Federico Lucia Maria Giovanni Vasco

Lucia Vasco nee.Vulpo and her son Giovanni (John) Vasco related a story about their family's voyage on the Saturnia in June 1955. They were traveling from Naples, Italy to Halifax. Lucia was pregnant and so she was sick for the entire journey. However, men and women had separate quarters and so her husband, Frederico could not help care for the children. Maria, age 5, and John, age 3, roamed around the ship. Because their mother could not get up for meals, Maria used to put some bread in a shoebox with a string tied around it. Then she would drag the box to her mother's bunk. At one point during the journey, the passengers were instructed to put on their life-jackets and stay on deck. Because Lucia was so ill, she told Frederico to watch the children. Unbeknownst to his father, John slipped away. He wanted to stand on the edge of the ship and watch himself pee into the ocean. He crawled past a lifeboat, stood at the edge (with no railing) and began peeing (leaning over so he could see). Luckily the captain of the ship saw John, and managed to get the attention of a crew-member. This crew-member managed to get behind the life-boat and grab John. He did not say anything or warn John that he was there, because John would have fallen had he been startled. Throughout this near tragedy, Lucia and Frederico were unaware of what was happening. Once the family reached Halifax, they boarded the train for Montreal and then headed to Cornwall.