On Sept. 3, 2019, nearly 60 people assembled for a luncheon in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the sinking of a British passenger ship on the first day of World War II. They came from four Canadian provinces and several American states, and ranged in age from pre-teens to a nonagenarian. They were survivors and descendants of survivors of a German U-boat attack that sank the TSS Athenia.
Eight decades have caused the Athenia tragedy to fade from our collective memory. Over the years, survivors and descendants have told their family stories to local audiences, given interviews to news media, published accounts of their experiences, and contributed to websites devoted to the war. Most of these activities have taken place in relative isolation.
Until last Sept. 3, no one had mounted a physical event to bring together the dwindling number of survivors. The 80th anniversary of the sinking motivated three Canadian survivors – Vivian Collver, Phillip Gunyon, and Heather Watts – to reach out to contacts they had gathered over the years, people with a family or professional connection to Athenia. When the email invitations to attend a commemorative luncheon at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel, there were close to 75 names on the list.
The organizers expected perhaps 25 people would respond. In fact twice that many said they planned to come. As the grandson of a survivor and author of a historical novel based on the sinking, Without Warning, I was pleased to attend the luncheon. (Later that evening, I was honored to tell Athenia’s story with an illustrated lecture at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, a few blocks from the Marriott Harbourfront.)
The luncheon was the first organized a “reunion” for Athenia survivors, and as they began to gather in a beautiful hotel dining room overlooking Halifax Harbor, the atmosphere was electric. Most of them were meeting for the first time. It struck me that much of the energy in the room derived from the participants’ opportunity to associate with such a large gathering of people who shared their experiences, emotions, and the unseen scars the sinking visited upon their families. Despite their differing ages and backgrounds, they also shared a bond that acknowledged the courage and sacrifice of their forebears. Laughter and occasional tears punctuated the afternoon as guests exchanged stories and worked through their understanding of how those long-ago events had shaped their lives.
Six other survivors – Jacqueline Bullock, George (Scott) Calder, Margaret Desanti, Geoffrey Etherington, Barbara Gunyon, and Cynthia Gustafson – joined Vivian, Phil, and Heather in Halifax. All of the nine had been children traveling with parents when their ship was torpedoed. They credited their parents’ positive attitude throughout the ordeal for keeping them from understanding the dangers they were facing at the time.
For descendants it was a chance to confirm with survivors the details of family stories, to gain insights, and to commiserate over the emotional toll the sinking had on their parents or grandparents. Some luncheon guests revealed their parents never spoke to them about what they had endured, leaving them with questions that will never be answered.
The afternoon left me with a renewed understanding that history doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens to people. The impact of events radiate out like the ever widening ripples from a stone dropped in water. Even eighty years later, the ripples of Athenia’s sinking continue to affect those who survived it.
