I went to explain the situation to Admiral Bristol at the American Embassy. He said that he knew about Nelka having gone, for while disapproving of it and advising her against it, he had helped her get the Interallied visas which were necessary to be able to leave the city. Normally it took about a week to get these visas, British, French, Italian and United States. Nelka got them in 3 hours.
While the Embassy reassured her and told her there was nothing to worry about, her main objective of getting on a boat was to try to communicate with me on the destroyer by wireless. It later developed that, after she had left on the San Georgio and they were out at sea, then only did she discover that the boat carried no wireless. Therefore her main objective of communicating with me was not possible but this she discovered too late.
She had booked passage first class and upon arriving found out that that entitled her to a chair in the salon. Others sat on the deck on the floor. The decks were crowded with Turkish men who were traveling from one small port to the next along the east. Each night they brought out their small prayer rugs and turning towards the setting sun, prayed kneeling in rows on deck.
Once aboard, Nelka also found out that first class tickets did not include meals. Having very little money with her, she found that she was not able to afford to buy much. She had a bag of apples with her. Not having anyone to leave Djedda with, Nelka took her along and carried her under her arm all the time. While they did not feed Nelka, the steward was very kind and Djedda was fed. And so they traveled.
I, in the meantime, was desperately trying to find a way to contact Nelka on the San Georgio. The admiral and the Embassy were very cooperative and the admiral issued orders to all the destroyers to keep an eye for the San Georgio and intercept her if spotted.
Having traveled most of the length of the southern coast of the Black Sea, the Italian captain announced that he was going into Batum. Batum in the meantime had been occupied by the Bolshevik forces and therefore Nelka's position became very precarious. She argued with the captain but he said he had a cargo to pick up and that he was going in. The first thing Nelka did was to hide her identification papers, her passport and visas. Better to have nothing than to be found out as a White Russian. She remained in the cabin while in Batum. On the second morning a bunch of Bolshevik soldiers arrived and announced that they were going to search the ship. This was a very dangerous situation for Nelka. However after a while, and while they had been half through the boat, another party arrived and started an argument with the first bunch as to who had the right to make this search. They pretty nearly came to blows in this argument, but finally still arguing all left without finishing the search. This was a close call for Nelka. Next morning the San Georgio pulled out on her way back to Constantinople. She was grateful, but by now was becoming pretty hungry and what food she managed to get was very scarce.
A few days later, just as they were pulling into Samsun, the American destroyer John D. Edwards spotted the San Georgio, hailed her and inquired about Nelka. When told that she was aboard, they lowered a boat and came to fetch her, and took her and the dog aboard upon specific orders from Admiral Bristol. The commanding officer, Captain Sharp was most helpful and kind. He gave Nelka his cabin and, also as she had run out of everything, offered her his underclothes. Two sailors were assigned to take care of Djedda.
They steamed back towards Constantinople, but had to delay the return for they had to go out to sea for gunnery practice. Thus, Nelka must have remained on the destroyer for four or five days before returning. This was a very harrowing and needless expedition which could have very easily ended in a tragic manner.
By summer the work of the Russian section of the Embassy was coming to an end. My chief, Mr. Imbrie, received a new assignment to go to Rumania, and we decided to return to France. The Embassy hearing this, offered to give us a permit to travel to Marseilles on an American Shipping Board vessel, which normally did not carry passengers. They advised that it would be convenient for us and inexpensive, the rate being only $5 per day for each of us, for a trip of about five days.
We accepted with pleasure. It was also convenient for the transportation of our animals, for by this time, in addition to Djedda we had a small black dog and two young cats. One, Nuri, was a small kitten which I picked up out of the gutter where it was nearly drowned in the rain. That was a very wonderful cat who lived with us for 18 years.