Sea Fury (1971) Read Online Free PDF Page A

were almost non-existent and the only bedding consisted of a few straw-filled mattresses. The provisions they had had to provide for themselves; many of the people were frail and in poor health; others suffered terribly from seasickness ; but all were buoyed up by the prospect of a new life in the land that Jehovah had promised to their forefathers .
    They were put ashore from the ship’s boats in the early hours of a July morning. The captain of the ship, a bearded and villainous-looking Portuguese, was nervous and anxiousto get away out of territorial waters. His nervousness com municated itself to his officers and the motley crew, and they hurried their human cargo into the boats with brutal haste. The immigrants had to wade the last few yards of the way up the beach, but there were men there to help them; they were among friends.
    Many of the newcomers wept unashamedly; others knelt down and kissed the sand. All of them felt that they had come home at last.
    The Mensteins were soon to discover that it was not exactly a land flowing with milk and honey. They were destitute ; their very presence in the country was illegal; and since, in those circumstances, it was impossible for Saul to practise as a doctor, they were dependent on the charity of others.
    Moreover, they who had seen so much violence were appalled by the atrocities committed almost daily in the name of Zion by such terrorists as the Stern Gang and others. They desired certainly a country of their own, but not at the cost of so much bloodshed; surely the object could have been achieved by less brutal methods.
    But it could not be denied that the brutality paid. The British, sick at last of striving to keep the peace between Arab and Jew, and of being shot in the back by both sides, finally decided to pull out. The new Israel became a fact.
    In this young, vigorous state Saul Menstein, after so many years, was again able to practise his profession. Sara bore him a child, a son, and it seemed that at last God was being good to them. They called the child Mark and idolised him. In him lay all their hopes for the future; he would grow up in this new land among his own people, without persecution, without fear.
    When the boy was six years old they moved to a village near the Jordanian border. One night a band of guerrillasattacked the village. They threw a bomb into the room where Mark Menstein was sleeping. When Saul and Sara rushed in their adored son was an unrecognisable mass of bloody, mangled flesh.
    It was after that that they decided to leave Israel. There was too much violence even now. The country was surrounded by enemies, and every border incident, every bomb outrage, every Israeli counter-blow, served only to remind them of the tragedy that had taken the light out of their lives. An opportunity occurred to Menstein to take up a post in a hospital in Singapore. He discussed the matter with his wife and it seemed good to both of them to get as far as possible from the land that had promised so much but in the end had failed them.
    “Very well then,” Menstein said. “I will accept the appointment.”
    He had been working in Singapore for five years when the blow fell. Suddenly, without warning, he was dismissed. It was not because of any fault in his work; the reason was a change of policy in the staffing of the hospital, a decision no longer to employ foreign doctors in that particular capacity. Menstein could perhaps have found another post in Singapore , but, again after consultation with Sara, he decided to move on, to try his fortune in yet another land: Australia.
    “Australia needs immigrants. It is a big country. There will be room for us there.”
    They were not rich. They took the cheapest means of travel: the s.s. Chetwynd.
     
    The cabin which the Mensteins occupied measured approximately nine feet by eight. There were two bunks on one side, one above the other, a porthole opposite the door, a discoloured washbasin with two taps marked,