A Mother for All - Part 3

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Oct 1, 2004

It would be six weeks before Mary would be able to move off her floating powder keg into a temporary hut on the building site of her Hotel. During that time she continued to divide her days mainly between helping the sick and trying to safeguard the piles of Seacole & Day stores on the Balaklava quayside. This was an ongoing battle, both literally and figuratively, and a constant drain on her resources.

Balaklava seemed to have attracted the cream of the light-fingered fraternity throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Mainly of Greek origin, often working in pairs or whole teams, they ruthlessly and efficiently exploited the confusion and muddle endemic in the high rate of activity in this small enclosed harbour. The transfer of official responsibility involved in ship to shore transport and the subsequent temporary, often insecure storage of attractive items, created ideal conditions for theft often on a grand scale, and Mary suffered the angers and frustrations along with everyone else.

Characteristically, she tried to wrest the initiative from the felons. Her only retainer at this stage was an exceptionally faithful Greek Jewish lad who she had hired in Constantinople, known as Jew Johnny. On watch one night he had caught a large Turk in the act of stealing a barrel of butter and although the thief had broken away, Johnny followed him to a hovel shared with other cutthroats, and next morning he led Mary there. Totally undaunted in this den of thieves, she accused the guilty party in the course of a furious row. He finally confessed when a member of the Army Provost was brought in, and along with the butter recovered from his filthy bedclothes was a case of two dozen Sherry stolen earlier. Hopefully those destined to eat the butter were not told of this adventure!

Mary also opened for business on the quay side selling from her stock of comforts and conserves, along with pharmaceutical mixtures pommades and medicines. Raglan's Headquarters was already a regular customer. Word had also spread from the Regiments with past Jamaica service about her efficiency in treating everyday ailments and she was soon holding daily surgery for the Land Transport and Army Works Corps personnel stationed in Balaklava. Wedged in between these activities and administering to the sick in transit, she somehow found time to visit the Hotel site on a daily basis!

When at last permanently on site, Mary could concentrate on monitoring the construction. Even finding basic materials proved a major problem - all trees had long since been cut down - but there was driftwood in the harbour, and she obtained Admiral Boxer's permission to use as much as she wanted. Also there was iron available from the stocks of the now completed railway. But the biggest difficulty was the provision of skilled labour.

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