Florence Nightingale, organizer of the first contingent of military nurses, and Lizbeth Blake become acquainted during a bad night at sea on the way to the Crimea.

TWO WOMEN ONBOARD

Cast of Characters

Mrs. Elizabeth Blake, 32, Hospital nurse
Florence Nightingale, 34, Lady, Superintendent of Nurses
Royal Navy Midshipman, 17
Mrs. Selma Bracebridge, 44, Lady, FLORENCE's aunt.

Scene

The entire 10-15 minute play takes place on the foredeck deck of the Vectis, a packet boat contracted to the Royal Navy to transport 38 nurses to the Turkish Military Barracks at Sciarti (contracted as a hospital) during the Crimean War (1854-1855). The boat is represented simply with chairs, a length of rope, and several pieces of loose, rough lumber).
Time

The time is November 2, 1854 during the middle of a rough night at sea, This is 4 months into the Crimean War, 3 days before the Battle of Inkermann and so begins the two women's 20 months of attending to dying soldiers, and saving some.

ELIZABETH enters from the cabin stairwell. Nurses uniform (long grey worsted skirt, black wool jacket, large shawl, pulled over a nurse's cap. She dry wretches and heaves, spits, and wipes her mouth.

ELIZABETH
Lord save us.

(She removes a wrapped pint from her skirt pocket, drinks, and replaces the bottle.)

ELIZABETH (CONT'D)
Lord save us...such a night.

(FLORENCE approaches from the dark of the port-side railing. She is dressed identically but with shawl at her shoulders exposing a neat, white collar. Her habit of speech is immediate.)

FLORENCE
This weather...
ELIZABETH
(attempts to rise)
Excuse me, ma'am, but I am not quite well.
FLORENCE
None of us are. May I sit down? I need the air up her, cold as it is.
They arrange themselves on the platform created by the remains of a destroyed deck shed.
FLORENCE (CONT'D)
And damp on top of it. And we smell, certainly.... You are Mrs. Blake are you not?
ELIZABETH
Ma'am.
FLORENCE
Were you interviewed by Lady Herbert?
ELIZABETH
Yes, ma'am. She was very courteous and served me tea.
FLORENCE
That was because you were a qualified hospital nurse, my dear. Many were not. Or they were the nuns.
ELIZABETH
I can't account for it, ma'am.
FLORENCE
Of course you can't. And need not. You are from Dorset I hear in your voice.
ELIZABETH
Yes, ma'am, born and bred.
FLORENCE
And your family...?
ELIZABETH
My husband died. I have three years hospital at Guy's.
FLORENCE
I know Guy's, but only from the Hospital Board reports.
ELIZABETH
It's different in person, ma'am
FLORENCE
No doubt. Will you tell me a bit about Guy's?
ELIZABETH
No, ma'am, begging your pardon. I hope not to return there. I have my contract here and hope to learn a better sort of nursing.
FLORENCE
My hope is the same. But expect that, at least at first, your strength and all you know will still be needed.
(pause)
FLORENCE (CONT'D)
I am only hoping to chat with you, Mrs. Blake, because...the night is long...I can't return to that smell of vomit below.
(pause)
ELIZABETH
My father used to take us down to the docks in Dorset, such as they were, when we were girls. But that's the last time I really set eyes on a ship. Mightier ones and not so up and down as this I expect. It was to watch off those ships and such that were for Australia.
FLORENCE
Ah, people to be transported.
ELIZABETH
(clearly not speaking the whole truth)
I don't know ma'am.
(pause)
FLORENCE
Well, I've been to sea a few times.
ELIZABETH
I expect, ma'am
FLORENCE
And once, going to Egypt on a boat about this size, there was very rough water. But on a very hot night! Few had work or responsibilities, we were all just sitting. At first only one or two became sick. As happens. Then, in that heat, others...you may know...the delicate types...and that special aroma was everywhere. Then others, all who hadn't thought to escape through the cabin-way as you did. Then, you know, yet others. There is something about that particular stench; it has been with mankind forever.

(almost as an aside)
I'm surprised the poets never sang of it; or only Horace.

FLORENCE (CONT'D)
So, next were the hardened travelers---including, I will whisper to you, Mrs. Bracebridge who is regaling the girls with stories of her strange adventures hoping to distract them. Then, somehow, even the crew. It was the heat perhaps. All were vomiting, lending each their distinct piquancy to the atmosphere. How the ship got cared for I'll never know. And imagine the captain...a very dignified man and very experienced...but even he....
ELIZABETH
Yes, that smell is close in my memory.
FLORENCE
Yes, and in mine.

(A bit of smiling laughter, then pause)
FLORENCE (CONT'D)
Elizabeth Blake nče Cross, you will have to talk to me. Otherwise we may never make it through this night.
(pause)
ELIZABETH
We were such little girls. And my father, dragging us by the hand after Mum died. He was a hard man and didn't explain much....
FLORENCE
(almost intoning)
The "Samuel Bodington," the "Pestonjee Bomanjee," and the "British Sovereign." The "Egyptian," the "Mary Ann," "Isabella," and the "Hope." The "Watson," the "Navarino," the "Maitland," "Duke of Richmond," and the "Greenlaw," "Greenlaw," "Greenlaw." The "Lady Franklin," the "Tory," the "Governor Phillip," the "Lord Auckland," "Blenheim" and "Hyderabad" and "Rodney." And the "Lord Dalhousie"...
ELIZABETH
What...?
FLORENCE
The ships...
ELIZABETH
Mum...?
FLORENCE
My father, also. When my sister and I were girls our father had us, after reading aloud some articles for him, make one of our lists in a special notebook. From "The Times." The departure date and name of all the ships doing convict transportation. He told us why. He and friends would go down and "witness" the loading.
ELIZABETH
That was it.
FLORENCE
Some were sent for trifles, for stealing a bit of lead. My father owned lead mines. Some for less.
ELIZABETH
My older brother died. And it was only a broach that had been dropped on the road that he tried to sell.
FLORENCE
On the way?
ELIZABETH
Yes. It's said before many days out.
FLORENCE
Those were true crimes done...the treatment of the convicts. And all the watching, standing there at shipside, our fathers. If it was night, with candles. All of it did little good. Some perhaps, fewer in shackles, some rough clothing given. Elizabeth, the counting was what was important, men and women doing their counting of the convicts, and how many women and children, and mailing the count to a few Church friends in Van Diemen's Land.
ELIZABETH
Ma'am.
(they look at each other)
ELIZABETH (CONT'D)
Look sharp, Ma'am. Here he comes and to move us below.

(ELIZABETH puts out her arm to move them back into the shadows. MIDSHIPMAN enters, working; not in full uniform.)

MIDSHIPMAN
Ladies, you cannot sit there
FLORENCE
We certainly can.
MIDSHIPMAN
I meant to say, ma'am, you may not. It might be dangerous.
FLORENCE
Midshipman, we thank you, but we will survive here or not at all. Below is hell.
MIDSHIPMAN
I know, ma'am. I'll do what I can
He removes two pieces of loose lumber and exits shortly returning with a rope, which he ties quickly in front of them along the deck.
MIDSHIPMAN (CONT'D)
If you must stand, hold to this.

(pause)

FLORENCE
My dear, we have a lot ahead of us and I hope you will never take my acting as Superintendent in the Crimea, to mean I will have forgotten this conversation.

ELIZABETH
Indeed, ma'am, I am miserable and ashamed for myself for being sick below and for needing a bit 'a drink, as I'm sure you know.
FLORENCE
Yes, we are better off here on the deck, having some talk, we are. That time at sea going to Egypt with the great heat and everyone sick, cascades of vomiting such as would even sicken a nurse. In secret I will tell you that even Mrs. Bracebridge was sick. And here she is trying to cheer on the Sisters and everyone below with stories of her adventures. Some of them true .

ELIZABETH
Here he is again.

(MIDSHIPMAN enters. He carries one pewter cup (14 oz.). There is hesitation over what he is to do with it.)

MIDSHIPMAN
...I thought you might share.
FLORENCE
Of course. We are grateful, are we not.

(to MIDSHIPMAN, saluting and smiling)

A "snottie" to the rescue. We thank you.

(MIDSHIPMAN exits smiling. ELIZABETH looks after him puzzled.)
FLORENCE
He was pleased that I recognized his rank, a young officer hard pressed. We are going to a war, Elizabeth, you must learn ranks and companies and uniforms. They are very important to men who are dying.

ELIZABETH
Snottie?
FLORENCE
The senior officers say the buttons on a Midshipman's cuff are to keep him from wiping his nose there.
(pause)
FLORENCE (CONT'D)
I've some crackers, if they've not become sodden. They can be a good thing to put in one's stomach at such times.
ELIZABETH
Or a bit of ginger. Or, ma'am, a bit of gin.
FLORENCE
Yes, indeed. I believe my nose caught the smell of a bit of that solution below. Yes, some of those who've come are a bit on the rough side but good souls. We must set them an example. And those who are, perhaps, a bit too delicate...would not be here if they were not good souls.
ELIZABETH
Or were sent by orders of a priest.
FLORENCE
Surely all of us are God's children. Mother Superior Mary Clare, Elizabeth, and the least of her Sisters...Well, war will make "Deborahs" of many of us.
ELIZABETH
Yes, but ma'am, may I ask you about the Catholic nurses...and Rome and all.
FLORENCE
You will work beside them all.

ELIZABETH
I don't think...
FLORENCE
You will have to. Have you talked to Sister Mary Clare?
ELIZABETH
Only in courtesy, passing by her.
FLORENCE
She has been supervisor of her nurses at Bermondsey hospital.
ELIZABETH
Some of us have good reason...
FLORENCE
You will have to. All of us. There is nothing you cannot understand about "all."
(pause)
FLORENCE (CONT'D)
Sister Mary Clare has told me that she and her sisters may be unable to take the Sacrament during the entire time we are at Scutari. The English Priest there, she has reason to believe, will not give them communion because they are willing to serve under a Protestant.
ELIZABETH
You see, ma'am....
FLORENCE
I only tell you this so that you can know what they are giving up to do this work. You might talk to her; she has been nursing for seventeen years. And I will thank you not to betray me by telling anyone that story during the entire time we are abroad on our contracts.
ELIZABETH
Yes ma'am
FLORENCE
You had best call me "Flo" when we are talking like this.
ELIZABETH
I am "Lizbeth."... This war, ma'am, what is it about?
FLORENCE
You know the animal emblem, the mascot of Russia, is a great bear and sometimes an eagle. There's been hardly a British war since Waterloo, and all that parade ground practice is growing old, the generals and "The Times' want to parade in a real war. Our mascot is a puppy dog, out English bull terrier.
ELIZABETH
Mum, the bulldogs on the roads in Dorset are terrible vicious.
FLORENCE
Yes, Lizbeth...I sometimes forget that my parks and neighbors are not yours. A bulldog, indeed, I see it now. Well, we will win and with Austria pushing the Bear in the middle and our fleet in the north, no doubt our men and the French pushing back here in the south will win this war and keep the Bear in his cage.
ELIZABETH
I hope so, ma'am
FLORENCE
But there will be men dying where we go and for no good reason. Do you remember the story of Deborah? She was a fierce and determined woman. War makes "Deborahs"... We will have to prove ourselves in many ways.
ELIZABETH
Ma'am I am strong. As you know. My father was a hard man.
FLORENCE
And mine.
ELIZABETH
But not the same.
FLORENCE
No. More books and tutors. But demands.
ELIZABETH
Those lead mine were terrible places.
FLORENCE
Yes. More books and tutors. More wealth. But much had to be done. You will see.
ELIZABETH
Ma'am.

FLORENCE
The cholera and dysentery will be the same. And every surgeon impatient; and the physicians no friend to nurses. And the same smells.
ELIZABETH
Or worse.... Ma'am. I will do everything you tell me.

(Laughing, FLORENCE, hugs her about one shoulder.)
FLORENCE
It is getting colder. And here is Mrs. Selina Bracebridge, my "mother hen." You watch. Tell her that we have been discussing emetics.
ELIZABETH
(turning aside so as not to show she is laughing)
...Salt is always good, or antimony. But ipecac is best.

SELIMA
Flo, what are you doing here!
(end)