Video: 'American Experience The Kennedys 1' (Kennedys depart at 27:41)

(Wednesday, March 9, 1938) — The wife and five of the nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy, United States Ambassador to England, sailed today from New York Harbor aboard the 24,189-ton luxury liner SS Washington to join him in London.

Mrs. Kennedy and her children occupied six staterooms, while a nurse and governess traveled in a seventh.

They would arrive in Plymouth, England, on the night of Mar. 15, 1938.