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.

Wardour Street, London

Wardour Street is a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street south to north from Leicester Square, up through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the street in his novel Under The Volcano; "He had not played one, and Hugh could play almost any kind of guitar, for four or five years, and his numerous instruments declined with his books in basements or attics in London or Paris, in Wardour Street night-clubs or behind the bar of the Marquis of Granby or the old Astoria in Greek Street, long since become a convent and his bill still unpaid there, in pawnshops in Tithebarn Street or the Tottenham Court Road...." (Pg. 158 )

The most famous night clubs in Wardour Street in the 1920s and 1930s were Chez Victor and the Cosmopolitan - there is no documentary evidence that Lowry visited either club.

Chez Victor was a very fashionable 1920s restaurant/night-club in Grafton Street (above Grafton Galleries). It was popularised by the then Prince of Wales and is best remembered as the place where Lesley Hutchinson (Hutch) serenaded Edwina Mountbatten and other rich socialites. It was owned by Victor Perosino. The club was raided in 1929 or 1930 and Perosino was deported – there are several versions of this tale which I can go into if you want. In the 1930s Chez Victor at 45 Wardour Street opened – I presume there is a connection.This appears to have been more of a restaurant – but was equally fashionable – I think it was still there at least to the late sixties. Chez Victor appears in most reminiscences of inter-war West End society. It was one of the key venues for the “Mayfair” set. Elvira Barney

Tottenham Court Road, London

Tottenham Court Road is a major road in central London, running from St Giles Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road) north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. It has for many years been a one-way street: all three lanes are northbound only, the equivalent southbound traffic using the parallel Gower Street. It is generally regarded as marking the boundary between Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, linking Somers Town with Soho at either end. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry makes reference to the road in the 1940 Under The Volcano; Peering at nothing with a telescope, save the Tottenham Court Road, counting the waves.." (Pg. 75).

Lowry makes reference to the road in Chapter 2 of his novel Under The Volcano; "very good on the bridge of a British Q-ship — peering at the Tottenham Court Road through a telescope, only figuratively speaking of course, day in and day out, counting the waves...." (Pg. 64) and again in Chapter 6;  "What about the way you treated poor old Bolowski,the music publisher, remember his shabby little shop in Old Compton Street, off the Tottenham Court Road?" (Pg. 157) and "He had not played one, and Hugh could play almost any kind of guitar, for four or fiveyears, and his numerous instruments declined with his books in basements or attics in Londonor Paris, in Wardour Street night-clubs or behind the bar of the Marquis of Granby or the oldAstoria in Greek Street, long since become a convent and his bill still unpaid there, in pawnshops in Tithebarn Street or the Tottenham Court Road....." (Pg. 158)

Lowry also refers to the road in a letter to Jan Gabrial; "“My darlingest Janl…I write this about half an hour after leaving you, eating a steak pie with your half crown in a thieves’ kitchen. It is only to say that I love you and that I shall never love anybody else. Outside, the fiends of Tottenham Court Road are howling in the blackness, imprisoned in the crewless winds.There is comfort in just speaking your name…” (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 36)

New Compton Street, London.

New Compton Street was named after Henry Compton who raised funds for a local parish church, eventually dedicated as St Anne's Church in 1686. Once linked to Old Compton Street via Little Compton Street which has been lost at Charing Cross Road at its junction with Old Compton Street.

Lowry refers to the street in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh had started writing songs at school and before he was seventeen, at about the same time he lost his innocence, also after several attempts, two numbers of his were accepted by the Jewish firm of Lazarus Bolowski and Sons in New Compton Street, London. (Pg. 157) and "Whatever prompted the ungenerous act did not prevent his somehow finding his way that night to New Compton Street and Bolowski's shabby little shop. Closed now and dark: but Hugh could almost be certain those were his songs in the window." (Pg. 172)

As Chris Ackerley points out; "An address mildly inconsistent" (Malcolm Lowry Project) as Lowry later refers to the shop being at New Compton Street.  Lowry may have known New Compton Street due to Worton David Ltd, the publishers of one of his songs, being based at No. 6. (See photograph of building on Collage)

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.

Fitzroy Tavern, Charlotte Street, London

The Fitzroy Tavern is a public house situated at 16 Charlotte Street in the Fitzrovia district of central London, England, to which it gives its name. It is currently owned by the Samuel Smith Brewery. It became famous during a period spanning the 1920s to the mid 1950s as a meeting place for many of London's artists, intellectuals and bohemians such as Dylan Thomas, Augustus John, and George Orwell. It is named either directly or indirectly after the Fitzroy family, Dukes of Grafton, who owned much of the land on which Fitzrovia was built. Read more on Wikipedia.

The tavern was manged by in the early years of the 20th century, Judah Morris Kleinfeld, a [Savile Row]? tailor and naturalised British citizen originally from Polish Russia, decided that he wanted to become a pub licensee, and started the work of persuading the brewery that owned the Hundred Marks, Hoare & Co., that he was the man for the job. the  History of Fitzroy Tavern

Lowry refers to the Fitzroy in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "No, the idea was to camp outside a pub down a back alley, and that not any pub, but the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street, chock full of starving artists drinking themselves to death simply because their souls pined away, each night between eight and ten, for lack of just such a thing as a hot dog. That  was the place to go!" (Pg. 156) and "And--not even the hot-dog man was the answer; even though by Christmas time,obviously, he had been doing a roaring trade outside the Fitzroy." (Pg. 156)

Lowry frequented the Fitzroy Tavern during his time in London between 1931 and 1933. (See Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pgs. 140-41). Lowry refers to a brawl at the tavern in a letter to Conrad Aiken dated Summer/Autumn 1932; "I would have written you before this only I got beaten up in an Ulyssean brawl near Kleinfelds' in Charlotte street the first night of my arrival..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 81). The fight occurred while Lowry was staying with John Davenport in London when they started a fight with a group of Welsh miners. (Bowker Pg. 118). Paul Ferris records that Lowry met Dylan Thomas at the Fitzroy in July 1933 on Thomas's second ever visit to London (Dylan Thomas Pg. 166).

Oxford Street, London

Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate, City of London, and was known as the Oxford Road.

Lowry refers to the street in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Nor yet the poor little hot-dog man. That bitter December night he had met him trudging down Oxford Street with his new wagon—the first hotdog wagon in London,and he had been pushing it around for a whole month without selling a single hot dog." (Pg. 156).

Old Compton Street, London

Old Compton Street runs east-west through Soho in the West End of London off Charing Cross Road to the west of Tottenham Court Road. Once the centre of the music-publishing industry. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the street in in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "What about the way you treated poor old Bolowski, the music publisher, remember his shabby little shop in Old Compton Street, off the Tottenham Court Road? (Pg. 155)

As Chris Ackerley points out; "An address mildly inconsistent" (Malcolm Lowry Project) as Lowry later refers to the shop being at New Compton Street.  Lowry may have known New Compton Street due to Worton David Ltd, the publishers of one of his songs, being based at No. 6. (See photograph of building on Collage)

Jack London The Jacket

The Star Rover is a novel by American writer Jack London published in 1915 (published in the United Kingdom as The Jacket). It is a story of reincarnation. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to The Jacketin his novel Under The Volcano when Hugh muses in Chapter 6; "..and perhaps it was true too he had been reading too much Jack London even then, The Sea Wolf, and now in 1938 he had advanced to the virile Valley of the Moon (his favourite was The Jacket)...." (Pg. 161)

Chris Ackerley states; "The novel, perhaps London's best, is about a condemned man, Darrell Standing, an ex-professor of agronomics, who is in San Quentin for murder. He is forced to undergo long spells of solitary confinement inside the "jacket", a straitjacket into which he is tightly laced for up to ten days in a row. His way of surviving is to go "star-roving"; that is, force his mind to eliminate all thoughts of the body and take off into its astral world, transcending the limitations of time and space and getting in touch with its previous existences. The novel celebrates "man's unconquerable will", which even Standing's final death cannot denigrate; the chief irony for Lowry, however, is the relevance of the title to the Consul's fate." (Malcolm Lowry Project)

Jack London Valley of the Moon

Frontispiece to the 1913 first edition.

The Valley of the Moon (1913) is a novel by American writer Jack London (as well as the mythic and romantic name for the wine-growing Sonoma Valley of California). The valley where it is set, is located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in Sonoma County, California, where Jack London was a resident; he built his ranch in Glen Ellen. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to Valley of the Moon in his novel Under The Volcano; "The bag, decanted on the faded rustic seat, disgorged into its lid....a second-hand copy of Jack London' Valley of the Moon, bought yesterday for fifteen centavos at the German bookshop opposite Sandborns in Mexico City." (Pg. 99) and later when Hugh muses in Chapter 6; "..and perhaps it was true too he had been reading too much Jack London even then, The Sea Wolf, and now in 1938 he had advanced to the virile Valley of the Moon (his favourite was The Jacket)...." (Pg. 161)

Chris Ackerley suggests; " Lowry's ‘virile’ implies a judgment on Hugh’s "maturity", the essence of the book being the transition from the fiercely individualist struggle depicted in The Sea-Wolf towards a socialist theory of return to the land as a next step in human evolution." (The Malcolm Lowry Project).

Jack London The Sea Wolf

The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American novelist Jack London about a literary critic, survivor of an ocean collision, who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him. Its first printing of forty thousand copies were immediately sold out before publication on the strength of London's previous The Call of the Wild. Ambrose Bierce wrote, "The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime... The love element, with its absurd suppressions, and impossible proprieties, is awful." Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to The Sea Wolf in his novel Under The Volcano when Hugh muses in Chapter 6; "..and perhaps it was true too he had been reading too much Jack London even then, The Sea Wolf, and now in 1938 he had advanced to the virile Valley of the Moon (his favourite was The Jacket)...." (Pg. 161)

Jack London

John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone. He is best remembered as the author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to three Jack London novels in his novel Under The Volcano when Hugh is musing about Jack London in Chapter 6. Chris Ackerley states; "Hugh seems at times almost consciously to imitate his life. London's life and socialism was fraught with contradiction, and he is at his best when depicting the ferocious individual struggle rather than the collective human dream." (The Malcolm Lowry Project).

Hugh refers to three of London's books; "..and perhaps it was true too he had been reading too much Jack London even then, The Sea Wolf, and now in 1938 he had advanced to the virile Valley of the Moon(his favourite was The Jacket)...." (Pg. 161)

Lowry probably read Jack London while still at school and we must assume that London helped create in the mind of the young Lowry a vision of the sea and adventure which is reflected in Hugh's musings. Chris Ackerley suggests; " Lowry's ‘virile’ implies a judgment on Hugh’s "maturity", the essence of the book being the transition from the fiercely individualist struggle depicted in The Sea-Wolf towards a socialist theory of return to the land as a next step in human evolution." (The Malcolm Lowry Project).

Susquehanna Mammy

A fictional song created by Lowry for Hugh's repertoire in Chapter 6 of Under The Volcano; "Well, he had other songs, the tides to some of which, Susquehanna Mammy, Slumbering Wabash, Mississippi Sunset, Dismal Swamp, etc., were perhaps revelatory, and that of one at least, I'm Homesick  for Being Homesick (of being homesick for home), Vocal Fox Trot, profound, if not positively Wordsworthian." (Pg. 169).

The song title related to Lowry's own juvenile song writing but is possibly inspired by James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Pioneers, or the Sources of the Susquehanna: a descriptive tale which makes reference to the American river and uses the derogatory word mammy - "a black woman serving as a nurse to white children especially formerly in the southern United States" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Lowry may have also had in mind the Joe Young/Sam Lewis song "My Mammy" plus Conrad Aiken's recollections of having a black nurse.

Hippodrome Theatre, Birkenhead

The Hippodrome Theatre, originally known as Ohmy's Grand Circus, was built in Grange Road, Birkenhead in 1888. This venture was not successful and within 2 years it became the Gaiety Music Hall which lasted until 1898 when it became The Metropole Music Hall. In 1908, it was totally renovated, having been closed for three years becoming known for its drama productions.

Dennis J. Clarke, who ran the Argyle Theatre, took over in 1916, and changed the name to The Hippodrome. In 1934 it was sold to the Birkenhead Co-operative Society and replaced by a store.

According to Lowry's biographer, Gordon Bowker, Lowry cherished the memory of a visit to The Hipprodrome with his family to see a production of Shakespeare's Richard II in the early 20's. (Pursued By Furies Pgs.16-17 )

Lowry refers to the theatre in his first novel Ultramarine; "His whole being was drowning in memories, the smells of Birkenhead and of Liverpool were again heavily about him, there was a coarse glitter in the cinema fronts, children stared at him strangely from the porches of public-houses. Janet would be waiting for him a the Crosville bus stop, with her red mackintosh and her umbrella, while silver straws of rain gently pattered on the green roof..."Where shall we go? The Hippodrome or the Argyle? ..... I've heard there's a good show on at the Scala - (Pg. 27); "A little imagination and this was home. One of those Saturday nights with Janet at the Birkenhead Hippodrome. Twice nightly, 6:30, 8:40! Two two-and-fours please! The first house. The orchestra tuning up, like tired men snoring in different keys. The gathering rush of the falling curtain. When there is a fireproof screen of the proscenium opening it must be lowered at least once during every performance to see that it is in proper working order..." (Pg.98).

Lowry did attempt to write musical hall songs and this is documented in his interview with the Liverpool Echo before he set sail for the Far East in 1927. Lowry may have held ambitions to one day have his songs played at the likes of the Hippodrome. He certainly gave these ambitions to the character Hugh, another of Lowry's many alter-egos, in Under The Volcano; Hugh recalls the "advertisments for music halls up north. Birkenhead Hippodrome: twice nightly 6.30, 8.30..." and  "But above all there were his songs, which would now be published. What did anything matter when back home at that very Birkenhead Hippodrome perhaps, they were being played and sung, twice nightly, to crowded houses?" (Pg.168). Lowry also mentions the theatre in his short story 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour': "An advertisement for the Hippodrome said Little Tich, 6:30, 8:30." (Psalms Pg. 233)

Tithebarn Street, Liverpool

Tithebarn Street, Liverpool was named after a tithe barn erected by the Sir William Molyneux in 1523 to collect produce, received as tithes in Liverpool and Kirkdale. The actual site of the barn was on the corner of Cheapside, on the south side of Tithebarn street. The main structure and oak roof could still be seen up to the late 1900s.

Lowry refers to the street in his novel Under The Volcano; "He had not played one, and Hugh could play almost any kind of guitar, for four or five years, and his numerous instruments declined with his books in basements or attics in London or Paris, in Wardour Street night-clubs or behind the bar of the Marquis of Granby or the old Astoria in Greek Street, long since become a convent and his bill still unpaid there, in pawnshops in Tithebarn Street or the Tottenham Court Road." (Pg. 158)

River Dee

The River Dee is a 70-mile long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries.

The river rises in Snowdonia, Wales, flows east via Chester, England. The Dee Estuary flows into Liverpool Bay. The estuary starts near Shotton after a five miles (8 km) 'canalised' section and the river soon swells to be several miles wide forming the boundary between the Wirral Peninsula in north-west England and Flintshire in north-east Wales.

The river was a playground for Lowry; Sheryl Salloum quotes in her book Malcolm Lowry Vancouver Days from an anonymous neighbour who grew up with Lowry in Caldy; "...On another occasion she remembers sailing with friends down the River Dee, towing Lowry behind in a seatless dingy. He had provided himself with a perch, a chamber pot on which he sat unceremoniously. Those in the sailboat thought it was a great joke and very daring for those days." (Pg. 2). The river must also have been an inspiration for his Eridanus as the view from the Caldy shoreline bears an uncanny similarity to Dollarton.

Lowry makes references to the river in 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour'; "The Welsh mountains across the Dee made me sad" (Psalms Pg. 228); "Over the Dee in Flintshire the furnaces glowed red." (Psalms Pg. 230)

Later the river features in Under The Volcano; " It looked like the sea; actually it was the estuary, seven miles wide, of a river: white horses westward marked where the real sea began.The Welsh mountains gaunt and black and cloudy, with occasionally a snow peak to remind Geoff of India, lay across the river." (Pg.23) and "The seagull--pure scavenger of the empyrean, hunter of edible stars--I rescued that dayas a boy when it was caught in a fence on the cliffside and was beating itself to death, blinded by snow, and though it attacked me, I drew it out unharmed, with one hand by its feet, and for one magnificent moment held it up in the sunlight, before it soared away on angelic wings over the freezing estuary?" (Pg. 155)" Lowry refers to the river in a letter to Carol Brown; "..and the Ecclesian trees over which it seems one may dive into the Dee. And the Dee, on a dark day, looks like a sheet of glass with ink, Stephen's Ink preferably spilled over it." (Collected Letters Vol. 1 Pg. 26)

Lowry refers to the Dee in his novel In Ballast to the White Sea; "he thought again, a vanquished Armada of cloud blown over from the great mountain chain of Wales on the other side of the Dee, Pen-y-Pass, Paenmanmawr, Snowden, Cader-Idris" (Chapter V111) and "Like a needle his machine threaded cloud and cloud. Its song was heard over the estuary of the Dee and far inland over the Peninsula." (Chapter X111) and "He was heading across the estuary of the Dee." (Chapter X111).

Grange Road, Birkenhead

Grange Road was the principal shopping area in Birkenhead from the 1880's until the creation of a pedestrianized shopping precinct in the late 1960's. The road runs from Argyle Street to Charing Cross with only the top and bottom of the pedestrianized area retaining any original buildings.

Lowry refers to the road in his first novel Ultramarine; "That day it was, on the Saughall Massie Road with Janet, when he found the white campion on the windy hill, it was the only sound to break the stillness, the traction engine, and the sleep-shattering fall of white stones. Afterwards they had tea at Hubbard and Martin's, in Grange Road." (Pg.31 )

Lowry also refers to the Hippodrome Theatre, which was located in Grange Road, in both Ultramarine and Under The Volcano.

Bitter Lakes

The Great Bitter Lake is a salt water lake between the north and south part of the Suez Canal. It is adjoined by the Small Bitter Lake Before the Canal was built, their site was occupied by dry salt valleys. Together, the Bitter Lakes now have a surface area of about 250 km². To the north, the canal also runs through Lake Manzala and Lake Timsah. As the canal has no locks, sea water flows freely into the lake from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. In general, north of the lakes the current reverses seasonally, being north-going in winter and south-going in summer. South of the lakes, the current is tidal, reversing with the tides in the Red Sea.

Lowry passed through the lakes in both directions on his trip to the Far East in 1927. Lowry refers to the lakes in his novel Under The Volcano; "From the time she (the Philoctetes) emerged from the Bitter Lakes till she lay in the roads at Yokohama a dead monotonous calm prevailed." (Pg. 166)