and I fell into the room at their feet.
