We were to go to Boulogne, where we would disembark and travel immediately to Paris, where we would spend one night; from there, we would go down to Marseilles, staying there for four days to enable supplies to be collected before we boarded the ship which was to take us to Scutari.
I was very eager to discover what our fellow nurses would be like.
There were forty of them.
“All sorts and conditions,” said Henrietta to me. And indeed they were so. There were about half a dozen very like ourselves; as for the rest, they baffled me. Some of them had ravaged faces and were not very young. I wondered why they had been chosen, and I learned afterwards that they had been accepted in desperation because it had not been easy to recruit nurses for such an under taking.
On the ship going to Boulogne, I had the opportunity of meeting some of them. Henrietta and I were on deck when one of the nurses, seeing Henrietta, called out: “Henrietta! How wonderful to see you! So you are in this, are you? I think it is going to be interesting.”
She was a tall woman of about thirty with haughty patrician features.
Henrietta introduced her: “Lady Mary Sims. Miss Pleydell.”
We shook hands.
“Dorothy Jarvis-Lee is here, too,” said Lady Mary.
“We came together.
When we heard about it, we were simply wild to come. Isn’t Florence marvelous? Do you know, I don’t think she wanted to take us. She wouldn’t at first. It was only when they found it so hard . She thought we shouldn’t care about mixing with hot pollot. Oh, there is Dot. Dot, I’ve found Henrietta Marlington. “
Mrs. Dorothy Jarvis-Lee came over. She was angular with a rather weather-beaten face, which suggested life in the country.
“Henrietta. So nice to see you.”
“And this is Miss Pleydell.”
We shook hands.
“I know you are a great friend of Henrietta. You went with her, didn’t you, to that place in Germany?”
“Yes, Kaiserwald,” I said.
“It is supposed to be one of those pioneer places. When I heard about this, I felt I had to come. After all, it is a way of serving one’s country.”
While we were talking I had noticed two women watching us. One was large and the other small and very pale. The larger one seemed to be bursting out of her uniform and the small one to hang in hers.
They were watching us intently and I saw a smile curve the lips of the big one. It was not very pleasant.
Then, turning to her companion, she said in a loud drawling voice which was obviously meant to be an imitation of that of Mrs. Jarvis-Lee: “Oh, ‘ello, Ethel, what are you doing ‘ere? Me … I’ve come to serve me country. I told Florence I’d come. I meter the other night at Lord Lummy’s castle and he said to me, “
“Ere, Eliza, why don’t you go and ‘elp Florence with the soldiers? Mind what company you keep ‘cos you’ll get some funny old birds going out with you. I don’t suppose they’ve ever made a bed in their lives. Never mind, it’ll be nice for you to mix in such company.”
There was silence while Mrs. Jarvis-Lee and Eliza looked at each other.
The contempt on one side, and the hostility could be felt.
Eliza said: “Come on, Ethel. I reckon we ought to be careful what company we keep. We don’t want to pick up with the likes of some.”
The smaller woman looked at us nervously, and big Eliza held her firmly by the arm as they walked off, Eliza swaying in a manner which she clearly thought was the affected manner of the rich.
“Well,” said Mrs. Jarvis-Lee, ‘if that is the son we have to live with there is going to be trouble. She was deliberately insolent. I shall refuse to eat at the same table with people like that. I think there should be some way of seeing that ladies are kept separate from them.”
“I believe the rules are that we shall all be together and that there shall be no distinctions,” I said.
“I can see how impossible that will be,” was the response. And I felt that there would indeed be difficulties ahead.
I was amazed by the welcome which was given us when we embarked at Boulogne. Of course, the French were our allies; and I had no doubt that they also heard something of the conditions in Scutari and that we were going out to nurse the sick not only our men but theirs, also.
They took our baggage and carried it to the hotel where we were to eat; there we were given a good meal, free of charge so grateful were these good people, and so much did they admire what we were going to do.
It was about ten o’clock that night when we arrived at the Gare du Nord, to be feted again. We were all very tired and after eating we went to the beds provided for us. Lady Mary Sims and Mrs. Jarvis-Lee had collected three or four women rather like themselves and came with us.
Early next morning we were heading for Marseilles.
Our party kept together and we did a little sightseeing in Marseilles, making a few purchases of things we thought we should need. The resentment between Us and Them as Mrs. Jarvis-Lee put it was growing, and I wondered how much good we were going to do if there was bickering among ourselves. In vain did I look for someone who felt as I did about nursing. I knew Miss Nightingale did, but what of the others? I was certain that Lady Mary and Dorothy Jarvis-Lee looked upon this as an adventure to enliven the monotony of the days and at the same time serve the country in a spectacular way. Several of the ‘ladies’ felt that, I was sure. On the other hand there were those who had worked now and then in hospitals and had some experience, but who were with us not because of a dedication to the nursing profession but because they needed to earn a living, and they thought that this might be an easy way of doing so.
Some of them smuggled bottles of gin into their luggage and it soon became obvious that there were several who indulged in tippling whenever they had the opportunity.
I thought of the strict discipline at Kaiserwald and the Deaconesses who had scarcely gone outside the hospital; and I trembled to think of how we should manage at Scutari.
My first sight of the Vectis was not very inspiring. She was an old ship, very battered, and even to a person who knew so little of such things it was obvious that she was scarcely in mint condition.
We boarded her at Marseilles for the trip to the Bosphorus and as soon as we settled in I knew that my fears were well grounded. Cockroaches scuttled across the decks . quick, silent, horrible. I don’t know why they filled me with such revulsion; they were harmless, I supposed. I think it must have been because they were the outward sign of uncleanliness. It was impossible to walk without treading on them.
There was little comfort on board that ship. Even in calm seas its creaks and shudders alarmed me. We were eight in a cabin, and Dorothy Jarvis-Lee, who was adept in such matters, had marshalled eight of us to share.
“We want none of them near us,” she declared.
“I hope we are not going to spend very long on this dreadful ship.”
We had not been a day at sea when we ran into a violent gale, and our poor unseaworthy vessel was tossed about unmercifully by the cruel waves. Almost everyone was smitten with appalling seasickness and only wanted to stay in their bunks. I was relieved when we reached Malta, but quite a number of the nurses were too ill to go ashore Miss Nightingale herself was laid low; and the ship had sustained some damage in the storm.