A film about the sinking of the SS City of Benares · 1940
The British government launches a scheme to evacuate children to Canada at the height of the Blitz. Ninety board the City of Benares — a luxury liner painted grey for war. Stewards in turbans call them 'Little Sirs' and 'Little Madams.' For three days they play deck games in the sunshine, revelling in the luxury and comfort. With the bombs and the rationing behind them, and their new overseas adventure ahead.
A German U-boat is hunting tonnage in the Atlantic. It does not yet know children are aboard.
The first two torpedoes miss. The third hits the stern, just below where the children are asleep in their pyjamas. Thirty-one minutes later, the SS City of Benares sinks. Eleven of the twelve lifeboats fail. Seventy-seven children perish. Two hundred and fifty-five of the four hundred people on board are lost.
There are stories of incompetence, betrayal and bad luck.
Lifeboat number 12 floats, lost at sea, for eight days. On board is Mary Cornish, a concert pianist, who keeps the six children with her alive and occupied by telling them a made-up story — a chapter every day, ending each night on a cliffhanger.
This is one of many extraordinary stories. Stories of tragedy and loss, and of survival, and heroism.
In September 2026, we set sail on our survey ship to try and locate the wreck — we have a good idea, but we are not certain. We will send cameras down 1,900 metres to the seabed, and film the wreck, outside and inside, for the first time.
Three reasons we are coming to you first.
Our survey ship will head out from Cork in late August or early September, once we have locked in our story.
The Benares left from Liverpool. Many of the people on board came from there — and it is where you did your MA in documentary filmmaking.
Aboard the Benares was the trailblazing filmmaker Ruby Grierson, sister of John Grierson. She was documenting the evacuation scheme for the Canadian government. She did not survive.
Something that feels like The Deepest Breath meets a wartime story — where the filmmaking and the environment are part of the emotional experience.
A feature documentary, featuring a real-time expedition, dramatic reconstructions, archive and interview.
She has been waiting eighty-six years.