The Smoking Compartment Poem by Paul Hartal

This quite miraculous story
is not the figment of poetic imagination.
It did really happen and is described
in the Autobiography of the Nobel laureate
philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.

Russell relates that a few years
after the end of the Second World War,
during the Berlin airlift of 1948-49,
the British government solicited his help
to persuade Norway to join an anti-Soviet alliance.

So, Russell flew to Oslo and there he boarded
a sea-plane to take him to Trondheim.
He asked for a seat in the smoking compartment
and said jocularly: "If I cannot smoke,
I shall die."

Ironically, through the capricious turns of fate,
this turned out to be a correct prediction.

The sea-plane took off into the cold air of Oslo
and flew through stormy weather conditions.
As the aircraft approached Trondheim and descended,
it hit the water at touchdown with excessive force
that made a hole in its fuselage.

The plane began to sink.

Russell sat beside the emergency exit window.
He and other passengers jumped into the freezing sea.

There were boats in the area
but they did not come close because of fear
of being sucked into the whirling maelstrom
as the plane went down.

Russell threw his hat and briefcase
into the water and swam in his heavy coat
about a hundred yards to a small boat.
He climed into it with his soaked garments.

He was now safe. He was rowed a few miles to shore
and then taken by car to a hotel.
People treated him with care and kindness.
He asked for a generous dose of brandy
and a huge cup of coffee.

It was a Sunday,
a day in which hotels in Norway
were not allowedto serve liquor,
but in view of the medical need for the brandy,
the rule was overlooked.

Russell went to bed
and his clothes were put to dry.
A group of students assisting him
even dried his wet matches, one by one.

When he jumped out the sinking seaplane,
he threw his briefcase into the water.
It was later retrieved and returned to him,
including his water damaged passport.

In the flight that Russell took from Oslo
to Trondheim there were 19 passengers travelling
in the non-smoking section.
They all had been killed when the plane sank.

Betrand Russell died in 1970, at the age of 97.