The Liverpool Echo
An Evening Newspaper for Lancashire, Lincolnshire and North Wales _________________________________________________________
Liner Carries Deadly Cargo - Passengers at Peril
One Dead, Many Injured
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It was not to be the the leisurely Atlantic crossing the passengers had expected. This was instead a crossing of horrors, as passengers ran amok on the cruise liner S/S Athenia, one of the most modern vessels of the Scottish Anchor-Donaldson line under command of Captain William Gerard, this being his second crossing as Captain of the Athenia. "It all started with random passengers behaving erraticly", claimed First Mate Harry Stimms, "They seemed to be in a state of panic, and wanting to get off the Athenia, although we were far off the coast of Canada".
The first victim seems to have been Mr. Reginald "Reggie" Howard, a retired railway worker travelling in third class. He was confined to the ship's doctor's cabin after being examined by Walther Krauss, M.D., with assistance of several vigilant passengers. This initially seemed to be an isolated case of paranoia and insanity, but several more cases were to follow: Mrs. Rose Greene, a schoolteacher, displayed even more violent symptoms, and a group of Lithuanian passengers were found to be attacking the machine room in an attempt to stop the engines so that lifeboats could be lowered. This act was fortunately stopped by Mr. Jules Pollack, an American, who was armed and ready to support the crew of the Athenia. A Lithuanian male was unfortunately killed during this intervention.
According to Captain Gerard, this prompted a Mr. Donald Coombes to raise a mob amongst the passengers in an attempt to seal of the third class decks to avert the spread of what was feared to be a disease. Fortunately, another passenger, Mr. Franz Alter of New York, bludgeoned the rabble-rouser, and a mutiny was averted. Mr. Coombes remains at St. Joseph's Hospital in Liverpool for observation while facing criminal charges.
Mr. Alter, a pharmacist by profession, cooperated with Dr. Krauss, while more and more cases of panicked third class passengers were noted all over the Athenia. On the verge of panic, and fighting against the clock, Mr. Alter and Dr. Krauss managed to find out that the cause of mass panic was not a disease, but leaking gas canisters that were part of an illegal shipment from the United States to Great Britain. Thanks to several ingenious passengers, most notably renown Egyptologist Mackenzie MacNamara, Mr. Jules Pollack, Mr. Howard Lake, and young master Felix Jeremiah, the gas canisters were disposed of into the ocean as crazed hordes of third class passengers were careening all over the Athenia. The situation on board was normalized within a couple of hours, and S/S Athenia made it safely to Liverpool. Liverpool police is cooperating with the Admiralty and the Home Office in an inquiry regarding the matters at hand.
From the diary of Howard Lake:
This may have been the most stupid idea I have ever encountered, and by now I have experienced quite a few. What in the name of all that is sane prompted Felix to dress up in a clown suit and go and visit Mackie's hotel room in Halifax to "cheer her up" without any previous notification? Does Felix have a death wish? Mackie's shouts of "monkey! monkey!" ("Singe! Singe", to accomodate the Francophones) were heard all over the hotel, and she apparently did a quite a number number on Felix with her shoe. Half of the hotel staff were sent scampering through the building looking for monkeys, a chase that woke up most guests and kept the staff busy for several hours. Jesus!
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