Mary Cornish was a 41-year-old music teacher and CORB escort who became a hero after the sinking of the Benares, when she helped maintain the morale and ensure the survival of the six children in her care. She was initially assigned to a group of girls, including Gussie Grimmond. The girls fell in love with Mary immediately, giving her the nickname “Auntie Mary.” Once aboard the ship, Mary’s popularity among the children spread, and the nickname became widely used. Mary took her job as an escort seriously, and from the moment the torpedo struck, she hurried into action saving children. She was so desperate to find “her girls” that she began to dig through debris with her bare hands. Mary helped a number of children get on the deck safely. She tried to find her group of girls, but when she saw a number of CORB boys in Lifeboat 12 without a chaperone, she got in as the crew members directed. She knew that those boys needed her, too.

Mary Cornish’s decision to board Lifeboat 12 would turn into an eight-day ordeal at sea, in which she was responsible for the survival of six young boys. Despite her fear, pain, and uncertainty, the responsibility that Mary felt toward the CORB boys “gave her a reason to stay strong, to stay alive” (220). She began telling them stories, becoming their only source of distraction and escape from their growing thirst and fear of dying. As the days stretched on, Mary’s determination to keep the boys alive was nothing short of heroic. She kept telling them stories and caring for them through her own pain, thirst, and sleep deprivation. By the time Lifeboat 12 was finally rescued, Mary “was a wreck,” unable to walk or dress herself after having “given everything she had to the boys” (248). However, she lived through the ordeal, as did all six boys, and she was celebrated as a hero in the British press.

Fourteen-year-old Beth Cummings was “thrilled” to be on the City of Benares, considering the whole thing to be a great “adventure.” Her older brothers were fighting in the war, so her mother, a widow, wanted “to guarantee the safety of one of her children” (22-23). Beth was confident in her choice to leave; she was sure she would be safer in Canada and was relieved that her mother wouldn’t have to worry about her well-being. She was “talkative, lively, and full of excitement” (23) and quickly made friends with Bess Walder. The two girls had a lot in common, and they liked to talk in a quiet corner of the ship’s playroom when they weren’t helping to care for the younger children.

At fifteen, Bess Walder was one of the oldest CORB children on the City of Benares. She quickly made friends with Beth Cummings. Even though Bess was “quiet and reserved” (23), the girls had much in common. Bess was traveling with her 10-year-old brother, Louis. Her parents had instructed her to keep an eye on her energetic and sometimes annoying little brother. She was relieved that he was busy with his own group and chaperone on the ship, absolving her of this responsibility.

During the evacuation, a wave swept Beth out of her lifeboat. She didn’t know how to swim, but her lifejacket kept her afloat, and she managed to climb back into the boat. However, a second wave tipped the boat over completely and sent Beth and Bess into the ocean again. As she slipped down into the water, Bess thought it would be “easy to give up” and “let herself drown” (129). However, she remembered her little brother and made her way to the surface, where she found herself clinging to the keel of her overturned lifeboat opposite her friend Beth. Throughout the night, the girls were “battered every which way by the wind, the waves, the lifeboat” (155), but both were determined to hang on. Beth knew her mother would be “heartbroken” if she died, and Bess was determined to return to her parents and apologize for not looking out for Louis. The girls also kept each other strong, promising each other they would hold on and stay alive. They clung to the keel of the lifeboat for more than 19 hours; when they were finally rescued, the sailors had to peel their fingers off the keel. Once safely aboard the Hurricane, Bess was delighted to be reunited with her little brother. Bess and Beth remained lifelong friends, bonded by the intense experience they had shared.

Father Rory O’Sullivan was a priest and one of the CORB escorts. Almost as soon as the ship left port, Father Rory became very sick, either with seasickness or the flu. Even though he was almost completely incapacitated by his sickness, he managed to gather some of his boys when the torpedo struck and get them and himself safely into one of the lifeboats. Father Rory’s lifeboat was Lifeboat 12, which was missed by the rescue ship and was lost at sea for eight days. Despite his sickness, Father Rory became one of the heroes aboard the lifeboat. Even though he was “miserably sick,” he took his turn rowing the lifeboat until he collapsed. Many on the boat were afraid he would die, but he persevered. When the passengers of Lifeboat 12 were in their darkest moment, after seeing a ship they thought would rescue them turn away, Father Rory rallied to tell the boys a story about a shrine in France with a bell that rang whenever someone was saved from drowning. The story gave the boys hope again, bringing them back from the brink of despair.

By the time Father Rory was rescued, his obituary had already been published. However, he went on to live a long life, serving as a military chaplain and writing a memoir called Join the Navy? Get Torpedoed First!

Eleven-year-old Colin Ryder Richardson was not part of the CORB program. His parents had booked him passage on the City of Benares so that he could live out the war with family friends in New York. Colin’s mother commissioned a special lifejacket before he left. It was bright red and long-sleeved, and Colin wore it everywhere, just as he had promised his mother he would. He had a chaperone on the ship, the young BBC reporter Laszlo Raskai, but Colin was often left on his own. He was mature and responsible for his age, and many of the adults on board took a liking to him.

When the torpedo struck, Colin knew what to do. His chaperone, Laszlo, appeared to toss Colin into a lifeboat. Colin’s lifeboat took on water as it was lowered, and he found himself submerged up to his chest. As the night progressed, person after person succumbed to the cold, and Colin found himself “surrounded” by dead bodies. In the span of just a few hours, he went from being “a happy boy, on an adventure” (185) to helping the grownups aboard the lifeboat put the bodies overboard. Colin also took responsibility for the ship’s nurse, who was sitting next to him. She was freezing and afraid, and Colin held her and comforted her until she died in his arms. Even though he was just 11 years old, Colin showed incredible courage and heroism throughout the ordeal.

Marguerite Bech was traveling with her three children, 9-year-old Derek, 11-year-old Sonia, and 14-year-old Barbara. They were paying passengers on their way to Canada for the duration of the war. When the bombing had begun, they had moved to their summer house on the coast, but the war was still too close for comfort. There were frequent dogfights and plane crashes nearby, thanks to their home’s proximity to a Royal Air Force fighter station. Little Derek often brought home souvenirs of these air battles, including, once, an unexploded bomb. Eventually, Mrs. Bech decided that her children weren’t safe. Barbara was old enough to understand some of the war’s significance, and she was “embarrassed” to be evacuating at a moment of crisis for her country, but her mother refused to leave her behind.

When the torpedo hit, the Bechs didn’t realize the extent of the damage because their part of the ship did not sustain a direct hit. Mrs. Bech made sure to gather her valuables, including jewelry and important documents, before leading her children up to their muster station in the lounge. They didn’t realize that lifeboats were already being launched until a sailor shouted at them to get on the deck quickly. By then, there weren’t many boats left, and the family was forced to split up. Barbara found herself in a boat, where she spent the night in relative safety and comfort. Mrs. Bech and her two younger children were forced to climb aboard a life raft, aided by Eric Davis. All night, they had to cling to the raft as it rode the huge waves. Determined to keep little Derek safe, Mrs. Bech spent the night lying on top of him, holding on tightly until “[h]er fingers were pinched and raw and bleeding” (154). She became so exhausted that she lost hope, suggesting that she and her children take off their life vests and “go to sleep in the ocean” (152). Sonia, however, shouted at her mother that it was a “terrible idea” and convinced her to hold on for rescue. Because of Sonia’s insistence, the entire family survived and was reunited aboard the Hurricane.