Apulieus's The Golden Ass

Guillaume Seignac The Awakening of Psyche

Lowry refers to Apulieus's The Golden Ass in Chapter 3 of Ultramarine during a long internal dialogue by Dana Hilliot as he muses after his drunken drift through the red light district of Dairen; I shall read for the last time, the hundred and first, reading the story, of Apulieus.." (Pg. 112). This may be an allusion to the tale of Cupid and Psyche within the story as Dana is struggling with his desire for Olga the prostitute and being faithful to Janet Travena - his lover from back home. He calls upon "Janet Rohtraut. Beauty Rohtraut, listen to me." Dana maybe comparing Janet's beauty to Psyche's. 

H.M.S. Proteus

H.M.S. Emerald at Shanghai June 1927

Lowry refers to a British Warship named H.M.S Proteus in his short story 'China' whose crew play cricket with the merchant seamen of the narrator's ship in Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War in 1927. The ship is called H.M.S. Proteus.

To date, the only ship with that name I have found was a Parthian-class submarine designed and built by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in Barrow-in-Furness for the Royal Navy, and launched on 22 August 1929. Like other submarines in her class she served in China before the war. But this would have been after Lowry was in the Far East aboard the Blue Funnel line ship Pyrrhus. Nor does this fit with Lowry's description of the ship in the story; "We were moored nose on to the English battle-cruiser, H.M.S. Proteus". Blue Funnel line boats usually moored across the Yangste River at the Butterfield and Swire berths opposite the Bund.

Ships across the river at Shanghai 1927

One intriguing possibility is that Lowry may have seen a British Pathe news item about the launch of H.M.S. Proteus in 1929 while he was writing the story which may have provided the name and link to China.

Hoellischer Proteus

Lowry also may have been alluding to Greek mythology - Proteus is an early sea-god, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea". Some who ascribe to him a specific domain call him the god of "elusive sea change," which suggests the constantly changing nature of the sea or the liquid quality of water in general. Read more on Wikipedia

However, further research has shown that during the period when Lowry would have been in Shanghai in late June1927 (he was definitely in Singapore on June 1927 en route to Shanghai - the Royal Navy would have had several ships from the "China Station" at Shanghai in response to the  crisis caused by the Chinese Civil War. You can see another news item on British Pathe news about the ships at Shanghai.

I have managed to find a full list of the ships from all nations which participated in the response according to the Times Naval Correspondent for 4th June 1927:


GREAT BRITAIN - Hawkins (flagship), Emerald (cruisers); Keppel (flotilla leader); Petersfield (minesweeper), Cockchafer, Cricket, Mantis, Widgeon (gunboats); Wishart (destroyer) ; and at Woosung, Despatch (cruiser) and Argus (aircraft-carrier); total 11.

UNITED STATES - Pittsburg (flagship), Richmond (flagship) (cruisers) ; Bulmer, Hart, Noa, Parrott, Paul Jones, Pillsbury, Pope, Preble, Preston, Pruitt, Truxton (destroyers); Black Hawk (destroyer tender); Elcano (gunboat); Chaumont and Henderson (transports); and at Woosung, Marblehead (cruiser) ; total, 18.

JAPAN - Tone (flagship), Hirado, Tenryu, Yahagi, Yakurno (cruisers); Kashi, Take (destroyers); Torpedo-boats 10, 16, 18; Seta, Toba (gunboats); Tsurumi (oiler); total, 13.

FRANCE - Jules Michelet (cruiser, flagship), Cassiopee, Craonne, Marne (dispatch vessels); total, 4.

PORTUGAL - Republica (sloop).

SPAIN - Blas de Lezo (cruiser).

ITALY - Libia (cruiser); E Carlotto (gunboat); Volta (submarine depot) total, 3.

There is no "Proteus" among the list. The only British cruiser was the Emerald. Given the number of ships at Shanghai - it is possible that the ships were "nose" to "nose" as described by Lowry in his 'China' story.

According to Times Naval Correspondent, a further 2 British cruisers - Durban and Vindictive - where upstream from Shanghai at Hankow. By coincidence, the crew of the Durban had a cricket team and played a match at Hankow Race Course on 11th June 1927.

For further details - see H.M.S Durban, China Station, 1926-28

The above details demonstrate that there was considerable naval activity in Shanghai during Lowry's visit which probably inspired the mention of the cricket match in his short story.

Lowry refers to the same incident in his novel Ultramarine in which he calls the ship H.M.S Danae.

Phoenix

A mythical sacred firebird found in the mythologies of the Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and Phoenicians.

Referred to by newspaperman in ML’s short story 'In Le Havre'. Lowry evokes an image of the bird after the disastrous fire at Dollarton in 1945. In replying to a letter from Aiken; “Yes, the phoenix clapped its wings all al right, in fact gave such a bloody great resounding clap that the poor bird nearly broke its neck and had to be immolated all over again” (Collected Letters Vol 1 484).

Sisyphus

Bernard Picart Sisyphus Pushing His Stone up a Mountain, 1731

In Greek mythology was a king punished by being compelled to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity. Sisyphus was son of King Aeolus. Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce, but was avaricious and deceitful, violating the laws of hospitality by killing travellers and guests. 

Referred to by newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre'. Hence Lowry's joke of “Did you know a rolling stone gathers no moss, Mr Sisyphus?”

Charon

Gustave Doré Charon 

Charon is the ferryman in Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. 


A re-occuring figure in Lowry's work; “Your lights are bright Mr Charon” ‘In Le Havre’; “The ferry, quite as Charon’s boat, knows death” (‘Freighter 1940’ in Collected Poems 143); a Robert Charon was a passenger on the S.S. Brest the ship Lowry sailed on from America to France in 1947 (Letter to John Davenport Collected Letters     Vol. 2 111); Lowry wrote the short story ‘Through The Panama’ based on the 1947 voyage and included the character Charon; “a glum Charon’s boat, plying up and down between mountains” (October Ferry to Gabriola Pg. 49); “So might Charon’s boat appeared, Ethan thought, when hell was nearly brand-new” (October Ferry to Gabriola 287). Charon is also archetype for Scrubby the character in Sutton Vane’s play Outward Bound, which was highly influential on Lowry.

Cerebus

William Blake Cerebus

A multi-headed hound in Greek and Roman mythology usually three-headed which guards the gates of Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping.


Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story “In Le Havre”. Hence Lowry's joke of “My best to Cerebus, throw him a bone for me”; “a dog guarding it Under The Volcano Pg. 77; Markson notes the Consuls remark in Under The Volcano that he does not believe the headline, “Town counts dog’s noses” as a dog only has one nose except when the dog is Cerberus, who has three heads. (David Markson Malcolm Lowry's Volcano Pg.93 and Chris Ackerley's Volcano website 180.1).

Clere Parsons (Trevor James Herbert) 1908-31

An English poet who was born in India who attended St Paul’s School where he met Lowry’s friend John Davenport. 

He later attended Christ Church, Oxford, where he edited both Oxford Poetry and Oxford Outlook, and (with Bernard Spencer) Sir Galahad, a magazine modelled on Jacob Bronowski and William Empson’s Cambridge University student magazine Experiment. He died in Oxford in tragic circumstances following a diabetic coma. (Geoffrey Grigson Recollections Pg. 23). 'Poems by Clere Parsons, Born 1908, died 1931' was collected by Herbert Read and published by T.S. Eliot.

Lowry quotes 2 lines from Clere Parson’s poem “Never Before Has Seemed Any Event…” as an epigraph to the story 'In Le Havre' , “A ship crossed, and beyond/Hull down, the lone sea’s curve”.

We must assume that Lowry was familiar with Parson's poetry through John Davenport.

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