SS Patna: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 01:57, 21 April 2014

SS Patna is the name of the fictional ship in the novel Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, originally published in Blackwood's Magazine from October 1899 to November 1900. Though never confirmed by the author, the ship is based on the real ship SS Jeddah. The fictional Patna used steam and sail in combination.

There was also a real three-master rebuild to use steam and sail in combination, the steamship named SS Patna built by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, and launched on 21 April 1871. She was a single-screw passenger ship owned by British India Steam Navigation Company Glasgow & London and scrapped at Bombay in 1901. 1764 tons gross. Length: 298 feet, beam: 33 feet. Whether or not Joseph Conrad partially based his fictional Patna on this ship is unknown.

At least two groups of White Fathers (second and fourth caravan from Zanzibar) have travelled on the real SS Patna from Algiers to Aden on their way to Zanzibar, on the way to the later Heart of Darkness. In the second caravan there was Adolphe Loosveldt, a former pontifical zouave. His correspondence was published in 2010. Loosveldt mentioned the name Patna in June 1879 in three letters; in his letter of June 25, 1879, he mentioned that the steamship Patna was a three-master with a length of 120 m.^[1] In the fourth caravan there was the Flemish White Father Amaat Vyncke on his way to Kibanga who was on board the Patna from April 23, 1883, to May 10, 1883. In his letter of April 24, 1883, he mentioned that the second caravan of White Fathers had also been on by the same ship.^[2] There is no doubt about being this ship because in the same letter, Father Vyncke mentioned it was a three-master and steamer length of 300 feet with capacity of 1800 tons - company: British India Company.

Allusions and references from other works

Jim's ill-fated ship, the Patna, is also mentioned in Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The Immortal." (NB. Patna becomes Patria with a bit of paint peeled from the "n")

In the Alien 3 novelization by Alan Dean Foster, the "rescue" ship that Bishop II arrives in is called the Patna.

Notes

^ Iñez Demarrez, Adolphe Loosveldt (1845-1880), Een leven in brieven (Adolphe Loosveldt, A Life in Letters), RvT, Tielt, 2010 p. 259.
^ Amaat Vyncke, Brieven van een Vlaamsche missionaris in Midden-Afrika, Tweede Reeks: Reis van Algiers naar Zanzibar (Letters from a Flemish missionary in Central-Africa; second series: Voyage from Algiers to Zanzibar), Karel Steyaert-Storie, Brugge, 1885 p. 9.

External links

Lord Jim at Project Gutenberg.
"Stephen Crane as a Source for Conrad's Jim", Nina Galen, Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 38, no. 1 (1983).
http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=10431

[1] Iñez Demarrez, Adolphe Loosveldt (1845-1880), Een leven in brieven (Adolphe Loosveldt, A Life in Letters), RvT, Tielt, 2010 p. 259.

[2] Amaat Vyncke, Brieven van een Vlaamsche missionaris in Midden-Afrika, Tweede Reeks: Reis van Algiers naar Zanzibar (Letters from a Flemish missionary in Central-Africa; second series: Voyage from Algiers to Zanzibar), Karel Steyaert-Storie, Brugge, 1885 p. 9.

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 '''SS ''Patna''''' is the name of the fictional ship in the novel ''[[Lord Jim]]'' by [[Joseph Conrad]], originally published in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'' from October 1899 to November 1900. Though never confirmed by the author, the ship is based on the real ship {{SS|Jeddah}}. The fictional ''Patna'' used steam and sail in combination.
-There was also a real three-master rebuild to use steam and sail in combination, the [[steamship]] named SS ''Patna'' built by William Denny & Brothers Dumbarton, and launched on 21 April 1871. She was a single-screw passenger ship owned by British India Steam Navigation Company Glasgow & London and scrapped at Bombay in 1901. 1764 tons gross. Length: 298 feet, beam: 33 feet. Whether or not Joseph Conrad partially based his fictional ''Patna'' on this ship is unknown.
+There was also a real three-master rebuild to use steam and sail in combination, the [[steamship]] named SS ''Patna'' built by [[William Denny and Brothers]], [[Dumbarton]], and launched on 21 April 1871. She was a single-screw passenger ship owned by British India Steam Navigation Company Glasgow & London and scrapped at Bombay in 1901. 1764 tons gross. Length: 298 feet, beam: 33 feet. Whether or not Joseph Conrad partially based his fictional ''Patna'' on this ship is unknown.
 At least two groups of [[White Fathers]] (second and fourth caravan from Zanzibar) have travelled on the real ''SS Patna'' from [[Algiers]] to [[Aden]] on their way to [[Zanzibar]], on the way to the later ''Heart of Darkness''. In the second caravan there was Adolphe Loosveldt, a former pontifical zouave. His correspondence was published in 2010. Loosveldt mentioned the name Patna in June 1879 in three letters; in his letter of June 25, 1879, he mentioned that the steamship Patna was a three-master with a length of 120 m.<ref>Iñez Demarrez, ''Adolphe Loosveldt (1845-1880), Een leven in brieven'' (Adolphe Loosveldt, A Life in Letters), RvT, Tielt, 2010 p. 259.</ref> In the fourth caravan there was the Flemish White Father Amaat Vyncke on his way to [[Kibanga]] who was on board the ''Patna'' from April 23, 1883, to May 10, 1883. In his letter of April 24, 1883, he mentioned that the second caravan of White Fathers had also been on by the same ship.<ref>Amaat Vyncke, ''Brieven van een Vlaamsche missionaris in Midden-Afrika, Tweede Reeks: Reis van Algiers naar Zanzibar'' (Letters from a Flemish missionary in Central-Africa; second series: Voyage from Algiers to Zanzibar), Karel Steyaert-Storie, Brugge, 1885 p. 9.</ref> There is no doubt about being this ship because in the same letter, Father Vyncke mentioned it was a three-master and steamer length of 300 feet with capacity of 1800 tons - company: British India Company.