Page 121 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Escape to New York
mattress. The iron stairs were narrow and steep, two stories down.
Hundreds of men, women, and children packed in this hold were
expected to get a normal night’s sleep, which they would have done if
they were seafaring people. But we who had never smelled seawater
or the burning oil and grease from the ship’s engines, could not stand
the rough seas from the first minute we got onto the ship. We left at
midnight and crossed the North Sea to Hull, England.
It needs a Dante to describe the watery inferno we went through
that night. The boat was small and the sea was stormy. The women
and children were all sick, and so were the men. The women, most of
whom were going to their husbands in the United States, swore and
cursed their husbands with all the curses Moses enumerated in
Deuteronomy—and heaped even more curses upon Columbus, who
was the cause of it all. If only their husbands had stayed in Europe,
then they wouldn’t have to die in the midst of this ocean! The wailing
and moaning was like a battlefield after one of those famous battles
in history, and nobody could get up and help or bring a glass of
water. I remember one young Jewish fellow who spoke Russian who
dragged himself on his knees toward the steep iron steps and hollered
with all his strength, cursing the captain in Russian for not sending
down a doctor.
It was a night of terror until daylight came. Then the sailors came
down and dragged every man, woman, and child up the narrow stairs
and laid them out on the deck. The wintry air and sea breeze braced
us, and we remained on deck until we reached Hull, England. I had
never seen clams before, and the deck was loaded with sacks of them
by the hundreds. Their small black shells were the size of a Brazil nut,
and I liked Brazil nuts. So, when I felt those sacks in the dark, I
thought they were filled with Brazil nuts—which were very expensive
in Warsaw, an inland city thousands of miles away from Brazil. I
watched for an opportunity, when the sailors were busy and away
from that side of the deck; then I took out my knife and cut open a
sack, expecting for once in my life to eat plenty of Brazil nuts, so rich
in oil and flavor. To my great astonishment, I found after stuffing my
pockets with them that they were ugly smelly fishy creatures full of
salty water. I couldn’t figure out what they used those things for—
especially so many sacks of them—but I learned afterwards in

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