Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of "The Children's Ship"

In the opening Note to Readers, Heiligman explains how a photograph of the custom-made life jacket that Colin Ryder Richardson wore aboard the City of Benares inspired her to research the story of the torpedoed “Children’s Ship.” She explains that the text tells a true story, but many of the details come from interviews conducted years later. Some things could be misremembered or forgotten, so she chose to eliminate quotation marks around remembered dialogue, instead reserving direct quotes for materials like letters or journal entries. Heiligman also explains that it was difficult to find any personal information about the Indian sailors called lascars on the ship because of the era’s prevalent racism and classism. She wants these brave men to be remembered, even if their names and stories have been lost. She hopes that telling this tragic story “will lead to less war and more peace” (ix).

On the night of September 17, 1940, a German submarine known as a U-boat was following a British ocean liner carrying over 400 passengers, including 123 children. While most of these children were asleep in their beds, the commander gave the order to fire the submarine’s torpedoes.