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It was only 7.30 in the morning, but 35-year-old Eileen Field was already hard at work.

As a stewardess on an ocean liner, her days were kept busy looking after first-class passengers.

More specifically, Eileen's job was to see to the needs of women staying on the B-deck of the

Durban Castle. Owned by the Union Castle line, the ship was built in Belfast in 1938.

When World War II broke out, it was repurposed to carry troops, but after the Allies won,

it became a commercial ocean liner again. By 1947, the Durban Castle was sailing

regularly from Cape Town in South Africa to the English port of Southampton, varying

travellers between the two countries. To keep passengers occupied and entertained,

there were amenities such as the salon, a shop and swimming pools on board, as well as

specially organised games, movie nights and dinner dancers.

As Eileen Field started work on the morning of Saturday, October 18,

the ship was on the eighth day of its two-week voyage and about 90 miles off the West African coast.

Eileen hurried along a corridor on Durban Castle's B-deck towards Cabin 126,

which was occupied by a 21-year-old English actress named Eileen Gibson,

better known by her stage name of Gay Gibson. It was Eileen's job to wake Gay and bring her some

orange juice. Eileen knocked it gently on Gay's door. When there was no answer, she knocked again

and called out softly. Ms. Gibson, there was no reply. Eileen decided to try the door handle,

even though she knew Gay locked it every night when she went to bed.

To her surprise, the door opened. Gay's cabin was small, with a metal-framed single bed pushed

...