The Mess Room Boy

One day, out of the blue, a white package arrived in the mail, addressed to me. There was no mistake. The address and name were spelled correctly, and, as far as I knew, there were no other "Mady Anne McGregors" in the world. After all, my mother shortened my name to 'Mady" instead of "Maddie" or "Maddy", like most people. It's supposed to be pronounced "Mah-Dee" not "May-Dee", which I have long grown tired of telling everyone who gets it wrong. As an aspiring writer, it's a pet peeve of mine to have a name that everyone mispronounces.

Anyway, the package was destined for me; it didn't end up in my mailbox with someone else's name on it. The return address was somewhere in Shanghai, China, and inside was a plastic toy compass. The compass was set to 41 degrees North and 63 degrees West. I was curious about who sent the compass, but even more curious about where these coordinates were located. I used a virtual tool on my computer to enter the coordinates and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the area was in the North Atlantic. The coordinates matched those of the site where a ship called "The Cyclops" was torpedoed on January 12, 1942, by a German submarine (U-123) southeast of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. "Wow"! I thought. "What are the chances? I live in Nova Scotia"!

I read an article about the Cyclops, which was a cargo ship built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1906. The ship had 78 Chinese sailors as passengers on board. On the list of passengers, I recognized one of the names, Shin Ling: he was the Mess Room Boy on the Cyclops when it was torpedoed. Shin Ling was also the name on the package sent to me with the compass.

On a whim, I wrote a letter to Mr. Ling and sent it to the return address on the package in Shanghai. I asked about the compass and why he sent it to me. He wrote back that he was the great, great Nephew of the boy on the Cyclops. He was so happy that his package reached me. He also wrote that one of the survivors, Desmond McGregor, had found a little black notebook with Shin Ling's name on it in his lifeboat when he was rescued. The book was full of stories about young Shin's adventures as a sailor during the Second World War. Desmond managed to contact young Shin's family in Shanghai through connections in the Merchant Navy and let them know of its existence. The little black book never made it home to China, however, and young Shin's Great, Great Nephew, named after him, was trying desperately to find out what had happened to it. As it turned out, Desmond had passed the notebook on to his son, who passed it on to his son, Johnathan McGregor.

"My Father!" I shouted aloud when I read Mr. Lam's letter. "He has the little black notebook!"

When I told my dad about the compass, the letter, and the notebook, he climbed the ladder up to the attic and dug through an old chest with War Memorabilia. He soon discovered the book wedged between some old newspapers. I couldn't believe my luck! I wrote back to Mr. Ling and told him I had located his Great, Great Uncle's notebook. He was thrilled. He also told me he was now the owner of a publishing company called The Moral Compass. He wanted me to read the journal and turn the stories into a children's book. As it turns out, my Great, Great Grandfather, Desmond, and Mr. Lam's Great, Great Uncle, young Shin, were close friends while they served on the Cyclops in 1942.

Several days later, I was stunned to find a deposit of $20,000 made to my bank account, originating from The Moral Compass in China. It was an advance for writing the adventures of Shin Ling, Mess Room Boy, on the SS. Cyclops during the Second World War. It was the best day of my life, and I still have that lucky compass in the top drawer of my desk.