Maru
Out of the Smoke. By Ray Parkin. (140 Press, 21s.) Tuts is the story of some of the survivors -0 Australian cruiser Perth, which went down_14 Java with flags flying at the end of a prods naval action early in 1942. Finding than cast away on a small island in the Sunda a handful of officers and seamen set about 65,, up a lifeboat for an attempt to sail far soul'. safety. Exhausted, parched, querulous and English standards) ill-disciplined, but together by a common loyalty to the vanclin5 Perth. they sail for many days and nighlsp, death breathing down their necks. until having come safely to the port of TjilatjaP, find that they have come too late—that Tlilat is already in Japanese hands. But their en°IN says the author, have not been wasted : for
honour of HMAS Perth has been upheld. 20
Now, taken as a sea yarn this is all well 4. good. The story is competently and at times e`.`,j lently told (there is, for example, a most nil: account of the Perth's last action). 0,1'4 technicalities are thoroughly gone into for with a mind for such things, and if you ea°110 up with an overdose of what apparently Pa ip among Australians for humour, then you enjoy this tale very much. But the aspect of 1(1; book which both intrigues and appals ire aspect much praised by Colonel Laurens vaa",i Post in his introduction) is the author's insistenv' on what van der Post calls the 'Mart; of Perth—the Want' being something between '01 spirit and the honour of the ship and somethlt,, which moves its crew to loyalty and evell,,31 worship. What makes it (I think) sinister is this expression is not just a metaphorical clo.'ir for denoting the unity and courage of a warrIilic group but is definitely used so as to impir ,ol existence of a spirit which is entirely indePad,'w of the crew and belongs to the ship itself. In end it would appear that the men are tiler" of the ship and that they serve, not one another even the whole group, but the actual shiP itg which they sail. Thus the heroic journey in lifeboat, as the author sees it, is undertaken alb so much in order that the survivors sil°"„ie escape the Japanese as that they should, in mystical fashion, complete the voyage of the str'lli ken Perth and bring her home to rest. BY means let us serve a group of human beings L:t,. let us not devote ourselves to inanimate °Wes because if we do; we are behaving like savag„r round a wooden totem. There are, I am told, e". owners who make little account of the PILIT0 they go to but slavishly adore the machine ,0 which they get there. That Mr. Parkin shoo want us to adore a ship of the line is, if and thing, worse; for even the most expensive C3 are not fitted out with guns. IS
Previous page
