Pascal Bollon

Tagged: Steamships

1938 May to October | Suzanne on Tour, Smyrna to Garches

1938 May to October | Suzanne on Tour, Smyrna to Garches

The SS Ussukuma ploughs through the waves of the Canary Islands, the swells just there to reinforce the impression of a race to the stables. It could have been a perfect 10 year anniversary of the First Crossing, but for a year. Anyhow, Tenerife then, Tenerife today, Tenerife tomorrow. The…

1931 June 29 | On the SS Njassa, Sailing Home | Transvaal Blue Skies

1931 June 29 | On the SS Njassa, Sailing Home

They were back on the SS Njassa, 2 years later, this time back home. Everything felt as if it had just stood still all these months waiting for them.
She keeps smoothening the small crease. Disappointing. The conversations around her drone on, so she drifts for a moment; the countdown…

Saluting the Sister Ship | E6 high sea meet with CMB Gouverneur Galopin 1949

Saluting the Sister Ship

We are in March 1949, on deck of the Albertville. The captain’s voice, laced with feedback, sweeps across the windswept decks : “Get ready to salute our sister ship the Gouverneur Galopin. She will pass port-side”. We must be somewhere midway through the trip, then. The Azores and Tenerife. Land ahoy!...

The Line Crossing Ceremony

The Line-Crossing Ceremony

Sail through the Equator, and Neptune himself will welcome you to the seafaring community! Become one of us salty seadogs. Harr. Or something. A short interview by the assembled jury of Neptune, his wife, kid, and the confirmed members of the nautical fraternity. There will be of course a few...

Aboard a Steam Ocean Liner, 1949 - Albertville in Tenerife

Aboard a Steam Ocean Liner

Very little seemed more of an out-of-body experience than listening to my mother, her sisters and their mother talking about “Taking the Boat”. It was never this or that ship, this or that year. Just “On the Boat”. Practically speaking, any of it seemed that special to me. After all,...