Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack

On September 17, 1940, the British liner SS City of Benares was sailing in the North Atlantic with more than four hundred people on board; they were considered lucky-leaving World War II behind and heading for peace, quiet, and security. At a little after ten o'clock that night, a German submarine torpedoed the Benares. Mind-bending examples of courage and endurance took shape in the hours and days that followed the attack, the children in particular exhibiting what one naval officer later calle…