S.S. Coconada (2)

S.S. Coconada (2) was built by Barclay Curle & Company Glasgow; Propulsion: steam, triple expansion, 3300 ihp, 14 knots, twin screw. Launched: Friday, 23/09/1910; Tonnage: 3958 grt; Length: 390.5 feet; Breadth: 50.2 feet.

Originally owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company, the Coconada along with her sister Chilka were built for the Coromandel Coast Rangoon service. She became an Indian Expeditionary Force Transport from August of 1914 to July of 1916 in the main trooping the Meeruts Karachi - Marseilles and Karachi - Suez. In May of 1917 she came under the Liner Requistion Scheme and served as an Expeditionary Force Transport from November 1918 until November 1919 where she spent sometime in the Pacific sailing from Vancouver to Hong Kong via Japan. She was sold on the 1st of September 1933 to the Scinda Steam Navigation Company of Bombay and renamed Jaladurga. She was requisitioned once more for war duties in February of 1941 and at War's end was transferred to the Singapore - Bangkok trades, it was whilst on these trades that she sank in Bombay. She was successfully raised and repaired and continued on her normal services before being finally called to the colours once more when she carried Indian trorops to Korea in 1953. She was finally sold for scrap in 1954 and work commenced at Bombay in the following year after an incredible 44 years of service. Merchant Navy Officers

Lowry refers to the ship in his novel Under The Volcano when the Consul reminds his brother Hugh that; "I have perhaps acted as a father: but you were only an infant then, and and seasick, upon the P. and O., the erratic Cocanada." (Pg. 83) and “When you were an infant, ' the Consul's teeth chattered. 'On the P. & O. boat coming back from India.. The old Cocanada." (Pg. 178).

 Frederick Asals suggests that Lowry may have been attracted by the canada’ in ‘Cocanada’.(The Making of Malcolm Lowry's 'Under the Volcano'. Pg. 178). British India Steam Navigation Company were part of the P&O Lines hence Lowry's reference to the company. It is possible that Lowry noted the ship on his voyage to the Far East in 1927. There is no record that the ship sailed on the India to England service as indicated by the Consul's remarks.

Victoria Docks, London

The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped Docklands. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry arrived back at the Victoria Dock, London on 26th September 1927 after his voyage to the Far East aboard the Blue Funnel ship Pyrrhus.

Lowry refers to his return to England in 1927 in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh hadn't waited to discover whether the journalist who came aboard at Silvertown liked to play his songs in his spare time. He'd almost thrown him bodily off the ship." (Pg.172). Hugh's memory is probably based on Lowry's own experiences of returning to London after his Far East Voyage in 1927 when he arrived at Victoria Docks in Silvertown.

Silvertown, London

Royal Docks 1935

Silvertown is an industrialised district on the north bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Newham. It was named after Samuel Winkworth Silver's former rubber factory which opened in 1852. In the early 20th Century the area lay between the Thames and the Royal Docks, then the largest and one of the busiest dock groups in the world.

Lowry refers to the district in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh hadn't waited to discover whether the journalist who came aboard at Silvertown liked to play his songs in his spare time. He'd almost thrown him bodily off the ship." (Pg.172). Hugh's memory is probably based on Lowry's own experiences of returning to London after his Far East Voyage in 1927 when he arrived at Victoria Docks in Silvertown to be interviewed by a journalist from the Daily Mail .

Gravesend, Kent

Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex.

Lowry refers to the town in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "They lay at Gravesend waiting for the tide. Around them in the misty dawn sheep were already bleating softly. The Thames, in the half-light, seemed not unlike the Yangtze-Kiang." (Pg. 172). Hugh's memory is probably based on Lowry's own experiences of returning to London after his Far East Voyage in 1927.

Richard Eberhart

Richard Ghormley Eberhart (1904 – 2005) was an American poet who published more than a dozen books of poetry and approximately twenty works in total. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Selected Poems, 1930-1965 and the 1977 National Book Award for Poetry for Collected Poems, 1930-1976.

Eberhart was born in 1904 in Austin, a small town in southeast Minnesota. Eberhart began college at the University of Minnesota, but following his mother's death from cancer in 1921—the event that prompted him to begin writing poetry—he transferred to Dartmouth College. After graduation he worked as a ship's hand, among other jobs, then studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, where I.A. Richards encouraged him to continue writing poetry, and where he took a further degree. Read more on Wikipedia

His first book of poetry A Bravery of Earth was published in London in 1930. It reflected his experiences in Cambridge and his experience as a ship's hand voyaging to the Far East similar to Lowry's 1927 voyage. It is possible that Lowry and Eberhart knew each other while they were both a Cambridge as they both published material in the Experiment magazine as well as Conrad Aiken knowing Eberhart. Eberhart published the following poems in the Experiment :

'For a Lamb', Experiment No. 4 (November 1929), poem, p. 19
'Fragments', Experiment No. 3 (May 1929), poem, p. 6
'Necessity', Experiment No. 5 (February 1930), poem, pp. 4 - 5
'Poem', Experiment No. 7 (Spring 1931), poem, p. 16
'Quern', Experiment No. 6 (October 1930), poem, p. 39
'Request for Offering', Experiment No. 2 (February 1929), poem, p. 23
'This Is', Experiment No. 3 (May 1929), poem, p. 44
'To Maia', Experiment No. 3 (May 1929), poem, p. 48

Lowry alludes to Eberhart's poem A Bravery of Earth published in 1930. In a letter Lowry wrote to John Davenport dated 27th October 1930; "The third - (Richard Ghormley Ebehart!), unamazed in meditation looked up from Persia - more likely sailing down the coast by Iloilo, Zamboanga, Sabang, anywhere, Eberhart Icarus at this time". (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 73-74).

The references to Iloilo, Zamboanga, Sabang reoccur in Lowry's short story 'Goya The Obscure' and novel Ultramarine.There is no documentary evidence to suggest that Lowry visited Iloilo, Zamboanga or Sabang as part of his 1927 voyage to the Far East. It would appear that Lowry's mention of  these places is perhaps part of a youthful obsession with the "exotic East" also captured in Eberhart's poem A Bravery of Earth.

MV British Motorist

MV British Motorist was a 6,891 ton tanker, built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1924 for the British Tanker Company.

While under charter to the merchant navy, she was in port in Darwin, Australia when on 19 February 1942, she was hit by two bombs during the Japanese air raid on Darwin and was sunk. Read more

Lowry refers to the ship in his incomplete novel La Morida: "it were eponymous, and certainly not so unimaginative as the beautiful horrible romantic old freighter he'd seen in the Indian Ocean, the British Motorist — the ship has a cargo of rolls of rusty barbed wire. Ugly ships. Possibly she'd done yeoman service in the war. Had oil-tankers got souls? Could their captain love these diesel-engined monstrosities to the extent, like his grandfather, of going down with them?" Pg 188

We can assume that Lowry saw the MV British Motorist on his Far East voyage in 1927 while sailing across the Indian Ocean.

James Johnston Abraham The Surgeon's Log

Lowry refers to James Johnston Abraham's The Surgeon's Log in his short story 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour'; "Closing the dictionary I jammed it back next to The Surgeon's Log."

We must assume because of Lowry's mention of The Surgeon's Log that he had read the book. The Surgeon's Log was published in 1911 and ran to 31 editions with photographs.

Ship's surgeon and his first book

For an impecunious young man this was bad news as he could not afford to take the time off. He had agreed, after graduation, that he would not be a financial burden on his father who could well have afforded to help him out. Indeed, he had offered to buy him a practice had he not pursued the surgical route. The pathologist roommate came up with the idea of a sea voyage and he enlisted for a six month spell as a ship's surgeon on a 10,000 ton cargo ship which carried no passengers, sailing from Birkenhead. 

He had such a splendid time that he became somewhat of a bore about it upon his return and his pathologist friend persuaded him to write a book about his experiences. He did, and hawked it around nine publishers; they all turned it down. One day, when having afternoon tea in the Staff Room of St Peter's Hospital, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, he looked out of the window. Across the road he saw the offices of Chapman & Hall, Dickens' publishers. He sent them the manuscript and the Managing Director, Arthur Waugh (Evelyn's father) accepted it. He had originally called it The Voyage of the Clytemestra, the name of his ship, but Waugh changed the title to The Surgeon's Log' and it became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic and was still selling steadily in the late 1950s, particularly in its Penguin form. It is a beautifully written descriptive travelogue, not dissimilar in style to that of Eric Newby.

It must have been a wonderful and restful experience which was what he needed. With only the crew to look after he had little medical work to do and was able to relax on deck in the tropics and go ashore in the ports. They sailed non-stop to Port Said, traversed the Suez Canal and then crossed the Indian Ocean to Penang. They sailed down the Malacca Strait to Singapore. From Singapore they sailed to Japan and visited Nagasaki, Moji and then by the Inland Sea to Kobe and on to Yokohama (and Tokyo). From there they sailed to the Dutch East Indies and thence home via Marseilles. J S Bingham A publisher, a bobbin-boy and the Society Presidential address to the Medical Society for the Study of Venereal Diseases, 28 April, 1995 at The Royal College of Physicians of London: Genitourin Med 1995;71:314-322

The appeal of such a book to the young Lowry is not surprising given that his work is littered with references to readings of books about ships and sea voyages. The apparent 'splendid time' had by Abraham may have convinced a young Lowry that he could replicate the experience and write up his own 'log'.

Lowry's 1927 voyage to the Far East followed a very similar route to one made by Abraham. Both Lowry and Abraham sailed on Blue Funnel ships and both disguised the name of the real ship they sailed on. They both had similar mixed attitudes to race and gender apparent in both the Surgeon's Log and Ultramarine which could be argued reflect white/European attitudes of the period though both temper their racism with sympathetic views to peoples they come across.

Abraham informs  the reader that he carefully logged conversations and details for later use which may have tied into ideas Lowry was having in the mid-1920s about being a writer. One major difference is that Abraham's book is an out and out travelogue whereas Lowry's Ultramarine is a far more complex text though Lowry was accused by early reviewers of the novel of adding 'local colour' to the novel.

Lowry's eventual log details a socially different class experience to the one detailed by Abraham who concentrated on the officers as opposed to Lowry's attempts to empathasise with the crew. Though Abraham does explore details of the Chinese crew's experience and life aboard the ship.

One possible major influence of The Surgeon's Log is providing Lowry with the title of his novel Ultramarine as Abraham describes the sea as ultramarine; "gazing dreamily out over a sea of ultramarine." (Pg. 189) and the sky as ultramarine; "smiling under a sky of purest ultramarine shading gradually to a pearly-grey as it touched the horizon." (Pg. 227).

The only similarity in 'plot' between the two books is comparison can be made between Horner's desire to rescue the Japanese woman Ponta from the 'tea-shop' in Kobe and Dana's fantasy of rescuing Olga from the brothel in Tsjang Tsjang (Dairen). There is also the possibility that the references to Moji in Ultramarine stem from Lowry's recollection from The Surgeon's Log, which features a visit to the port where his ship takes on coal (Pgs. 122-144).

James Abraham was born in Coleraine, County Londonderry, and was educated there and at Trinity College Dublin where he studied medicine. He practised in County Clare and was appointed Resident Medical Officer to London Dock Hospital and Rescue Home in 1908. In 1914 he travelled to Serbia, where he administered to the Serbian army and played a major part in bolstering morale. He coped with inadequate supplies, outbreaks of typhoid, scarlet fever, recurrent fever, smallpox and a typhus epidemic. He was the first doctor on location to diagnose typhus, and he and the Serbian Army Medical Corps managed to contain it. He was then called to the Middle East and latterly became a Harley Street specialist. He was created a Knight of St John Consulting Surgeon at the Princess Beatrice Hospital in London. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, President of the Irish Medical Graduates' Association and in 1949 won the Arnott Medal. He was author of The Night Nurse (1913); Surgeon's Journal, Balkan Log and The Surgeon's Log, which ran to thirty-one editions. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate in 1946. The Dictionary of Ulster Biography 


Read a detailed obituary in Royal College of Surgeons of England Annals

Butterfield & Swire

Lowry refers to one of Blue Funnel Line's agents in the Far East in his novel Ultramarine as the postal address for Dana's girlfriend Janet's letter; "E.D. Hilliot, S.S. Oedipus Tyrannus, c/o Butterfield and Swire, Singapore." (Pg. 168).

The Swire Group, started by John Swire (1793–1847), had its beginnings as a modest Liverpool import-export company started in the early years of the 19th century. In 1861, John Swire & Sons Limited began to trade with China through agents Augustine Heard & Co. In 1866, in partnership with R.S. Butterfield, Butterfield & Swire was established in Shanghai. Four years later, a Hong Kong branch of Butterfield & Swire was also opened. Read more on Wikipedia

However, Lowry's reference to Butterfield and Swire being Blue Funnel's agents in Singapore is a mistake. Lowry's ship the Pyrrhus did call at both Shanghai and Hong Kong hence his recollection of the agents. The Blue Funnel Line's agents in Singapore were actually Mansfield and Company originally founded by Walter Mansfield and his son, George John in 1868.

Mansfield’s duty as Blue Funnel Agents was to act on behalf of the Owners in the Far Eastern Trades. They were owned 100% by Alfred Holt & Co. in other words they were not merely agents but acted as an extension of the Owners with much greater responsibilities than Agents in other ports.

Apart from being responsible for handling all ship requirements e.g. bunkering, victualling, engineering needs, crew movements etc., their main duties were to arrange for the orderly delivery to consignees of cargoes from Europe, (and the handling of claims for any damaged or missing items), and, most importantly, the securing of homeward cargoes to fill all vessels leaving the Far East for Europe and Australia.

The company had its headquarters at the curve of Collyer Quay, where it meets Cecil Street, and for a while was housed in a beautiful five storey example of colonial architecture, not the original, but the second Ocean Building (the first was built on the site in 1864). The building, construction of which was started in 1919 and completed in 1923, was designed by a British architect, Somers H. Ellis.  It featured overhanging balconies on the second and fifth levels and verandahs on the third and fourth levels. The building was topped with a tower that rose some 49 metres above ground, making it the tallest building in Singapore back when it was built. The Long and Winding Road

Manila

Manila Bay is a natural harbour which serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbours in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world.

The Port of Manila dates back to Spanish and pre-Spanish rule of the Philippine Islands. It is recorded that Manila and the Philippines had trade relations with most neighboring countries at least as far back as the 9th to 12th centuries. Major trading partners included China and Japan, with ties to India through the areas that are now Malaysia and Indonesia. The Spanish-controlled Port of Manila handled trade primarily with China and other East Asian countries, with Mexico, with Arab countries, and directly with Spain from the 16th to mid-19th century when the port was opened to all trade ships. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry visited the port between August 10th and 14th August 1927 on his voyage to the Far East aboard the Pyrrhus. Lowry arrived from Foochow before sailing onto Singapore. The stopover was one of the longest on the voyage - Yokohama (17 days), Dairen (5 days) and Singapore (5 days outward bound and 5 days inward bound).

Lowry refers to Manila in his novel Ultramarine; Barcelona I knew as well as......Manila or Surabaya." (pg. 94); "Yes we are homeward bound after Manila." (Pg. 113); "I had an experience like that on the Plato - in Manila - last voyage..." (Pg. 135) "Oor, you can buy cigars dirty cheap in Manila, boy." (Pg. 177) and "Manila, eh, reminds me of Cebu." (pg. 177). Later Lowry refers again to Manila in his filmscript for Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night; "MANILA—GOVERNOR WOOD WAS REPORTED SERIOUSLY ILL HERE." (Pg. 148).

Stan Hugill refers to the port in his book Sailortown:

Leaving Nippon behind let us now head for the Philippines. We have noted the fact that during the windjammer days Manila was an occasional port of call for whalers, the case oil traders and so on, but between the wars trade grew in leaps and bounds and Manila harbour was never empty of ships. The dock area, or Tondo, was fairly notorious for assaults on ship-returning sailors, but the town lacked the number of seamen's pubs found elsewhere int he East. There was a rather well-got-up joint called the Mariner's Club, of which the writer was once an evening member, but apart from one or two saloons like the New York bar what a sailor calls 'real dives' didn't exist, although outside the city's limits, near the village of Kulikuli, many large brothels thrived. Of course, there was a cabaret Santiana, said to be the largest in the world, but here the girls were easy on the eye and hard on sailor's pockets. (Pg. 336).

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Due to its large harbour and its strategic position along the East-West sea trade routes, Colombo was known to ancient traders 2,000 years ago. It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, and its status as capital was retained when the nation became independent in 1948. In 1978, when administrative functions were moved to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Colombo was designated as the commercial capital of Sri Lanka.

The Port of Colombo fell to the British in 1796, when they first arrived on the island. However it remained a Kandyan Kingdom military outpost until it was surrendered in 1815. The Port was made the capital of the new British crown colony called Ceylon. The British decided to build houses and civilian buildings rather than making it into a military centre, giving birth to the modern Port of Colombo

In 1912, the Port was converted into a sheltered harbour, and the Colombo Port Commission was established in 1913. Much of the city was planned during the British occupation of the Port of Colombo.

Lowry visited the port on the homeward leg of his Far Voyage arriving from Penang on the 30th August and leaving on 1st September 1927 en route to Suez. Lowry's only reference to Sri Lanka was in a letter to David Markson dated 10th Setember 1951; "...(Though I've been to Ceylon, Likewise Formosa. Likewise China & Japan. Also Dollarton). (Collected Letters Vol 2 Pg. 433).

Stan Hugill in his book recalls the sailortown area of Colombo:

Travelling farther East we come to Colombo. Here, around the Pettah or market area, were mainly beer houses and jewellers who specialised in selling rubies, emeralds and such like, or in the transforming them into necklaces, bracelets, and ear-rings for the benefit of seamen. "Eet weel make a nice-a gift for your sweetheart, sahib", they would softly croon into one's ear, then produce a bottle of beer to help one make up one's mind. Years ago in Hill Street there were many brothels occupied by Sinhalese girls which seamen liked to visit, but in the thirties, I think, they were closed by the police. Sailortown Pg. 325

Red Lion, Perim

Lowry refers to a pub on the island in his novel Ultramarine"; "Perim in the Red Sea, they have red-headed n...... I don't know if any of you fellers ever been ashore there. There's one pub, the Red Lion. And its as flat as a flipper and bloody hot. We took a chap out there once to be a signalman”. (Pg 175.). The pub remains unidentified to date though there was hotel as seen above on the island. Read more

Lowry did not stop at the island on his voyage to the Far East in 1927.

Red Lion is the name of over six hundred pubs in the UK. It thus can stand for an archetypal British pub. The lion is one of the most common charges in coats of arms, second only to the cross, and thus the Red Lion as a pub sign probably has multiple origins: in the arms or crest of a local landowner, now perhaps forgotten; as a personal badge of John of Gaunt, founder of the House of Lancaster; or in the royal arms of Scotland, conjoined to the arms of England after the Stuart succession in 1603.

Tsingtao

Former western postal name of Qingdao, China a major seaport, naval base, and industrial centre on the Shandong Peninsula on the Yellow Sea. China conceded the area to Germany in 1898, and the Kiautschou Bay concession, as it became known, existed from 1898 to 1914.

After a minor British naval attack on the German colony in 1914, Japan occupied the city and the surrounding province during the Siege of Tsingtao after Japan's declaration of war on Germany in accordance with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The failure of the Allied powers to restore Chinese rule to Shandong after the war triggered the May Fourth Movement. The city reverted to Chinese rule in December, 1922, under control of the Republic of China. The city became a direct-controlled municipality of the Chinese Government in 1929. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry visited the port between July 29th and 1st August 1927 on his voyage to the Far East aboard the Pyrrhus. Lowry arrived from Dairen before sailing onto Keelung.

Lowry refers to the port in his novel Ultramarine; "He was thinking of the first time he had seen Andy in the booth, where he had been talking about a girl at Tsintao, on the bathing beach there." (Pg. 25); "A white motor boat came curtsying out of the harbour, rolling nearer and nearer: as she rounded the stern of the Oedipus Tyrannus her name was visible, Mabel-Tsintao." (Pg. 28); "In Tsintao I defrauded a Chinaman of a bottle of Batavian arak, weeping afterwards, when he refused publicly, to shake hands with me." (Pg. 93/94) and " 'Aw, you mean Tsintao, boy' ' No, I don't mean Tsintao' 'E means Tsintao all the bloody same.' (Pg. 161).

Stan Hugill in his book recalls the sailortown area of Tsingtao:

Tsingtao, in China, having been taken over by the Japanese after the First world war, was in these days very Japanese in character, although the imprint of its previous owner, Germany- with a dash of Russian, and a bottom layer of China - was also present. In the early thirties it was quite a busy port and consequently had many drinking dives fro seamen. The first one, outside the dock gates, was the Port Lunch. Up the Kuan Hsieh and Liao Cheng Roads stood many more , with brothels in Lin Hsing Road. Here we give some of the better known of these joints: cafe Ginza, the Korean Bar, Sapporo Cabaret, Slick's Bar, Jimmy's Bar, Bright Eyes, Kismet, the St. France, the Kiharu Baru, and the New Bluejacket Bar.

In the Lin Hsing Road were the 'cages' with Japanese joro gazing outwards while they knitted, embroidered, or chatted to each other. Korean kisnangs or Geisha, all of whom, unlike Japanese Geisha, were harlots, were also to be found in houses in this street. (Sailortown Pg.332).

Foochow

Former name of Fuzhou the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Fuzhou became one of the five Chinese treaty ports following the 1842 peace treaty which concluded the First Opium War, becoming completely open to Western merchants and missionaries. It declined in importance due to the sand bars and shallows in the Min River delta on which it is built. However, it was still an important regional port until World War II. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry visited the port between 6th August and 7th August 1927 on his voyage to the Far East aboard the Pyrrhus. Lowry arrived from Keelung before sailing onto Manila. Lowry made no reference to the port in his works or letters.

Dock-road, Birkenhead

A name given by local people to Corporation Road which runs parallel to Birkenhead Docks from Rendell Street to Beaufort Road. The dockside of the road still features a high wall while across the road there used to be a mixture of terraced housing for dockers, workshops and other industrial sites. Though most of the housing has since been demolished and many of the former dockside industries replaced.

Former Mersey Arms

Former Wheatsheaf Hotel

The road also featured many docklands pubs including the Wheatsheaf Hotel (corner of Pool Street), Dolphin Hotel  (corner of Cathcart Street) and Mersey Arms (corner of Neptune Street) which have now all closed. The road is crossed by Cathcart Street which led to the Blue Funnel Line berths where Lowry sailed to the Far East in 1927.

Lowry refers to the road in his short story 'Goya The Obscure'; "Yellow-toothed the piano, Bluthner, which stood in the corner of the saloon in the Dolphin Hotel, Birkenhead Dock-road." (Pg. 270). A journey along the road may have inspired a scene in Lowry's short story 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour'; "Drawing near the dockside the pubs came thick and fast, with sea-sounding names here: the Dolphin, the Blue Peter, the Right Whale." (Pg. 233). The last 2 pubs are fictional.

S.S.Menelaus (3)

Menelaus (3) was built in 1923 by Caledon Ship Building & Engineering Co. at Dundee with a tonnage of 10278grt, a length of 490ft 10in, a beam of 62ft 4in and a service speed of 14 knots. Sister of the Calchas she was launched for the Ocean Steam Ship Co. on 1st May 1923 and completed for the Liverpool - Far East service on 11th October. In 1940 she collided with Ellerman's City of London. On Christmas Day 1940 she had a close encounter with the German warship Admiral Hipper in the Mediterranean but was rescued by convoy escorts. In 1942, on 1st May and during a voyage from Durban to Baltimore, she was attacked at dawn by the German commerce raider Michel commanded by Capt. Helmut von Ruckteschell when she was 700 miles south west of St. Helena. Although von Ruckteschell used one of his motor torpedo boats the Menelaus laid a smoke screen and escaped. She was fortunate as von Ruckteschell was ruthless and sank his victims leaving survivors to fend for themselves. After the war he admitted that the Menelaus was the only ship to escape him and he was the only the second German seagoing naval officer to be tried for war crimes. He died in prison while serving a ten year sentence. On 25th June 1952 the Menelaus arrived at Dalmuir where she was broken up by W. H. Arnott Young & Co. Red Duster

Lowry refers to the Menelaus in the 1940 Under the Volcano when Hugh talks about his time on a ship sailing past Sokotra; "It was an English ship, the Helen. Before that, out of Frisco over to Japan I'd been on its sister ship, that was the Achilles. When I was on the Achilles I one saw the Helen coming out of Kelung, Formosa, with the Menelaus after her. The Minnylaws, as the limeys call her."(Pgs. 60-61).

Lowry never sailed on any of the ships nor is it possible to ascertain whether 3 Blue Funnel Line ships would all be in Keelung at the same time though Lowry did sail to the port on board the Pyrrhus in 1927. The symmetry of the 3 ships appears to fit in with Lowry playing with characters from Homer's Odyssey to underpin the drama of the novel.

Lowry also refers to the ship in his poem 'The Lighthouse Invites The Storm'; "Reclaims dividendless Homeric errors: ..Menelaus riding at anchor" (Collected Poetry Pg. 85). Chris Ackerley has identified that Lowry's poem may be an ironic imitation of John Masefield's 'Ships'. (Pg.262).

S.S. Achilles (3)

Achilles (3) was built in 1920 by Scotts' Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. at Greenock with a tonnage of 11426grt, a length of 507ft 4in, a beam of 63ft 2in and a service speed of 12 knots. Laid down in 1916 on the slipway vacated by the Tyndareus she was eventually launched on 8th January 1920 for the Ocean Steam Ship Co. at a cost of £545,000 and placed on the Far East to U. S. A. service. In December 1926 she was requisitioned and used to transport 1000 horses and men during the 'China Affair' steaming at full speed directly to Shanghai. She was sold to the Admiralty in August 1940 and converted into a destroyer depot ship. As there was already an HMS Achilles, a cruiser which came to prominence during the Battle of the River Plate, she was renamed HMS Blenheim. After the war, in 1948, she was sold for breaking up at Barrow-in-Furness.
 

Lowry refers to the Achilles in the 1940 Under the Volcano when Hugh talks about his time on a ship sailing past Sokotra; "It was an English ship, the Helen. Before that, out of Frisco over to Japan I'd been on its sister ship, that was the Achilles. When I was on the Achilles I one saw the Helen coming out of Kelung, Formosa, with the Menelaus after her. The Minnylaws, as the limeys call her."(Pgs. 60-61). Lowry refers to 2 other Blue Funnel Line ships accurately but for the sake of symmetry changes the name of Helenus to Helen which was a name not used by the Blue Funnel Line.

Lowry never sailed on any of the ships nor is it possible to ascertain whether 3 Blue Funnel Line ships would all be in Keelung at the same time though Lowry did sail to the port on board the Pyrrhus in 1927. The symmetry of the 3 ships appears to fit in with Lowry playing with characters from Homer's Odyssey to underpin the drama of the novel.

Later in  the 1940 Under the Volcano, Lowry refers again to the Achilles;  "I was on two ships, " he said, "Helen and Achilles. Blue-pipers. Sweatrags and hard work..." (Pg. 62-63).

Lowry also makes mention of Achilles in Under The Volcano; "The Consul was talking, like Sir Thomas Browne, of Archimedes, Moses, Achilles, Methuselah, Charles V and Pontius Pilate." Chris Ackerley has identified that the Consul's list is from Sir Thomas Browne's Hydriotaphia, or Urne Burial (1658) Chapter 5, which is a profound and moving meditation upon the power of death and time to obliviate all fame.

Achilles - son of Peleus and Thetis, the bravest of the Greeks during the Trojan war. In his infancy he had been dipped in the Styx and was invulnerable except for his heel. To prevent his going to Troy, Thetis disguised him in female dress, but Odysseus found him out and brought him to Troy. Achilles, disputing with Agamemnon retired to his tent, and remained there until the death of Patroclus recalled him to action, whereupon he slew Hector. He was later wounded in the heel by Paris and died. Browne comments, in context of "the necessity of oblivion": "What Song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzling Questions, are not beyond all Conjecture." Malcolm Lowry Project 307.14

We must assume that Hugh's reference to S.S. Achilles is linked in Lowry's mind to Sir Thomas Browne's meditation and the legend of the Achilles.

SS Helenus (I)

Helenus (1) was built in 1913 by Scott's Ship Building & Engineering Co. at Greenock with a tonnage of 7555grt, a length of 455ft 4in, a beam of 56ft 4in and a service speed of 11 knots. Sister of the Lycaon she was completed for the Ocean Steam Ship Co. During 1917-18 she was requisitioned as an Expeditionary Force Transport and used to transport Portuguese troops. On 1st December 1917 she was hit by a torpedo from U-53 in the English Channel and had to be towed into port. In the following year, on 30th June, she was missed by a torpedo in the North Sea. On 22nd August 1918 she was pursued by U-90 and attacked by gunfire but she retaliated and managed to outpace her attacker. She was finally sunk when torpedoed by U-68 (FregattenKapitan Karl-Friedrich Merten - Knights Cross with Oakleaves) off Freetown, Sierra Leone (6.01N 12 02W) on 3rd March 1942, with the loss of 5 lives, during a voyage from Penang to the Mersey via Table Bay and Freetown. Eighty six survivors were picked up during the same evening by the Beaconsfield.

Lowry refers to the Helenus in the 1940 Under the Volcano when Hugh talks about his time on a ship sailing past Sokotra; "It was an English ship, the Helen. Before that, out of Frisco over to Japan I'd been on its sister ship, that was the Achilles. When I was on the Achilles I one saw the Helen coming out of Kelung, Formosa, with the Menelaus after her. The Minnylaws, as the limeys call her."(Pgs. 60-61). Lowry refers to 2 other Blue Funnel Line ships accurately but for the sake of symmetry changes the name of Helenus to Helen which was a name not used by the Blue Funnel Line.

Lowry never sailed on any of the ships nor is it possible to ascertain whether 3 Blue Funnel Line ships would all be in Keelung at the same time though Lowry did sail to the port on board the Pyrrhus in 1927. The symmetry of the 3 ships appears to fit in with Lowry playing with characters from Homer's Odyssey to underpin the drama of the novel.

Lowry also refers to the ship in his poem 'The Lighthouse Invites The Storm'; "Reclaims dividendless Homeric errors: A rusted Helen rotting in Kow-loon" (Collected Poetry Pg. 85). Chris Ackerley has identified that Lowry's poem may be an ironic imitation of John Masefield's 'Ships'. (Pg.262).

Later in  the 1940 Under the Volcano, Lowry refers again to the Helen;  "I was on two ships, " he said, "Helen and Achilles. Blue-pipers. Sweatrags and hard work..." (Pg. 62-63).

Lowry also evokes the the myth of Helen of Troy in Under The Volcano; "the face that launched five hundred ships." Chris Ackerely notes the allusion; "Mephistophilis in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus evokes the vision of Helen of Troy:

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of llium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

Like Helen, who betrayed her country by going with Paris to Troy, Doña Marina, or Malinche, the Indian maiden who became the mistress of Cortés, betrayed her people by revealing to Cortés Moctezuma's plans for murdering the Spaniards in Cholula before he had even reached Tenochtitlán.  Malinche's treacherous beauty, the Consul implies, like Helen's, launched the ships of the Spanish conquistadors, and by her act of betrayal to her people she brought into being the worship of Christ in the New World. Cervantes, being Tlaxcalan, is likewise a betrayer of his people" Malcolm Lowry Project 268.8

The Anchor, Cathcart Street, Birkenhead

The Anchor Inn was located at 77, 79, and 81 Cathcart Street, Birkenhead. The landlady in 1927 was Mrs Elizabeth Annie Davies.

Lowry refers to the pub in his novel Ultramarine as Dana is preparing to go to sea on the Oedipus Tyrannus; "A pale-faced fireman told him where he could get his clothes, and the two of them whiled away an hour lounging against the swimming bar of the Anchor." (Pg. 19)

We must assume that Lowry drank at the pub before his voyage to the Far East in 1927. The pub is about 400m from the berth in Birkenhead from which Lowry sailed aboard the Blue Funnel Line ship Pyrrhus in 1927. This may have been after Lowry got kitted out for the voyage at the Mutual Aid Society Booth also in Cathcart Street.

The pub no longer exists having been demolished in the 1970s and replaced by public housing.

Sonnomiya 2580

Sannomiya  is a district of Kobe, Japan. Today, it is the biggest downtown area in the city.

Before the 1920s, Sannomiya was just an edge of the city. The major downtowns were Motomachi and Shinkaichi, which are west of Sannomiya. However, after Sogo Department Store moved to the place in front of Sannomiya Station from Motomachi in 1933, the area started to develop rapidly.

Lowry refers to a telephone number Sonnomiya (Lowry's spelling) 2580 in Ultramarine for the O Hiro Bar Yamagata-Dori which would have been impossible as Yamagata-Dori is in Dairen. Lowry possibly noted the number while watching a film in Dairen as he notes it after referring to adverts for Kobe on the screen while Dana is watching a film (Pg. 98)