The Romanov Sisters (Four Sisters) - Plot & Excerpts
It would be their first proper official trip abroad, apart from private family visits to Uncle Ernie at Darmstadt and Wolfsgarten. Crossing the North Sea, the Shtandart encountered strong winds from the south and the water was very choppy. All the children were seasick, and many of the entourage too.1 The crew made up an area of plaids and pillows for the children to sleep on where the rocking of the ship was less intense. But Tatiana still suffered terribly; she had never been a good sailor and had some- times been seasick even when the yacht was at anchor. ‘A whole trunkful of special remedies from America’ had been sent for but nothing worked.2 En route to England, the family had stopped briefly at Kiel to visit Alexandra’s sister Irene and her family, and then they had made a three-day visit to President Fallières of France at Cherbourg, where they were greeted with the usual pageantry of gun salutes, crowds, bunting and massed bands playing the Marseillaise. After three days of diplomatic meetings, formal dinners and a review of the French fleet – at which the girls had been thrilled to be allowed to take photos of French submarines with their Box Brownies – the Shtandart finally set sail for England.3 Having met at Reval for three days the previous year, both Nicholas and his cousin Edward VII had been keen to rehabilitate Russia in the eyes of the world after the terrible events of 1905, at a time when talk of war with Germany was increasing.
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