Living in Romantic Baghdad: An American Memoir of Teaching and Travel in Iraq, 1924-1947

21. Changing and Changeless Baghdad

230 21 Changing and Changeless Baghdad In July of  we left Baghdad with nothing in our possession by way of booking except railway tickets from Baghdad to the port of Basrah. As World War II was on, we were advised to go without booking and pick up chances along the way. Happily, chances followed one after another in such perfect coordination that we have always spoken of this homeward sailing as Our Miracle Voyage. Of the many voyages we had made between the two hemispheres, this was in a class by itself. No sooner had we left the train at Basrah than we learned that there was a ship in port leaving the same evening for Bombay. By six o’clock, we and our baggage were aboard. It was one of the British troop ships that carried soldiers from India to Iraq; and inasmuch as these ships on their return were empty, they were privileged to carry British subjects, and by arrangement, American citizens as well. It was a poor boat. It might have been all right should the sea have been calm. But when we got out of the Persian Gulf, we were at the mercy of the monsoon; because the ship had neither cargo nor ballast, we became the plaything of the wind and the waves. Rolling into the harbor of Bombay, our next problem was how to get out from here. We soon learned that one of these ships, called “hush-hush” to conceal its identity, was to arrive in a few days which might take us to Vancouver, British Columbia, but whether we could sail on it or not was in the hands of the British admiralty. When the ship arrived we were informed that only men passengers would be allowed on it, since the sailing would be through dangerous zones. This was indeed disappointing, and so I earnestly pled to be allowed on it. “Tell the authorities,” I said, “that I’ll give no one any trouble Changing and Changeless Baghdad • 231 if the ship should be in danger, and tell them, too, that no one needs to be concerned if I drown.” Other women who were waiting to sail must have pled as urgently. That august body, the British admiralty, was moved. They reconsidered the matter, and before the day was over I received the good news that women and children were being allowed to sail on the boat and that I could go with my husband. Revived and happy, we proceeded at once to hurry along and hustled about attending to the innumerable . Ida Donges Staudt in her later years. 232 • Living in Romantic Baghdad details that make travel so burdensome. We went down to the dock wondering on what kind of a vessel we would sail from here, and saw there, ready to receive us, a great ship, the flagship of the Canadian Pacific, the Empress of Japan! What a stately ship it was! We stopped at both Ceylon and Singapore. At the latter port the two thousand or more Indian troops that were being carried were disembarked ; and this big liner was thereafter left with only a few passengers; we were allowed to occupy the deluxe cabins! Because of the tension at that time between Japan and the Allied powers—this was only a few months before Pearl Harbor—the boat did not venture to take the direct route from Singapore through the mandated territory of Japan in the Pacific; we went between Borneo and Java, sailed through the Torres Strait, passed the Fiji and Samoan islands, and then on to Hawaii and Vancouver. We had a smooth sea throughout the long voyage, which so far as I was concerned could have gone on forever, so satisfying and restoring were the good ship and the calm ocean. We were forced to remain in America for nearly two years. When we returned to our work in Baghdad we each went by a different route. My husband was on a military ship coming again across the Pacific, but this time through the Southern Seas below Australia and New Zealand, being on the sea for seventy-three days; I, coming a few months later, was able to get through the Mediterranean. WhileinAmericawereceivedthewelcomenewsthatIraqhaddeclared war against the Axis powers. This was on January , , just a little more than a year and a half after the Blind Revolt. Though the country...