Borealis Friday 14th April 2023
The day started well. The sea was calmer although still windy. I managed to check my slides once more and at the last minute I added a slide showing the two major filmes "Around the World in Eight Days in 1956 and 2004. The first one was brilliant, and the second was rubbish and anathema for those who love the book.
After breakfast and after delivering cup of milk for Albina's Sugar Frosted Flaes in the cabin, I made my way to the Neptune Theatre to meet Freddy the theatre technician. I came at 9.45 amm knowing I was early by an hour but hoping still to catch him bfore the next lecture began in case I might need for time for preparation. In fact the next lecturer, Dave Chilcott (that's Dolphin Dave) was late. Sammie even came out to aplogize. He turned up five minutes later daying he had been misled by the time change. After being fixed up he said "Good morning" to a relatively small audience, and was answered back, "Good afternoon". His ubject was about binoculars, which to buy and how to use. While he talked about different makes and prices I was oblivious, but he certainly had some useful advice on how to hold binoculars and how to set them to the individual's needs. He finished his lecture as late as 10.50 am, so there was little time for me to be prepared to make a lecture. In fact, I had forgotten to bring the cable to my laptop. As I rushed out back to my room, I passed crowds of people walking into the theatre. Surely not all for me, I thought. I got to the cabin. Albina was no longer there. I rushed back to the cable, had a memory stick plugged in to their device, and a microphone placed on me by Freddy and with Tom's assistance. The battery was put into my back pocket. I looked around with three minutes to go. The theatre was simply packed. Maybe two hundred people. Just for my lecture. Wow!
I shall show the text of my presentation, but without the slides, at the bottom of this day's entry. Enough that Tom announced me, having learned beforehand how to pronounce my surname. After that I had initial problems with the laser indicator, but I explained that I was doing this for the first time and everyone seemed to will me on. In fact the presentation went like a dream. My amateurish power point presentation swept along almost on its own accord, as I timed reading my text and pressing the button at the right time. After all the tension of preparation the actual lecture went smoothly and I was actually saying to myself, this is fun. They laughed at my jokes, and on one occasion when I happened to show a slide with a portrait of Tsar Nicholas I alongside that of Putin and described the latter as Tsar Vladimir the Terrible, it got not only a laugh, but a cheer and some sustained applause. Towards the end of my talk I showed a pictue of David Niven and Shirley MacLane as Fogg and Aouda from the Mike Todd film, and asked General Knowledge quiz boffins to guess their names. "At least I see you're not asleep," I responded when they guessed correctly. I finished by saying this was not just a cruise but a pilgrimage. I received long applause. As I stood there on the stage and Freddie started disengaging me and my laptop from the ship's technical equipment, at least ten people lined up to congratulate me or ask me extra questions. These included Sharon who had missed a ukelele class and some others who had missed a reception for veteran cruisers who had spent more than 120 days on a Fred Olsen vessel.
Tom told me that he had told Sammee how well my talk went down and she would like me to repeat my talk in the next few days in the Observation Lounge on the 9th floor. That was flattering and I agreed.
I looked for Albina hoping that she had been in the theatre to hear my talk, but I could not find her anywhere. I looked for her in our cabin, in the buffet restaurant or at one of the shops. Finally, I found her in our corridor on the way back from the library. What was unexpected was that I kept being interrupted by passengers i didn't know saying how much they appreciated my talk. I had hoped Albina would have attended and taken a picture of me at the lectern, but I think she felt somewhat embarassed by my appearing in public, even though she was secretly proud of me. I did not ask her outright. After 50 years of marriage I think I know my wife and her sensitivity well enough.
I celebrated lunch with Albina and witn a glass of white wine. In the late afternoon and evening, the ship had laid on a Hawaiian party. Most of us had donned some kind of Hawaiian shirt or dress and the mood was happy and light hearted. They served the usual roast pork with plenty of local Hawaiian recipes attached. I fell right into the mood of things very quickly, because as I entered the pool area a conga line was passing and Sharon called out to me to join in. We "congad" for some 5 or so minutes, finishing a lap around the pool. I then got myself another glass of wine and moved around the area taking pictures of friends and acquainances, as awelll as a couple of our waitresses, in their outlandish Hawaiian outfits. I got a picture of Rosie, our wildlife photographer, as well, displaying her sexy knees. I even ran into Sammie with a ring of leaves of a head-dress. She repeated her request for me to repeat the speech on a later occas. I took advantage of her being there and ask Tony to take a picture of the two of us. I joined Sharon and Ranald on the dance floor. Even there I was stopped by another dancer who wanted to express his appreciation for my speech. This was just too much. All in all, it was a great day.
I showed Albina some of the pictures when I came back for a cup of tea in the cabin. Albina had been ringing her cousin in Poland but she seemsed happy to see me enjoy myself, as long as I don't drag her into anything uncomfortable socializing. At the quiz tonight we got only 11 out of 15. Probably because Helen wasn't there to help with the television related questions.
BOREALIS IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PHILEAS
FOGG
Hi there,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Just to let
you know, I am not a professional guest speaker. I am simply one of you, a
paying passenger, with my wife, on the cruise of a lifetime. And I am grateful
to Sammie for letting me share with you my thoughts on how our own 80-day
cruise compares with that of the original cruise supposedly conducted by
Phileas Fogg in the book “Around the World in 80 Days”. After all, that title
inspired the route of this cruise and inspired many passengers, like you and
me, to join it. Indeed, so much so that we all got a copy of the novel,
courtesy of Fred Olsen Cruises, on the very first day of our embarkation, and
had it signed later by the captain and leading officers on board.
Let me
first ask you. How many of you have read this book?
Now keep
your hand up if you had read it before you got on board?
Oh well,
that many? Then I had better be careful what I say. As you are obviously as
much fans of this book as I am, I would
like to satisfy your curiosity, as to how much the experiences of its fictional
hero Phileas Fogg compare with our own experience on this cruise.
I should
start by saying I have loved this book ever since I was a child. I first bought
a copy of the book with my own pocket money when I was just 8 years old. Here
is the copy.
(Picture 1 – cover of book)
It cost me 2 shillings and six pence. I bought
it in the local Woolworths.
For those
of you here who have not read the book the story is quite simple.
(Picture 2
– Phileas Fogg in 1873)
Phileas
Fogg is a wealthy laconic stiff upper lip English gentleman. This is how he
appears in the first illustrated book of that title. He makes a wager of
£20,000 with colleagues on the spur of the moment in the Reform Club in London,
claiming that he can travel around the world in 80 Days and come back to the
Club to claim his winnings. Now, I have just Googled this, and In today’s money
that is the equivalent of £2,893,503.50.
This wager
is significant as the year is 1872 and is based on the assumption that three
significant events have just occurred to make his proposition possible.
(Picture 3
– Suez Canal opening) Just three years before, in 1869, the Suez Canal is
opened. This cuts the reliance of sea travel to the East by the route around
the Cape of Good Hope.
(Picture 4
– US rail link up) Also, three years before, in 1869, the United States
intercontinental railroad was first linked up across the American continent,
thus cutting out the need to travel around Cape Horn or by the land route
across the Panama Isthmus.
(Picture 5
– Indian rail link) Lastly, just two years before, in British India in 1870,
the rail connectivity from Bombay to Calcutta was made at Jabalpur.
These three
significant events had made travel around the world easier and had, in the
words of one of Fogg’s colleagues, “made the world smaller”. Fogg set out to prove that theory right and
that the world could now be circumnavigated in just 80 days. This was still a
risky business of course because it left no margin for error or delay on the
route. The book describes how Fogg completed that journey successfully in time,
and indeed with the margin of one day in hand, despite the most unexpected and
seemingly insurmountable obstacles on the route. He is assisted in his journey by his
versatile manservant Passepartout, and hindered surreptitiously by another
passenger, a detective called Fix, who believes him to be a bank robber, and
tries to delay him.
The book
was originally serialized in a French newspaper in the same year, in 1872, in
which the action supposedly took place. It was an overnight sensation because
its bold story appeared then to be happening in real time.
(picture 6
– Jules Verne)
It was the
brainchild emanating from the fevered scientifically inquisitive mind of French
writer Jules Verne.
He was born
in the French port of Nantes in 1828, the first son of a prominent lawyer and
with links to a family of shipowners on his mother’s side. Early on he loved
reading books of adventure and at the age of 11 ran off to sea. Or tried to.
His father managed to stop him just before the boat sailed. His frustration
manifested itself in his later published adventure stories around the whole
world. He did show literary talent quite early, publishing some plays and short
stories, and even poetry in his early twenties. However, despite obtaining a
law degree he decided at the age of twenty-three to devote himself to writing
and refused to take over his father’s law practice on his father’s retirement.
He found employment initially as the secretary to a local theatre in Nantes,
and later worked in the French stock exchange, but he was beginning to earn
money from his plays as well.
(Picture 7
– French Industrial revolution)
At this
time both France and its main rival, Britain, were going through a period of
prosperity and when younger people in both countries became fascinated by the
possibilities of science facilitating new discoveries in leisure,
transportation, medicine, travel, industrial production, and new sources of
energy.
Verne was
obsessed at this time by the commercial potential of industrial balloons as an
experimental form of travel.
(Picture 8
– Nadir’s balloon) In 1863 he wrote a non-fiction study on long distance travel
in a balloon to accompany an experiment by his friend Nadar of flying a 60
metre high balloon called “The Giant” , the highest there has ever been. It was
supposed to take aerial photographs and carry mail. However, no publisher
wanted to publish his somewhat boring manuscript. Until one of them suggested
he write it as a work of fiction.
(Picture 9
– Five Weeks in a Balloon) That year,1863, Verne published his first novel,
“Five Weeks in a Balloon”, while his friend Nadar concurrently flew the balloon.
It eventually crashed disastrously in Germany. The joint publicity of these two
events made Verne and his novel an overnight sensation. Incidentally at this
point can I please clear up a common misapprehension that balloon travel was
part of Phileas Fogg’s journey. I am sorry to say there was no travel by
balloon in Around the World in 80 Days. It occurred only in this separate
earlier novel. The confusion arises because the balloon incident appeared in
the Mike Todd film version of the book in 1956.
(Picture 10 – Hetzel the publisher)
His new
publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel arranged a deal whereby Verne was to publish two
novels a year, all of them involving the frontiers of science. Hetzel also set
up a magazine so that Verne’s work could be serialized, thus building up the
interest of his reading public to fever pitch. So, in quick succession, Verne
published such masterpieces as
(Picture 11
– Book with earlier Verne stories)
1864
“Captain Hatteras in the North Pole” and “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”
1865 “From
the Earth to the Moon”
1867 “Captain Grant’s Children”
(Picture 12
– 20,000 Leagues – book)
1869 “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas”
(note the French title refers to “Seas”, not “Sea”. The latter is just an
ignorant translator’s error)
Also, in
1869 “Around the Moon”.
These
stories were now being published as a series entitled “Extraordinary Journeys
to Countries Known and Unknown”. All together Verne published 64 novels under
this group heading. Jules Verne had in fact become unwittingly the father of
what we now call science-fiction. Many of the stories became plays in the
theatre thus increasing his income through royalties. He did not travel much,
but he did eventually buy a large sailing yacht. We know he visited England
quite often, and also Scotland, the Mediterranean and Norway, and that he
travelled by Isambard Brunel’s steamer “Great Eastern” to the United States but
does not seem to have travelled much further. He led a contented conservative
life as a local politician in Amiens. He died a rich man in 1905.
(Picture 13
– “Around the worlds as a book)
To come
back to the book. “Around the World in 80 Days” was first serialized in 1872 in
the popular newspaper “le Temps”, the year in which the action was taking
place, and was then published as a novel in 1873, exactly 150 years ago. Hence
the inspiration for the title of our own cruise in 2023, so imaginatively
initiated by Fred Olsen. The book was also immediately translated into English,
as were all his earlier novels. It was his most successful novel commercially,
because it fired people’s imagination and everyone imagined that they too could
perform such a journey, if they had the time and the money to do so. It also
became a popular subject for films and TV serials.
(Picture –
2 films)
(Picture 14
– Napoleon III)
For French
readers it was also a form of escapism to forget the humiliation of defeat in
the Franco-Prussian war, two years before, when the French Emperor Napoleon III
became a German prisoner, Paris was besieged by the Prussians, and the French
set up the Third Republic, after the bloody suppression of the Paris Commune.
Of course,
such a journey round the world would now be undertaken in less than 80 hours by
using three or four standard flights, and an orbiting satellite like the
International Space Station could do it even more quickly, nearly every 80
minutes.
However,
for 1872, it was still a seminal event.
(Picture 15
– Our route)
(Picture 16
– Phileas Fogg route)
Our journey
and that of Phileas Fogg are different in aim, in time, in speed, in the form
of transportation, and in season. Firstly, unlike Phileas Fogg, we are not
trying to win anything, nor are we trying to race. We are however conducting a
journey where we could be monitoring his route and feel what it is like to be
away from home for a glorious 80 days’ adventure. Also, then we share their
experience on the return home when Passepartout was able finally to switch off
the gas lamp still burning at his own expense in his bedroom, and I am sure we
too will be facing some unpaid energy bills when we return.
While both
journeys, ours and his, last the same time, 80 days, they only partly follow
the same route. Ours is purely a sea journey. Phileas Fogg also took short cuts
by rail. Firstly, from London via Paris and Turin to Brindisi. Secondly, from
Bombay to Calcutta, with a short interruption in between for an elephant ride.
Thirdly, from San Francisco to New York. Lastly, a short trip by mail train
from Queenstown to Dublin, and also by special hired train from Liverpool to
London. Leaving aside the interlude in India, our route really keeps to Jules
Verne’s actual route only from Brindisi to San Francisco.
So let us
compare the timetable.
On our
fourth day of travel, we are in Lisbon, Phileas Fogg is ahead of us, as he has
just reached Brindisi and is embarking on P&O vessel Mongolia.
On our
eighth day of travel when we reach Brindisi, Phileas Fogg is still ahead
of us as he has reached Suez.
On our
thirteenth day of travel when we reach Safaga at the top of the Red Sea, Fogg
is departing the Red Sea at the Bab el Mandib straits and next day he calls in
at Aden, which is not on our route.
On our
twentieth day when we reach Mumbai, we are now only one day behind Fogg. He
reached Bombay, the old name for Mumbai, on his 19th day and is now
in a train from Bombay crossing Western India.
(Picture 17
– Bombay railway terminal in 1870)
On our 22nd
day when we arrive at Kochi, Fogg and Passepartout are rescuing an Indian
princess from being burned alive on the funeral pyre of her royal husband,
which delays him somewhat.
However, on
our 27th day as we reach Singapore, Fogg is still crossing the
Indian Ocean on the P&O vessel Rangoon which he boarded in Calcutta. We are
now ahead of him.
(Picture 18
– Singapore 1870) On our 30th day when we are bobbing up and down in
our lifeboats at Nha Trang, in Vietnam, Fogg has just arrived In Singapore and
is only three days behind us. By the way this is the description of Singapore
in Verne’s book “The island of Singapore is not particularly large or
impressive. However, there is a certain charm to its compactness. It resembles
a park with fine roads going through it….a large concentration of squat houses
surrounded by delightful gardens in which grow mangosteens, pineapples and all
the most delicious kinds of fruit”. I think Singapore has changed a little.
On our 40th
day when we reach Yokohama, Fogg is now a little further behind on a small
pilot boat battling its way through a storm to reach Shanghai next day. Talking
of Shanghai, you may remember that we originally had Shanghai on our route, but
this had to be dropped because of covid and visa restrictions. Fogg missed
Shanghai as well as he transferred quite dramatically from the pilot ship
Tankadere o the vessel “General Grant”
after the American vessel had actually left the port of Shanghai.
(Picture 19
– Yokohama 1870)
On our 45th
day we cross the International Date Line, and Fogg and Passepartout have only
just left Yokohama the day before on the paddle steamer “General Grant”.
According to my Japan guidebook it describes Yokohama at this time “The wild
early days of the predominantly male community centred around such recreational
facilities as Dirty Village, the incomparable Gankiro Teahouse and the local racetrack.
Periodic attacks by sword-wielding xenophobic samurai added to the lively
atmosphere.”
On our 54th
day we reach San Francisco, while the day before Fogg only just crossed the
International Date Line and is now 10 days behind us. It was at the Dateline
that Passepartout proudly notices that the time shown on his watch, based on
London time, matched the time on the ship’s clock. You may remember that on the
day of our crossing the Dateline was extended to an extra 24 hours. This is
when Fogg and Passepartout carried on past the dateline without repeating the
extra day as we have done. Big mistake, as we know. It led later to Fogg’s
biggest m iscalculation.
(Picture 20
– San Francisco Golden Gate 1870)
San
Francisco and the Golden Gate Bay. Here of course our routes go in separate
directions. Fogg reached San Francisco on his 63rd day, which is one
day before we pass through the Panama Canal. After that he tries to catch up
with us, by taking trains across America.
(picture –
buffalo, Indians)
He is
challenged there by a herd of buffalos to clear the track, fighting off
Indians, leaping over collapsing bridges and travelling on a sledge with a
sail, to finally reach the Atlantic coast in New York on what is his 72nd
day. By then we are already in mid Atlantic. If we know the whole story, we
know that Fogg arrives in Liverpool on what he thinks is his 80th
day. Then he is finally arrested by Fix.
As not
everyone put their hand up about reading the book, I won’t use a spoiler here
on how his story ended.
( picture –
sea timetables)
The essence
of that comparison was that each time Fogg used overland transport he could try
and catch up with our seemingly unhurried schedule. But in comparing the sea
journeys on their own, the Borealis is obviously a more powerful vessel than
the main steamers which Fogg had at his disposal. He crossed on the Mongolia
from Brindisi to Bombay in fourteen days. The Borealis did the same journey in
12 days. He crossed on the Rangoon from
Calcutta to Hong Kong in 12 days. The Borealis crossed from Kochi to Hong Kong
in 10 days. Most important of all, Fogg crossed the Pacific on the General
Grant from Yokohama to San Francisco in 19 days. The Borealis did that journey
in 14 days while stopping 3 times in Hawaii on the way.
If we look
at those steamers that Fogg used, the reason for the longer journey by sea
becomes obvious.
(Picture 21
– Mongolia)
The first
vessel from Brindisi to Bombay is the P&O steamer “Mongolia” described as
being a 2800 tons iron-hulled propellor-driven steamer with nominal 500
horsepower. Sailing speed 8.5 knots. P&O, or Peninsular & Oriental to
give its full name, was founded in 1844 and soon had the lucrative mail
contracts for Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar and later for Egypt. It was also
the first shipping line to concentrate on carrying passengers only. The
“Mongolia” was not fictitious. It really existed and it worked on that run. It
was built in 1865 and after many years of service on the Mediterranean and
Bombay run it was finally scrapped in 1888.
You may ask
at this stage why Fogg could not use Fred Olsen line. After all Fred Olsen was
set up by the Olsen family in 1848, only 4 years later than P&O. However,
at this time Fred Olsen was using 3 mast sailing barques mainly trading in ice
and timber between Norway and Britain.
(Picture 23
– Rangoon)
The second vessel from Calcutta to Hong Kong
is the P&O steamer “Rangoon” weighing 1770 tons with a nominal 400
horsepower. It is also described as an iron hulled propellor driven steamer. It
was a somewhat smaller vessel than the Mongolia. P&O had gradually expanded
and plied the trade route between India and China, often carrying full loads of
opium to China. The “Rangoon” too had been a real vessel on that line, but with
a twist. You may remember in reading the book how Verne criticized the vessel
for its poor pitch and roll in a storm and compared it unfavourably with French
ships on the same run.
(Picture 24
– Rangoon sinking)
Well, the
“Rangoon” was built in 1865, but it could not have carried Fogg in 1872,
because, just a year before, in 1871 it was wrecked off the coast of Ceylon. I
think Verne was having a little joke here at P&O’s expense.
(Picture 25
– SS Golden Gate)
The third
vessel from Yokohama, or actually from Shanghai, to San Francisco is the paddle
steamer General Grant owned by the Pacific Mail Steam Company. It weighs 2500
tons, moves at 12 knots and has the rigging of a three masted schooner. I have
checked the names of all Pacific Mail Steam Company paddle steamers and no such
vessel appears to have existed. However, the nearest in tonnage and description
to the “General Grant” would have been the luxurious Pacific Mail Steamship
paddle steamer SS Golden Gate built in 1850, with a weight of 2072 tons. I
enclose a picture of the SS Golden Gate. So this what the imaginary General
Grant could have looked like. Earlier that century there was, actually, an
American vessel called General Grant, but it served in the Atlantic and the
South Pacific, it was not a paddle steamer, and it was wrecked six year before
near New Zealand in 1866.
Other
vessels in the book were smaller still. For instance, the pilot ship
“Tankadere” hired by Fogg at Hong Kong for the journey to Shanghai after he
missed the Carnatic, was only 20 tons, but made up for that lack of power by
using sail on what appears to be a two-mast vessel.
(Picture 26
– Borealis)
So why do
we cross the oceans more quickly? Just a reminder, the Borealis has a weight of
61,849 tons and has a speed of 25 knots. That equals twice the speed of the
General Grant and 3 times the speed of the Mongolia. Also,Borealis is 24 times
the total tonnage of the General Grant and the Mongolia, and 35 times the
weight of the unfortunate Rangoon.
(Picture 27
– Hurricane)
It is also
worth comparing the seasons. We set sail in February and are due to complete
our journey in May. Fogg started his journey on 2nd October
and was due to complete it on 21st December. You may remember he
encountered some heavy weather in the Red Sea and a tropical storm in the East
China Sea on his way from Hong Kong to Shanghai. The timing of the Borealis
cruise is much safer.
Let me
clarify. Tropical Cyclones in the Indian Ocean normally occur between April and
December. Typhoons in the seas around China and Japan occur all the year round,
but the risk is at a minimum in February and March, and at a peak in September.
Hurricanes in the north-eastern Pacific, the Caribbean and the Atlantic
normally occur between June and November. So, you see, in each case Phileas
Fogg chose the most risky time to travel and the Borealis has chosen the
safest. Thank you, Fred Olsen.
(Picture 28
– Map of the world 1872)
It is also
worth comparing the political differences. In 1872 although the beginning and
end of each section of the journey appears to be taking place in what is a
fairly orderly established port, mostly under European control, many of the
interiors were still relatively primitive, in particular in the interior of
India and over the American prairies. Utah at the time, for instance, was still
not a state, but a territory allowing polygamy. However, the majority of the
route would have been in areas where the European presence was dominant or at
least accepted.
(Picture 29 – Meiji Restoration)
Four years
before, in 1868, in Japan the Meiji
Emperor overthrew the isolationist Shogunate and adopted a policy of
Westernization.
(Picture 30
– Opium War)
China was
experiencing one of its more peaceful interludes following the two disgraceful
Opium Wars in which the British Empire sought to impose opium on China in
exchange for importing tea.
(Picture 31
– Hong Kong in 1870)
Hong Kong
had become a British protectorate in 1842 as a result of the Treaty of Nanking,
following the first Opium War. The Second Opium War ended in 1860 and Kowloon
was then ceded to Britain.
(Picture
31a – Indian mutiny)
India had
been forced to accept direct British rule after the suppression of the
so-called Indian Mutiny in 1857.
(Picture 32
– Appomatox) The United States had survived the Civil War in 1865 after the
surrender General Robert E. Lee, and was now busy taming the West and
suppressing the former free life style of the indigenous Indian population,
often with great brutality. It was a moment that the world paused, away from
major conflict. All this allowed Fogg to make the journey in relative safety.
(Picture 33
repeated as Picture Back to Picture 28)
See the red
patches. That was part of the British Empire, with Russia as the main threat.
The Crimean War had ended in 1856. You can see the wide extent already of the
British Empire. It made it possible for Fix to try to arrest Fogg en route as a
suspected bank robber, provided he had received the warrant from
Scotland Yard to do so. This is before the internet of course. Without that
warrant Fix failed to stop Fogg in territory under British control in Suez, in
Aden, in Bombay, in Calcutta, in Singapore, and even in Hong Kong. He finally
located the warrant when he visited the British Consulate in Yokohama. However,
by that time he and Fogg were no longer on British owned soil.
( Picture
34 – Fogg arrested by Fix)
He had to
wait until he could spring his trap on Fogg when they reached Liverpool,
although he could have done it in Queenstown in Ireland, then part of the
British Empire. Now such an arrest warrant would be useless outside the
UK.
Now too we
can again hope to travel as safely as Phileas Fogg. First, we are survivors of
the covid pandemic. Even though the former European empires are no more, the
section of the world in which we are enjoying our cruise also offers a safe and
peaceful route, at least at the ports we visit.
But great
dangers lurk.
(picture –
Nicholas I, Putin)
The
confrontation with Russia we had in the XIXth century has returned, and the
invasion of Ukraine, starting again with Crimea, is threatening us with a much
wider conflict.
(Picture 35
– Red Sea Map)
Also, so
close to our route we had the Horn of Africa which until a few years ago was
the haunt of pirates. Also, we were within 200 miles of the civil war in Yemen.
According to the UN, over 150,000 people have been killed in Yemen, as well as
estimates of more than 227,000 dead as a result of an ongoing related famine
and lack of healthcare facilities. On
the other side we have just seen the end of the brutal conflict over the Tigray
province in Ethiopia and we still have the continued instability and violence
in the failed state of Somalia.
(Picture 36
– Map of South China Sea)
We sailed
through the South China Sea which China is claiming now to be internal Chinese
waters and is building military bases on lonely island reefs of the Spratly
Island which are disputed territories claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam and
Malaysia, and the Paracel Islands also claimed by Vietnam. Further north China
has threatened that by 2027 it will take over Taiwan by peace or by force,
which could theoretically bring China into open conflict with the United
States.
(picture 37
– Mexico drug cartel)
Also, the
Mexican government is facing a violent showdown with the rival drug gangs which
dominate some of the northern provinces.
So,
although we travel in safety, the world we pass through is still not a safe
place. It is still on pause.
Perhaps on
a happier note, our two journeys do resemble each other in one other aspect. As
we travel celebrating our various birthdays and anniversaries, we make this
very much a cruise of love and harmony,
(Picture 38
– Phileas Fogg and Princess Aouda) Phileas Fogg’s journey is also one that ends
with harmony and romance as he falls in love with the Indian princess whom he
rescued. No spoiler there. For those of you who like their General Knowledge
quizzes any guesses as to the name of the two actors?
For me and
for some of you this cruise is not just a simple cruise. It is also a pilgrimage
to the fictitious voyage of Phileas Fogg. Just like devotees of Startrek, or
Harry Potter, or the Sherlock Holmes Society, we seek to recreate the modern
legend and relate it to our own experience. So please enjoy sailing in safety
and comfort as Phileas Fogg’s footsteps are retraced on the Borealis. Your
pilgrimage is near completion.
Many thanks
for listening.
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