Ballad, Continuing Series, Echo Poem, Original Series, Poetry, Song

Ballad of the Lifeboat: SS City of Benares

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Inspired by Max’s blog, ‘Old Steam Ships’ –
this is my poem & ballad about the SS City of Benares

SS City of Benares
© Heroes, Heroines and History

The SS City of Benares carries one of the most harrowing and quietly heroic stories of WWII …. a passenger ship evacuating children to Canada, torpedoed in the Atlantic in September 1940, and Mary Cornish, a music teacher, who spent eight days holding together a lifeboat of frightened boys with songs, stories, and sheer will until rescue came. Here’s a poem for her and for them, and a ballad which I created using Suno.

The Children
© Headlong Hearts

Sing, Mary

[Verse 1]
The City of Benares sailed
with children bound for shore,
but in the black Atlantic night
the sea demanded more.

[Chorus]
Sing, Mary, sing against the dark,
sing though the salt wind blows ….
a lifeboat full of frightened boys
is listening for your voice.

[Verse 2]
The torpedo found her in the storm,
the lifeboats scarce and small,
and forty souls in one wooden hull
were all that answered the call.

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
No captain there, no crew to lead,
just a woman gray with cold,
but she gathered up the smallest boy
and did as she was told

[Verse 4]
by something deeper than the rank
of soldier, king, or priest ….
the old, plain duty of the strong
to comfort, first, the least.

[Chorus]

[Verse 5]
She taught them songs of hearth and home,
she rationed out the bread,
she told them stories half the night
to keep the fear unfed.

[Verse 6]
Eight days the gray waves rose and fell,
eight days of ice and salt,
and not one boy she held that week
was ever called her fault.

[Bridge]
A warship broke the empty line,
a shadow, then a horn ….
and children who had given up
were carried in like dawn.

[Final Chorus]
Sing, Mary, sing … the dark is past,
sing, though the telling’s slow ….
a lifeboat full of grateful men
remembers still your voice.

Click the link to hear “Sing, Mary”, my song on Suno. Thank you!

https://suno.com/s/SPC35pdlZSXgSRqd

© Deborah Heiligman, from “Torpedoed:
The True Story of the World War II sinking
of ‘The Children’s Ship'”
SS City of Benares: The Voyage Meant to Save Children

NAR©2026

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

22 thoughts on “Ballad of the Lifeboat: SS City of Benares”

  3. Its amazing how much the human spirit can rise above the norm when necessary. This young woman is absolutely extraordinary. She kept those boys alive in appalling conditions for eight days. She deserves as much praise as possible.

    Your song on Suno is gorgeous well done Sis 💜💜💚

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  4. This is great! THAT is going the extra mile and I’m so glad you picked her to make her the subject…she deserves it and the song fits perfectly! A friend of mine is on suno…he put one of my songs (demo) on there and it copied it to a tee…it’s amazing.
    But this fits perfectly…and I’m happy Mary is getting noticed years later.

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    1. Mary’s the real hero in this horribly tragic story. I love doing research and learning how to use Suno was a major accomplishment for me. I’m not very techno savvy; creating images with with the help of AI apps is something I greatly enjoy and now being able to create music is a real bonus! Thanks for your amazing coverage in Old Steam Ships, Max; you gave me a lot to work with. So pleased you like today piece. Thanks very much!

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      1. Yes she was! I’m glad England recognized her as such. We should have read about this in high school…you have helped me with this blog so much and I am glad you are finding inspiration out of it. I do as well Nancy. I get so excited when I find these stories…good and bad.
        You did great with Suno…I’m NOT a good singer so it was nice to hear one of my songs with a real sounding singer.

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      1. Each Friday when I see Max’s post I know I’m in for a treat from you.

        I signed up to Suno out of curiosity, gave it some instructions and it created a song for me. I won’t be publishing it any time soon, but it is frighteningly easy, isn’t it!

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          1. I was amazed how easy it was. I need to try it again with more specific criteria, in the hope of getting something more akin to Mary Chapin Carpenter than Florence and the Machine 🤣

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