10
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BLUE
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salls Sept. from Marseilles, London, Hamburg & Glasgow.
r
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Special reduced fares are quoted for cargo steamers with limited passenger accommodation.
For treight, passage rates and Information apply to
BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE.
BARBER-WILHELMSEN LINE
MONTHLY SERVICE
To
NEW YORK
Via LOS ANGELES & PANAMA CANAL PORTS. NEXT SAILING
M.S. "TARONGA "
on
18th August.
EXCELLENT ACCOMMODATION FOR 12 PASSENGERS.
DODWELL & CO., LTD.
Agents.
THE
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
THURSDAY,
A GREAT SEA STORY
RETOLD BY
GUY RAMSEY
HOW FRANCE'S LUXURY
S
over
over
LINER WENT UP
IN FLAMES
TATELY, serene, tintinnabulation
merrymakers?
of irresponsible
whetted, it turned to the solids: the dried by the Vie reached it, saw
was
AUGUST
12, 1937.
FIRE
The crew
WDS
was
super-
brilliant with electric On D'leck the fire fed greedily on lights that shone on the paint and varnish. Its appetite her white paint, the Georges wood, scasoned and Philippar, crack ship of trople heat.
the peril, fled back to the bridge to the Messageries Maritimes, take tommand.
The siren shrilled, drowning the glided through the slow, clangour of the bells. In the wire- lazy swell of the Indian less cabin the radio operator sent out the inevitable message: S O S. Ocean. She was heading As his angers tapped out the last homeward on the return dash and dot of his cry for help,
The Blazing Georges Philippar in the Gulf of Aden fames sprang up round him half of her maiden voyage The radio was put out of com-
no sleamer Preserver stationed at Perim, But there had perished. He knew some-two of the George Philippar
someone had only climbed aboard her. Her from Marseilles to the Far mission by the outbreak.
was worse to come.
children of a Dutch passenger among exception. If East.
A third fire, sent its red lights of them-must be dead. But he salls thought, one of the vessel's dummy structure that had been her prido about her gutted deck. Her uprights tons of sea water was stored. She was designed as a ship to de- danger about the bridge. A fourth tied himself that no living passenger funnels masked a lank where four was a shambics heaped in grey nahes
raged about the tank where the was left aboard.
He gave his orders.
But the irony does not stop there. her davits, her derricks, her cranca light
fire-extinguisher her passengers. Squat, rec- chemical
of funnels-two
would go below decks and abandon There was aboard this superb ship stood at grotesque angles, twisted them stored. tangular
Four outbreaits, In widely separ- ship. At the head of his officers, he no fire-detecting apparatus-although and contorted by the fury of the modernistic dummies-jutted through
Then, and then the inventor of the apparatus, com- flames. She was still hot. a vast
Earl left her, sick at heart. "I of sun-deck. ated parts of the ship, roared up to saw them away. superstructure
only, he ordered his officers to leave pulsory in British, German and She looked for all the world like a the sky virtually simultaneously.
American ships,
French felt very low," he wrote that morn- millionaire's
ing. chuffing motor-boat
"She made me very sad." No one knew how. No one knew and left himself.
think. vhy. No one stopped to Mediterranean,
Two living people were left aboard man. the ildeless
No indemnity was granted to the They enlarged to liner-size.
Flames began to rocket upward, the bout: two stewardesses.
The company invoked Her furnishings ond finishings dimming the tropic stars. The ocean cried to the nearest lifeboat to return. passengers. were the height of luxury, Shellac turned from the tropic purple of Their voices were drowned in the a law passed by Louis XIV., the Roi Soleil, In the seventeenth century, paint, French polish, expensive var midnight lit with silver phosphores surge of the flames. They ran
to absolve themselves--still Article
floated. Then she lurched column of dame- nish covered all her woodwork. She cence to angry orange and vicious the upper deck. They invaded the
the Commercial Code of sanctity of the captain's bridge. 210 in 68ft, wide; her livid lemon. 542ft. long,
France. They pointed out that it to part, vomiting STA- They mote the sacred ship's bell. Orders were given BOAT was the width of the
and Again she lurched
abeets upper-deck
The clarion arrested the attention was only an act of grace on their shot smoke from her very vitala, ship from the water-line. Her TIONS. Dut-so often, so pitifully motors, developing 11,600 hp., could often the case-there had been no of the boat's commander. He looked part to transport the passengers Incandescence flared from her bridge.
back. There, silhouetted against stranded at Aden or Jibuti back to the list increased. keep her at 17 knots all day and ali
Doa-drill.
the two women, Fronce.
Wearily, wearily, she lay on her was a trace of panic: in the Home, stood
Seven hundred and sixty-seven of night. Her displacement was 21,000
instantly waving frantically. He put back and rising, to be as
were side, settling down by the intern. In the
and stantly
passengers tons.
checked. One woman, her flimsy took them off.
A stowaway, one Maxime Olewski, saved. But 40 were lost, Messages complete allence the Georges Philip- nightdress ablaze, forced her way THERE was an atmosphere through a port-hole, crushing the a Pole, dived five times Into the sea flashed through to Europe, couched par-bearing the name of the Presi His in blunt seaman jargon, "Have to dent of the Messageries Maritimes; that had lain, a fairy vessel of French the gallantry Wis
the day buried the corpses of holiday about the whole burning material against her skin, lo rescue sinking swimmers.
rewarded-by trip: her passengers were heading and dived hissing into the sea.
marshalled into remission of an eight-day sentence girls," wirelessed one British rescuer. palace, beside the hideous slums of Passengers were
"Have sighted one empty lifeboat Marseilles; the crack ship built for for home. Back from China and its
marked 'Georges Philippar,'' "radioed the service of pleasure surrendered herself in the sea. The age-old the Japanese Hakone Maru. blinding sunshine they came, laugh- matter which passengers.
Empty
the of life,
Georges conflict between fire and water had ing, gay, rejeling to be among their were swung out on the davits and
kind and maiting for their own lowered away. own
NE of the English pas- Philippar wallowed away, even her been fought out again to the bitter
the slow, aleck, end. land.
Paoli, who set the ship with her
sengers. Mrs. Muirhead, flames listing in
The sea claimed the liner for her bear trople swell. She drifted through But amid all the gaiety of the head into the wind, had acted for
by the of Derbyshire, was unable
legacy of financial flames
wrangling over insurance and her exlies' return, the excitement of the the best, but the first trip of a new liner, mn a thin bridge, sel tor'ard, were blown aft, shoe on her feet three weeks after the Monday, the Tuesday, the Wed- own--leaving a
In all these stories of tragedy, Early on the Friday morning, Mr. memory to be a talking horse for
That C. Eari, of the London salvage the squabbling of politicians. secret sense of strain, of something where other outbreaks started, a the fre; the decks had been so hot, nesday, the Thursday. feverish, of something almost hysteri- most at the touch of a spark.
In a vain endeavour to check the there is a bitterly ironic "It" cal.
There is something in the climate spread of the Bre, the watertight that fosters that spirit: the sultry, door in the port alleyway on D deck Behind it 40 passengers raging
was
squalor, from Indo-China and its the boats; no matter which boats, no of imprisonment for slowing away.
The bouts
languid days, the suffocatingt nights was ered in a roaring.
where acquaintances become lovers were
in an hour and a marriage of happy hell of famés. Nobody knew they years turns to an estrangement in a were there. When it was realised it! there was was too late. The door Itself was day. On this voyage
There that.
were red hot.
more rumours.
than
The Georges Philippar was taking the place of the Paul Lecat, which Georges had been burned. The Philippar herself had been burned
cigarettes had threatened this pride Telephone 28021. of the French
Hong Bank Bldg.
BURNS PHILP LINE
M.V. "NEPTUNA”
PASSENCER & FREIGHT SERVICE TO
AUSTRALIA
Sailing on or about 30th August.
to bed
across
tion.
THERE WAS
summoned,
ONE
crew
FOR three hours more she
WHAT SORT OF PATIENT
"Then
be
ARE YOU?
selves.
of there is the question
a vivid
cases for me to deal with without my more about any wanting to know night-life.
The Supreme Virtue
"I expect you are wondering why
I haven't said anything about paying
bills. Funnily enough, I don't rank that as the first essential of a good
pay
Uking drinkers,
CRITICISING doctors is a popular pasl-time. Old So-and-So is a dodderer, far too cautious and con- while young What's-his- no time, Inservative. Vicq's mind, to light the Nume is so modern that he really
as he might. as she lay in the shipyard. There fre. The chemical extinguisher was doesn't seem to treat us as 'seriously some irreparable damage fo` them- But what do the doctors think of Wasting the Doctor's Time
and me-the patients? was talk of sabotage: anarchists not only unworkable but ungelatable. not figures of fiction in cloaks and Only one thing would he do-save
nie what was more precious thun his you
to find in hia "If you want to keep on the right patient. But I do wish that some of he liked whiskers in France but real people
on ship: the lives entrusted to his care. Baked my dorter the ulher day what
merely side of most doctors, never air what them would be a little more reason- with.
biting Krim mouths
Curtains, hangings, carpets, light, quailties
little medical knowledge you may able in their attitude. After all, marine; decorative panelling, light furniture patients, and what others
irritated him. sprend mercantile
"One of the most necessary things have. Most laymen know a few of they come to me when they want they were to blow her up in the took fire like evil male. The
of the flames was so fantastic-true
said. Abula and so on, but don't if you for them. Yet they seem fondly to Suez Canal.
willing to help himself,' There had already been, like a wildfire-that any organisation to in a patient in that he should be the technical terms such as tibia, me, and I have to do the best I cati
who doctor, use them In conversation cloud of smoke no bigger than a clear the cabins was out of the ques There are some people, you must want to be on good terms with your imagine that I am made of money across them yourself,
my Income-tax without their man's hand, a minor fire that had
One officer ran to the strong room. come not checked her for an hour.
The fire alarm had summoned hirn, want nothing but pity when they are with him. If you start showing off, and can stave off the tradesmen and he doesn't wards you. Anyway, he can always "It may sound strange coming £33,000 in gold francs was molten. ill. They think their doctor is being he will feel instinctively hostile to assistance.
Meantime, through the trople heartless Just because
summonetthold their hands and tell them how get the better of you in the matter from a doctor, but the inost desirable quality in a patient, to my way of A thing I would like many of my thinking, is that he should keep fit, A PASSENGER going below seas, help was coming,
white the last by the single alarm that had been bad they are. Give me a self-reliant of using obscure terms.
too, by the person who hates the idea of being irty-five miles ill and who resolves to get better as patients to remember is that doctors So few people stop to think that a are busy men and business men. doctor is, after all, a craftsman. Like dance-lunes were tinkling in the sent out;
don't like their time to be other craftsmen, ho likes to work saloon, sighed in the heat. They actual fire itself.
And often he Lobedience patients. So many wasted any more than a bank mana with good material.
in were nearing Aden and the Red Sea, away, the British steamer Mahsud soon as he can. where it would be, probably, even saw the livid tongues liking at the
were passing Cape clouds, hotter. They
Crackling through the night sped people think they know much more ger does. Yet you would be amazed doesn't get it. There are plenty of feel to know how many people come to my patients who have never taken When they the doctor. Kalsar-I-Hind than
trouble to observe a Gardatul, whose light fashed with
their her message. The maddening monotony.
turned aside and ploughed to the ill, they are ready enough to go to see me, or, even worse, get me to go the alightest
shifted her him for advice, but directly they be- and see them, who have nothing the few simple rules of health. Flabby, rescue.
The Otranto passage.
gross, perhaps heavy caters and The
they come to me to be passenger, Madame Valentin,
imagination and too great a Bergineer in Tientsin, course and cracked on steam. The gin to feel that they are getting matter with them except
When wife of an
of ills that are the results of saying that they know for the medical dictionary,
the immense amount of went into her cabin. Suddenly the British Contractor forced her engines better,
of bad living. I can't cure Sovietskini Neft, far better what is good for them consider
At such real suffering there is, I am slightly them. Really, light went out. She groped her way to bursting-point to bring help. The tells the start to ignore what ha
best. I can only patch does. s doctor inflammable (than of her own
to think that so many them up. Their mode of life is too to the bell to summon the steward. Soviet oil-tanker The Atment came away in her hand, heedless
are almost hopeless as pa- disgusted people tlents, for they frequently undo a people can waste my time with tri- attractive for them to attempt to
give it up. fingers touched the wires cargo, drew nearer than safety al- As her they were hot.... hotter even than lowed.
At 5.54 pm, the wireless message lot of hard work in getting them on vialities.
And it makes the Georges the road to recovery.
"Of course, doctors suffer because
"I really think that if you asked they could be naturally on this stif
had gone out from
dawn. By a doctor very bad-tempered to see they have no fixed hours. They are
doctor in the country what before the ling night.
abandoned. It his work just deliberately spoiled. on hand night and day, and the quailty he liked best in a patient, he From the wall came a put of Philippar
the ship wns
And despite what I said just now telephone has only made this he would say "that commonsense war smoke. The sultry air of the cabin nine
cessibility more evident. If people the supreme virtue. A patient with eddied and spun with the sudden in- was Whit Monday, 1932
Husbands, French gallantry of its about king self-reliant patients, cessit
of that makes matters better for him→ burning altered through the swirling peak of panache, handed their wives (most doctors have a few people who would only realise that a pain crease of heat. The acrid scent of
bonts as into taxi-cabs are too anxious to get well. As soon which they would take no into the
for myself, that kind of person of danger, they during the daytime is no more serie self and for his doctor, and, speaking waves of air.
Where there was room, they follow-as they are out Valentin
the one I would have rather thon all From D deck Madame
up to C, to B, to A, to the cd them: where there was not they imagine they can do almost as they ous at night, I should be saved
like. The result is that a doctor has number of futile calls in the course the good billpayers in the world?" As one boat was filling with pas-a good many moments of suspense of a year. bridge. She caught at the sleeve of waited.
number of life-and-death caught wondering whether they will do fielent Puoll, the second-in-com- Captain mand. She spoke to him in rapid, aengers drifting sparks
Orderly, the men and women, in urgent French.
A junior officer went to tell Com- pyjamas and snatched overcoats, in mandant Vicq. Paoli rang down, smart evening dresses and the white stopped the engines, put the ship drill of convention, went to the next about. If-which may la bon Dieu boat and climbed in.
Strange shapes lifted in the it and defend the ship is nfire, her nose must be kept into the wind that the swirling waters; shapes that had
Thousands of mufferers from Kidney blaze may be blown away from her, swum with the ship for hundreds of
woakaran have topped Cloting Up Nighin, Leg Paine, She must also be stopped lest the miles; shapes that curved and turned breeze created by her own speed fan and thrust blunt noses with under-trouble and ladder
slung crescent jaws upwards to snap Circles Under yen wollen Ankies, the flames.
sineen, Lumbago, Uurning, Hching, Hmart- "Vieq, roused from steep he had at the refuse cast overboard day by Nervousnean, Biffion, theater, is ing, Acidity rich Jona of Vigour by a Doo- A few passengers lost their heads for's new discovery called Cystex tu gone off duty at one to be roused day. again at three-got to the bridge.
plunged into the water-traditional/heal, raw puritying your blood. Brings fle meed for where he thought: the and, scorning the circling sharks, 1x). Gently soothes, tone, lea Ore was. He did not wait to ask for
new health details. He ran-the wrong way.
Spec
for Saigon, Manila, Sandakan, Salamaua, Rabaul, Sydney & Melbourne.
Return: £76. Singlo: £47.10.0d.
First Class Fare to Sydney: Passenger & Freight Agents:--
GIBB, LIVINGSTON & CO., LTD.
P. & O. Building. Telephone 28031
Joint Passenger Agents:-NIPPON YUSEN KAISHA
King's Building.
Kill Kidney
Trouble Quick
Cyntex
More linen. In 10 minutes
or money back, Get Crater at all chemiele his wife through the porthole and Guaranteed to end your troubles in R day dropped after her into the sea,
The lack of organisation was..the tragedy. One staircase greatest
BELLS rang-but bells often ablaze, was barred with three locked
on
the Georges doors.
was to know that Commandant Vieq made his way Philippar. Who these were alarm bells, not just the along the decks. He knew that some
COUNT THE “TELEGRAPHS".
EVERYWHERE
As it is, there are
notice
BUL-
years
cach
CANTON AGENTS
for the
Robert Allen
Hongkong Telegraph
WM.
FARMER & Co.
Victoria Hotel Building.. Shameen. Canton. Tel. 13501.