Off Course with Charles Lightoller
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N.B. See red? Click to follow. Off Course with Charles Lightoller "Now is it town again, londmear of Dub- lin! And off coursse the toller, ples the dotter of his eyes with her:" (372.03) Fig. 1. Officers of the RMS Titanic Herbert Pitman and Charles Lightoller (centre), New York, 1912, after surviving the sinking. Photographer unknown. Rather weak evidence, that "toller" is a reference to the 2nd officer of the RMS Titanic, Charles Lightoller, can be had by reading the above passage in a way that evokes a maritime atmosphere. For example, "off coursse" brings to mind Charles Lightoller's many off course adventures during his career as the investigation(s) into the sinking of the Titanic revealed. There is also Lightoller's Distinguished Service Cross earned after the off course ramming of a German U-boat. "Londmear"/land mêr, land lake "of Dublin" (the Titanic was built in Belfast... no matter, it is the impression formed in the readers mind that is important, not the facts) are also reminders of seafaring. Another is "ples the dotter"/plies the waters or a .er Morse coder and so on. But the much more convincing: "bomboosting to be in thelitest civille row faction for a dubblebrasterd navvygaiterd, (flick off that hvide aske, big head!) sagd he, the big bag of my hamd till hem, tollerloon, sagd he, first officer of the Oceanic" (320.06) is found elsewhere. Lightoller was, for a time, 1rst officer of the RMS Oceanic which plied the White Star Line's Southhampton- Cherbourg-Queenston-New York route1, as did the Titanic. 1 For other demonstrations of Charles Lightoller's presence in the Wake see pp. 14-15: https://fuyublog.wordpress.com/exploration/megantic-a-white-star-story/ Testing Hypotheses or Chasing Synchronicity? Off Corse (the island) is, of course, a very Wakean concept; a concept who's description is beyond the scope of this note. There does not seem to be any special connection between Lightoller and the island of Corse. However, on the faithful night of the 15th of April, 1912, after Lightoller the Loon had kept men at bay with his trusty Webley, and sent half empty lifeboats out to sea, an American socialite, Edith Corse Evans, yielded her seat to Mrs. Molly Brown, saying that her own life was less important since she had no children; Miss Evens perished. The pressed abundantly covered the lives of the rich and famous, such as mrs. Evens and Brown, who were on the Titanic when it sunk. John Jacob Astor, Fig. 2. Edith Corse Evans. the richest person on the Titanic, was photographed by Father Francis Browne S.J., boarding a train for Southampton and the Titanic. Both men figure in Finnegans Wake: "that the gossiple so delivered in his epistolear, buried teatoastally in their Irish stew would go no further than his jesuit's cloth, yet (in vinars venitas! volatiles valetotum!) it was this overspoiled priest Mr Browne, disguised as a vincentian," (38.22-26) Brown was James Joyce's classmate at University College Dublin. "-- This is time for my tubble, reflected Mr 'Gladstone Browne' in the toll hut (it was choractoristic from that 'man of Delgany'). Dip."(334.06-08) Fig. 3. Father Frank Brown S.J. Here there is an association with Lightoller as "toll hut" which in German is Toller Hut. However, I have not found any photographs of Charles Lightoller by Father Francis Browne. "Such askors and their ruperts they are putting in for more osghirs is alse false liarnels." (241.31-32) And here J.J. Astor (and the Astors in general) are associated with the Ruppert Brewers' fortune of the turn of the 20th century. It should also be pointed out that the Astor fortune was made in large part by exploiting the fur trade in Rupertland (British North America). Fig. 4. John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV boarding the Titanic Special, Waterloo Station, April 9, 1912. Photographer: Father Francis Browne S.J. .