Late summer, 1939. As the Clyde-registered SS "PolyAnna" sails from Cardiff on yet another tramping voyage - Welsh coal to Port Said, this first leg of it - the world is drifting into war. By the time she's discharging her coal, Chamberlain has warned Hitler that Britain will stand by Poland; and Poland is invaded on the day she enters the Suez Canal, bound for Calcutta to load ore for Durban. It's September 1st, a Friday; on Sunday 3rd, when Britain declares war, the "PollyAnna" is ploughing south through the Red Sea.
