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Errol Leaves India for Africa — May 28, 1933

29 May

After a side-splitting incident with a rickshaw boy on the island of Ceylon, Errol left with Erben for the mainland French Colony of Pondicherry. From Pondicherry they traveled an intolerably slow and hot five days on a train “jammed” with “Untouchables”, up the east coast of India to Calcutta, where they witnessed a ~ “dizzying spectacle of temples, beggary, dung in the street, wispy Indian girls in their white wrappings, and whorehouses.” Leaving Calcutta for Africa on the French ship La Stella Errol brawled with a spitting-mad “huge Black Sengalese soldier who bunked above him in steerage. Erben had a good laugh at how decisively Errol lost that dispute.

Finally, on May 28, 1933, Errol left India on the French paquebot Compiegne, through the Gulf of Mannar, then through Arabian Sea to Djibouti, in what was then the French colony of Somaliland.

As depicted below, this route was part of an ancient maritime portion of the old “Silk Road” between China and Europe. Sounds sensible to call it the “Silk Seaway”.

— Tim

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Posted in Author Errol Flynn, Behind the Scenes, Gentleman Tim, Ships & the Sea, Travels

“Voyage of Discovery” — Asia to Ceylon

28 May

According to My Wicked, Wicked Ways …

Following their escapades in Asia, Errol and Erben sailed on the French ship D’Artagnon*, through the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, toward India. On this “voyage of discovery”, as he later described it to his father, Errol became enamored with a beautiful half-Swiss, half Japanese, young woman name named Myako. She was from a Swiss Colony in Kobe**. Unfortunately for Errol, Myako had a Swiss husband onboard, one who soon made his own discovery, i.e. Errol below decks with Myako.

“Nuts, screeching, and out of control”, Myako’s extraordinarily-strong and irate Swiss husband discovered Errol with his wife in the couple’s first-class cabin, both half-undressed. First, seized Errol’s throat and attempted to choke him to death. Then, when Errol finally managed to pry himself free, he pulled a revolver threatened again to kill Errol, this time pointing his revolver at one of Errol’s most prized possessions.

Errol was not able to talk his way out of danger with this insanely-jealous husband, but he was able to dodge the shot fired at him and take the gun from him. To Errol’s dismay, however, the noise of the shot and its ” zinging from wall to wall” “in the steel cabin” “through the first-class cabin” “like a blowfly over a piece of cheese” summoning the ship’s French officers, who promptly ordered Errol to permanently leave the ship, in Colombo, on the British island colony of Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. Errol attributed his being booted from the D’Artagnon‘, but not the first-class couple, to “economics” and French practicality.

* The D’Artagnan later became a Vichy French warship (renamed the Teiko Maru and manned by Japanese) and was sunk by the USS Puffer, in the South China Sea, near Borneo.

** The Swiss had very extensive enterprises in Japan prior to WWII. In fact, they were responsible for more than a third of all raw silk exportation from Japan. They also exported – predominantly via French and German ports and ships- weaving machinery, wool, muslin, aniline dyes, drugs, perfumes, and watches. In fact, over 90% of all watches exported into Japan were imported from Switzerland.

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Gentleman Tim, Ships & the Sea, Travels

测验

15 May

— Tim

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Posted in Author Errol Flynn, Behind the Scenes, QUIZ PAGE, Ships & the Sea, Travels

Errol Gets Shanghaied — Voluntarily — Part 1 — Now for the loot, the jade, the daughters of the Mings, the treasures of ancient Cathay!

14 May

Hong Kong Volunteers Headquarters, circa Flynn’s time in China, including British, Asian, Scottish, Canadian, and the Australian volunteers. The Australians are wearing trademark ANZAC “slouch hats”.

— Tim

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Posted in Author Errol Flynn, Behind the Scenes, Gentleman Tim, Ships & the Sea, Travels

Errol’s Malaria – Part 3 – Reports of Recurrences

13 May

Ensuing his first year in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Errol suffered frequent recurrences of malaria throughout his life, to the very week of his death.

He appears to have contracted malaria for the first time in 1928, months after he first moved to Papua New Guinea in October of 1927.

Malaria plagued him during 1929, which factored into his decision to return to Sydney, after 25 months in PNG.

On June 18, 1930, the Rockingham Morning Bulletin states that “Captain Flynn” was suffering from a “touch of malaria”.

In 1931 and 1932 Errol had multiple malarial attacks, , including on the “black-birding” trip during which he was ambushed and injured. He reported that during that excursion he was “freezing and sweating at the same time” from malaria.

In March of 1933, newspapers reviewing In the Wake of the Bounty reported of Errol’s malaria in PNG.

In May of 1933, While in China, Errol reports having suffered a bout of malaria, “shaking and shivering” after his brief affair with Ting Ling O’Connor in Macoa.

In 1935, Errol suffered a malarial attack during filming of Captain Blood.

In 1937, Errol publishes Beam Ends, regarding which the Sydney Daily Telegraph reports that Errol was hospitalized in Townsville with malaria.

In September of 1938, Errol was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital prior to opening of The Sisters because of “malarial fever” and respiratory infection.

Circa late September 1940, Errol had a bout with malaria in Mexico City.

In September of 1941, Errol collapsed in an elevator in part due to malaria.

In 1942, Errol was documented to be suffering from recurring bouts of malaria, which contributed to his not being accepted by the Armed Forces for service in WW II. Coupled with heart murmurs and tuberculosis, he was told by doctors he would not survive the decade.

In Vancouver, shortly before his death in October of 1959, Errol had a bout of malaria.

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Gentleman Tim, New Articles, New Guinea, Newspaper & Headlines, Ships & the Sea, Travels

Errol’s Malaria — Part 1 — Blood-Thirsty Ann

10 May

The lowlands of Papua New Guinea’s north coast have been a flashpoint in the shattering contest of mosquito versus human throughout history. Here people don’t so much die from malaria as endure it, morbidity outstripping mortality. Debilitating sickness reverberates through genetics, culture, prosperity and aspiration.

Malaria is particularly and powerfully entrenched in the communities here on PNG’s north coast and through the surrounding lowlands, where it has afflicted and shaped generations throughout history, a story written into their DNA.

There are four main types of human malaria. By far the most notorious and deadliest is Plasmodium falciparum, the biggest killer globally. By contrast, PNG has the world’s highest prevalence of P. vivax, which is difficult to control because it lingers in the body and relapses.

This type of malaria (P. vivax) inflicts relapsing illness on their carriers. This is the malaria tale familiar to so many travelers and soldiers who returned from the tropics to find themselves mysteriously floored by bouts of illness for years afterwards.

cosmosmagazine.com…

The location where Errol is believed to have first been stricken with malaria in or near New Britain – and the lifelong recurrent nature of his malaria, is evidence that he obtained it from “Ann” the female Anopheles mosquito, as did soldiers stationed in those same exact locations during World War II.

Conditions in the South Pacific Theater during World War II were harsh — thick jungle, high temperatures, heavy rainfall, swamps, excessive mud, and mountainous terrain made life difficult enough for Soldiers. But the environment was perfect for mosquitos. Disease, especially malaria, was rampant among the troops. Although dysentery and beriberi took their toll, malaria was by far the most devastating disease, causing more casualties than the enemy. In many cases throughout the campaigns malaria played a significant role in determining the outcome of battle.

The primary carrier of malaria was the species Anopheles minimus flavirostris, sometimes nicknamed “Ann” by the Soldiers. This type of mosquito thrived in the Pacific island regions, doing best in regions with swiftly-flowing, clear, shaded water.

www.armyheritage.org…

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Errol Flynn's Homes, Gentleman Tim, New Articles, New Guinea, Newspaper & Headlines, Ships & the Sea, Travels

Errol Robbed in China – May 1933

10 May

MAY 1933 – “Can’t an honest man make port without being stolen from!”

After being conned in Macao by Ting Ling O’Connor, Errol was robbed of his secret stash of diamonds. It was a big affair back in Hong Kong.

— Tim

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Off to Macao for Fan-Tan

08 May

Following Errol’s heavy losses at the Happy Valley race track, he decided to leave the British colony of Hong Kong for the Portugese colony of Macao in seek of better luck, especially at fan-tan, a Chinese game of chance he learned in New Guinea. He and Herr Erben hopped “the Fusham a small packet” to Macao, a 35-mile trip, an approximately 3 or 4 hour trip west across the Pearl River Delta. Macau was a largely undeveloped refuge for fishermen, wayfarers and exiles until the Portuguese settled there in the mid 16th century. In the 1930s, when Errol visited, it was had an extremely poor population, and reputation. As Errol states in MWWW, it was known as “the stinkpot of the orient”. No longer, though: Now it is one of the wealthiest regions in the world.

Here is a passenger ferry schedule from Hong Kong to Macao typical of when Errol took the trip:

Here’s junk-filled Macoa Harbor circa the time of Errol’s visit:

Here’s a 1930’s bird’s-eye view of Macoa:

Much of Macau’s prosperity is owed to gambling, which was legalized by the Portuguese in 1847. As many as 200 gambling dens when Errol visited, offering traditional Chinese favorites, including most notably fan tan.

In the years since Errol’s time there, “Macao has transformed from a sleepy Portuguese colony of amateur gambling dens and down-at-the-heel hotels to the Las Vegas of the East.”

Indeed, by many measures (at least prior to the Covid-19 pandemic), Macao is the most significant gambling mecca in now the world, bigger than Vegas.

— Tim

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Young Flynn in Hong Kong

07 May

On May 7, 1933, , on his meandering, months-long adventure-by-sea west from New Guinea to England, Errol arrived in Hong Kong. This photo shows Victoria how Errol would have seen it.

John Hammond Moore’s superb, pioneering biography of “Young Errol Flynn” states that it was likely the Nankin on which Errol and Erben steamed to Hong Kong (via Manila.) Moore has the date as March 4 – date corrections encouraged.) Below is a photo of the Nankin, which, I’ve read, was captured by the Nazi warship Thor in May of 1942 carrying very highly secret British correspondence and intelligence. It’s a good thing Chuck Pigham did not learn of this major security breach and blame it, too (along with Pearl Harbor … the Holocaust, 9/11, and the Covid-19 corona virus, et al) on Young Herr Flynn.
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And this magnificent film depicts and describes what “The Gateway to China” looked like and was like in the 1930s.

— Tim

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Cinco por Cinco de Mayo

05 May

Buenos Dias, Amigos.

Errol was a very frequent traveler to Mexico during his heydays in Hollywood. He drove, he flew, and he sailed to South of the Border. In celebration of today’s Cinco de Mayo holiday, here are five chronological photos taken in Mexico City, Acapulco, and Morelia, plus a bonus bow-and-arrow-fishing film with Howard Hill in the famous sportfishing waters off the coast of Old Mexico.