Herm, Heinrich The Voyage.

Originally published in Germany in 1925 under the title Moira; later published in Great Britain under the title Frail Safety. Disaster strikes a world cruise in the wake of a mid-Pacific collision with a derelict vessel. Herm’s soap opera of a novel is set aboard the German liner AUSTRALIA and follows the fortunes of a stuffy German sociology professor who, in concert with the ship’s stalwart captain, misleads his fellow passengers as to the seriousness of the situation. What’s of perhaps most interest to today’s reader is the author’s pompous, pro-German jingoism which is combined with a supreme condescension to other nationalities represented aboard the wounded vessel (viz, this gem by the AUSTRALIA’s shipmaster spoken to our Herr Professor at one of Herm’s innumerable climaxes: “It will be necessary for us [i.e., the ship’s officers] to use revolvers — there are South Americans aboard ... Don’t you understand, we must maintain discipline to the very end. We are a German ship!”). Add to this babble Herm’s harping on the “good, clean” death anticipated by the ship’s brave mariners and you’ve got a rather strange Teutonic brew indeed!