SHIPS ON AN INDIAN RIVER

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 139, 7 March 1936, Page 23

SHIPS ON AN INDIAN RIVER

Pilot’s Biography “On the Hooghly,” by .Malcolm Hamilton Beattie. Illustrated by the author. (London: Philip Allan.) The Hooghly is one of the numerous mouths of the Ganges River, and is the principal marine thoroughfare to and from Calcutta. Below that city, between it and the open sea, is over a hundred miles of pilotage water, with dangerous and shifting sandbanks. I’o guide visiting ships through this labyrinth of dangers, a skilled and experienced staff of pilots is employed on the Hooghly, and one of these men has now recorded the vicissitudes of 3o years in that service in a very interesting volume. The author, Malcolm H. Beattie, joined the Hooghly Pilot Service in 1878, and retired in 1913. He was on the river in days when the pilot was expected to tack full-rigged ships and barques up to Calcutta, and Mr. Beattie was one of the last men to take a big square-rigger up the river. The experiences of a life-time are crammed into the pages of Mr. Beattie’s book, and many are definitely novel and unusual. The Thomasiua McLellan, manned by seamen in tailcoats and silk hats; the tiger that escaped from its cage on a passenger steamer, and was kicked back by the captain; the ship’s officer who, for eating A shipmate, had been sentenced to death and then pardoned; the Frenchman who ate a vulture in mistake for a turkey; such are the ships, people and events that Mr. Beattie tells of. He has interesting matter to relate, and he describes it in the simple, straightforward language of the sea. The work shows humour and tolerance, and a profound love of the river, men and ships. It is illustrated by the author, in black and white.