Notes on Lowry and War: A Walk in Liverpool July 2014 Part 3

HMS Hyderabad at Bristol 1918

This is the final set of notes following a recent walk I led around Liverpool's Business Quarter and Riverfront organised by The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Read Part 1
Read Part 2

Stop 5 Canning Dock

The character Geoffrey Firmin, the Consul in Lowry's Under The Volcano was a Lieutenant-Commander of the Q-Ship S.S. Samaritan during WW 1. In the novel, Firmin is haunted by his involvement in the deaths of a captured German U-Boat crew by placing them in the furnace of the Samaritan.

HMS  Baralong

Is the above based on fact? Possible sources:

Ronald Binns [MLN 8, 6] has tracked down the probable historical source of the Samaritan incident: the so-called "Baralong incident" of 19 August 1915, after the capture of the British ship, the SS Nicosian, by the German submarine U-27. A British Q-ship, the Baralong, appeared flying the American flag, let fall its false sides, and sank the submarine. The master, Lieutenant-Commander Godfrey Herbert (whose name and rank is similar to Geoffrey's), ordered his crew to give no quarter, and twelve German sailors were shot. See Baralong Incident for further details

The above was suppressed by British Government during and after war so how could Lowry know the details?

Source 1: Coles, Alan (1986). Slaughter at Sea: The Truth Behind a Naval War Crime - discusses the myth of German sailors being burnt in the furnaces of the SS Nicosian. See Pg 167 - Cole states several sources from Liverpool that this story was common in the docklands of Liverpool - could Lowry have heard these during 1927/28 when he sailed to the Far east and later haunted the dockland pubs?

Source 2: Lowry's brother Wilfrid was then a member of the Royal Naval Reserve based on H.M.S. Eagle (Eaglet) in Canning Dock during and shortly after WW1 - Some of the Q-ship commanders were in the RNR. e.g. Ronald Niel Stuart - he survived the war and was a local hero returning to service with the Canadian Pacific based in Liverpool. Stuart had been a member of the Royal Naval Reserve before the war and became a leading member when he returned.

It isn't impossible that Wilfrid may have heard stories/yarns or quite conceivably unpalatable truths of the Q-ship war, due to his access to sailors who had fought in the war. He may have related these stories to Lowry or Lowry may have heard them first hand and adapted them later from memories of an impressionable child in 1918/19.

S.S. Nicosian

Source 3: The SS Nicosian was owned by the Liverpool based Leyland line - crewed by local sailors - could one of them told Lowry what had happened? Lowry also sailed to the USA in 1928 aboard a Leyland ship SS Dorelian

Source 4: The Baralong Incident was widely reported outside the UK during the war including USA - many varied accounts were written including the furnace story - could Lowry have heard about this from a US source e.g. Conrad Aiken on Lowry's visit to Boston in 1928?

Bowker notes that Lowry wa taken by his bother Wilfrid to see a Q-ship in Liverpool in either late 1918 or 1919 (Bowker Pursued by Furies P16). The Lowry brothers saw a dummy run of the Q-ship drill, dropping the false bulkheads, exposing a gun, and firing a blank round.

The above visit was to see HMS Hyderabad - the ship was docked at Canning Dock in mid December 1918 (Liverpool Echo 27/11/18) as part of a nationwide tour to demonstrate how the ships operated against submarines. The photos below are part of a set made by Tierney's Studios of 6 Lord Street. Liverpool to record the event:

An unidentified U-Boat visited Canning Dock Liverpool around the same time as Hyderabad but full details are yet to be discovered. There is no evidence that Lowry visited the Uboat. Again the submarine was photographed by Tierney's - see photo below with caption "To the victors the spoils":

Lowry must have retained an interest in Q-ships as they appear in the short story 'Goya The Obscure' when Lowry notes an advert; "Mystery Ship VC Visits Wallasey" (Pg. 273). This relates to a lecture given by Vice Admiral Gordon Campbell at Wallasey Town Hall on Friday, January 10th 1930. The advert noted by Lowry appeared twice in the Wallasey News on December 21st 1929 and again on December 28th 1929. A short reminder also appeared inside the paper on December 28th as seen below:

Read more about the above lecture here

Leonard Campbell Taylor  Dazzle-painted ships, including Aquitania, in the Mersey off the Liverpool waterfront

See Edmund Gardner painted as a "dazzle ship"

Lowry refers to dazzle ships in Under The Volcano:

Hugh too was scrutinizing the Gothic writing beneath the photograph: Der englische Dampfer tragt Schutzfarben gegen deutsche U-boote. 'Only on the next page, I recall, was a picture of the Emden', the Consul went on, 'with "So verliess ich den Weltteil unserer Antipoden", something of that nature, under it...' – UTV, 184.

Chris Ackerley has discovered source:

Ger. "The English steamer carries camouflage against German U-boats." The American text corrects Lowry's error, ‘tragt’, which is perpetuated in the British text. In a letter to Albert Erskine [16 July 1946; CL 1, 611], Lowry says that he has lost the original, but that it depicted two photographs, the first a British Q-ship, and the second the Emden, as shown to him in a German restaurant in Mexico City, the captions in Gothic print. Despite this camouflage, his actual source was Felix Graf von Luckner's Seeteufel: Abenteuer aus meinem Leben [Sea Devil: adventures from my life] (K. F. Koehler, 1921), which, however, makes no mention of the Emden (von Luckner was in the South Pacific, the Emden in the Indian Ocean). The Malcolm Lowry Project

Chris Ackerely also notes:

In the Texas manuscript [TM VI, 45], Lowry is explicit about the connection between “Everything about the Samaritan was a fake” and Hugh’s like sense of himself; but in a marginal note wondered if it were not better to abandon the idea of fake altogether.

Lowry sailed back from USA in 1928 aboard the RMS Cedric which was painted in dazzle colours during WW1:

Sholto Johnstone Douglas SS 'Cedric', White Star Liner, Lying in the Mersey

Notes on Lowry and War: A Walk in Liverpool 6th July 2014 Part 2

A British trench near the Albert-Bapaume road at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. The men are from A Company, 11th Battalion, The Cheshire Regiment.

The second set of notes for a walk I led around Liverpool's Business Quarter and Riverfront organised by The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Read Part 1
Read Part 3

Stop 3 Pierhead, Liverpool 

Lowry makes several references to the Pierhead and the Liver Buildings in his work. Also the setting for a whole chapter in forthcoming publication of previously unpublished novel In Ballast to the White Sea (October 2014).

Pier Head Liverpool Circa 1930s

Lowry's brother Stuart told their father Arthur that if he survived the First World War he would climb the Liver Building and retrieve one of the Liver birds. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 14). Stuart returns from WW1 suffering from arthritis of the foot. Stuart apparently shattered by deaths of comrades. Injury prevents a military career. Finishes war as a Captain (Bowker Pg 15) (See Part 1 for Stuart's army service record)

The Liver Building is topped by the Liver Birds which have become symbols for the city. I am sure that Lowry would have appreciated that irony, with his love of birds, that the mythical Liver Birds are based on the cormorant, which is a symbol of deception and greed - a fitting symbol for Lowry's "terrible city whose main street is the ocean" 'Forest Path to the Spring' (Hear Us O Lord etc pg 226)

The Consul recalls the Liver Buildings in Under The Volcano when he returns to Liverpool aboard his Q-ship Samaritan during WW1; "How strange the landing at Liverpool, the Liver Building seen once more through the misty rain, that murk smelling already of nosebags and Caegwyrle Ale.." (Pg. 135).

Shanghai 1927

Lowry sails to Far East in 1927 from Birkenhead - experiences war first hand in China - Chinese Civil War (See short story China) Later claims that scar on knee is as a consequence of being wounded in the Civil War - a Lowry tall story! ( See Bowker Pg 70.)

Lowry refers to Chinese participation in WW1 in his first novel Ultramarine - the Chinese Labour Corps; "We'll put you in the Chinese Labour Corps. The order of the rising sun - tee hee! - for promiscuous gallantry."  (See Chinese Labour Corps)

Cammell Lairds 1940

'Freighter 1940'  One of several  poems referencing Liverpool during the war written in Lowry's "exile" in Vancouver in WW2 (Collected Poetry Pg. 143);

A freighter builds in Birkenhead where rain
Falls in labourers' eyes at sunset. Then 
She's launched! Her iron sides strain as merchants gaze;
A cheer swoops down into titanic ways.

Lowry referencing Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead.

Lowry writes a poem in 1940 entitled 'Epitaph On Our Gardener, Dead Near Liverpool' when he hears of the death of his old friend - George Cooke - the gardener to the Lowry family who lived in Caldy, Wirral.

Lowry makes reference to the bombing and war on Merseyside;

.....Good folk of Wirral,
Empty the sky one instant of evil.....
Let hatred pause a moment. Rest your gun
Against this stone in heart......... (Collected Poems 210.3)

Continuing with theme that Lowry may have felt guilty about being cut off from his family who were threatened by war? (See Bowker Pgs 270-298) for details of early WW2 "exile" in Canada and relations with his family and possible enlistment in British and Canadian armies) - see poems below written in Vancouver circa 1940

The Prodigal speaks:

I have no forgiveness in my soul
And I want to get out of this hell hole (Collected Poems 209.1)

Read 'Draft Board' 1940-45 :

Back broad and straight from crop to hocks.......
Add 25 counts of progeny
See you in Liverpool (Collected Poems 203.3)

Read 'Dream of Departing Soldier'

Good bye, old comrade, of your death I pray
It proves sweet marjoram nor turn caraway. (Collected Poems 204.2)

Read 'Deserter'

In a refrigerator car at Empress,
Then, lying on bare boards in a small room,
Dead...'Should be in England?' 'Home for Christmas?' (Collected Poems 155.13)

Above poem probably based on yet to be identified newspaper article read by Lowry circa Winter 1939 - probably expresses his feeling that he would not fight/desert if forced to enlist - uses irony of over optimistic prediction that war would be over by Christmas which many thought in WW1. Lowry may also be refering to political situation within Canada in 1939 with regards to conscription (Read more about conscription in Canada in WW2)

Notes on Lowry and War: A Walk in Liverpool July 2014 Part 1

Last Sunday, I led a walk organised by The Bluecoat, Liverpool around Liverpool's Business Quarter and Riverfront stopping at sites linked to Lowry and his writings and experiences of war.

Part 2
Part 3

Below are notes based on the walk with links to further material plus references to Lowry texts.

Stop 1 Cook Street/Castle Street Liverpool

Cook Street Arcades Liverpool 1941

Read poem 'Imprisoned in a Liverpool of self' Collected Poems 233.2

One of several poems referencing Liverpool during the war written in Lowry's "exile" in Vancouver

Did Lowry see photographs of "gutted arcades" in Liverpool following 1941 German bombing blitz?

These poems appear to be a nostalgic contemplation of a lost past which is threatened by war.

Refer to short story 'June 30th 1934' (originally entitled 'Metal' and begun in 1934 but still being worked on in 1939 - see Bowker Pg. 292) - influenced by Lowry's reading of Ernst Henri's Hitler Over Europe which predicts WW2 and possibly H.J. Massingham's "metallic age" in People and things, an attempt to connect art and humanity 1919 (Note also Lowry's references to Crete may stem from Lowry's reading of Massingham's Through The Wilderness 1935.

Lowry's alter-ego Bill Goodyear seems to reflect guilt of not fighting/volunteering when Goodyear lies to Firmin, a WW1 veteran, who has met on a train while crossing the battlefields of the Somme. This theme underlies Lowry's own experiences of not volunteering for the Spanish Civil war unlike his friend John Sommerfield. (See Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Chapter X)

John Cornford

See Spanish Civil War references in Chapter 6 of Under The Volcano - a chapter on Hugh - the consul's half-brother e.g. John Cornford - There is a strong element of Cornford in the characterisation of Hugh: the Communist leanings; the romanticism of Rupert Brooke (Cornford's name-sake); and the desire to rush off to Spain in defence of a dubious freedom. Chris Ackerley 

 'June 30th 1934' WW1 details may be based on Lowry's brother Stuart who fought in WW1.

Stuart's service career 11th (Service) Battalion  Cheshire Regiment. 17.09.1914 Formed at Chester as part of the Third New Army (K3). Stuart enlists 22/9/1914. And then moved to Codford St. Mary in the 75th Brigade of the 25th Division and then moved to Bournemouth. May 1915 Moved to Aldershot. 26.09.1915 Mobilised for war and landed in France and engaged in various actions on the Western Front including; 1916: German attack on Vimy Ridge May 1916. German attack on Vimy Ridge, The Battle of Albert, The Battle of Bazentin, The Battle of Pozieres, The Battle of the Ancre Heights. 1917 The Battle of Messines, The Battle of Pilkem.

Joins as Lieutenant 26th Service Battalion of Royal Welch Fusiliers - 16.07.1918 in France from the 4th Garrison Guard of the 176th Brigade of the 59th Division. 11.11.1918 Ended the war in Delpre N.E. of Tournai, Belgium.

Did Lowry feel guilty about being cut off from his family who were threatened by war? (See Bowker Pgs 270-298) for details of early WW2 "exile" in Canada and relations with his family and possible enlistment in British and Canadian armies)

Lowry claims to have argued with his father Arthur Lowry in 1934 over possibility of war (Bowker Pg 274)

Lowry - "I continued warning my family but they took no damn notice. Result: they'll probably not only lose all their money, but be killed, when they might have been living in Jerusalem" (Letter to Margerie Bonner Sept. 1939)

Stop 2 Nelson's Monument, Exchange Flags 

Exchange Flags circa 1900

Arthur Lowry worked as cotton broker at Buston's & Co. in Exchange Flags before moving to new purpose built Cotton Exchange in 1906.

The Nelson Monument is a monument to Admiral Horatio Nelson, in Exchange Flags, Liverpool, England. It was designed by Matthew Cotes Wyatt and sculpted by Richard Westmacott. It stands to the north of the Town Hall and was unveiled in 1813.

The Battle of Copenhagen, as painted by Nicholas Pocock

Nelson was a hero of Arthur Lowry's (See Bowker Pg. 14 Arthur raises his hat to the memory of Nelson while sailing to Russia in 1914 when passes the site of the Battle of Copenhagan) - the statue in Exchange Flags references that victory - Arthur would have been reminded of his hero on a daily basis.

Lowry refers to his father as a "Tory of Tory capitalists on a grand scale" - Bowker suggests that Arthur Lowry would have been caught up in jingoism of WW1( See Bowker Pg. 14)

Lowry's rebellion against father's politics - apparent in British Empire references in Chapter 6 of Under The Volcano - see Chris Ackerley - Cambridge left wing influences shown in anti-fascist stance in Under The Volcano ( See also references to Spanish Civil War in Bowker)

The monument also features as a key place in political discussions between Sigbjorn and his father in forthcoming unpublished novel In Ballast to the White (October 2014) - these discussions may possibly reflect ones Lowry had with his father.

1916 - Arthur Lowry sails to USA on board USMS St Louis for cotton business (Bowker Pg 15) - impact of dangers on family and Lowry himself

"Exquisite Bodies: or the Curious and Grotesque History of the Anatomical Model" @ Wellcome Foundation, London July 30 to October 18 2009

The above is a head exhibiting syphilis, c.1900, Collection Family Coolen, Antwerp/Museum Dr Guislain, Ghent, Belgium which will be displayed a the above exhibition.

A theme which runs through Lowry's work is his fear of contracting syphilis. This has been commented on by his biographers Gordon Bowker and Douglas Day. However, I don't propose to speculate on the reasons why Lowry had this fear because I feel Day and Bowker have covered this area in detail.

I am more interested in finding out information on various aspects of this fear such as Lowry's visit to the Liverpool Museum Of Anatomy which may have prompted this fear. I have been researching the former museum in 29 Paradise Street in Liverpool. I have manged to obtain a catalogue to the Museum and this will be displayed at the Lowry Festival later this year. I also intend sharing my research during the Festival as part of a lecture I will be giving on Lowry's Liverpool.

I came across the Morbid Anatomy website as part of my research into Anatomy Museums. The blog has just announced a major exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London which will display exhibits which formed a major part of Anatomy Museums. This is a unique opportunity to see the kinds of exhibits that Lowry may have witnessed in the Liverpool Anatomy Exhibition and which made such a profound impression on him.

Here's more about the exhibition and the phenomenon of popular medical displays, from the Wellcome Collection press release:

In the 19th century, despite the best efforts of body snatchers, the demand from medical schools for fresh cadavers far outstripped the supply. One solution to this gruesome problem came in the form of lifelike wax models. These models often took the form of alluring female figures that could be stripped and split into different sections. Other models were more macabre, showing the body ravaged by 'social diseases' such as venereal disease, tuberculosis and alcohol and drug addiction.

With their capacity to titillate as well as educate, anatomical models became sought-after curiosities; displayed not only in dissecting rooms but also in sideshows and the curiosity cabinets of wealthy Victorian gentlemen. For a small admission fee, visitors seeking an unusual afternoon's entertainment could visit displays of these strange dolls in London, Paris, Brussels and Barcelona.

You can find more details of the exhibition on the Wellcome Collection website.

I have been greatly helped in my research by A W Bates, PhD, MD, Department of Histopathology, Royal Free Hospital, London. You can read one of his articles about Anatomy Museums at Medical History.