There’s a ship in our street!
QUESTION The opening credits of TV’s Call The Midwife show a street of terraced houses and a huge ocean liner. Is this a real picture?
The photograph is genuine. It depicts Shaw Savill Line’s Dominion Monarch at London’s King George V Dock, dwarfing houses in Saville Road, Silvertown.
The ship was a refrigerated cargo liner launched in July 1938 and operated between London/Southampton and New Zealand via Australia.
At 27,000 tons, she was the largest regular user of the Royal Docks. She was also the largest cargo liner ever built and carried 525 first-class passengers and a crew of 385.
The date of the photograph is unknown, but the ship spent a month in the Royal Docks at the end of each voyage, discharging and loading cargo before setting off for Southampton to pick up wealthy passengers.
As demand for luxury liner travel declined, she made her final voyage back to the UK in April 1962. Following a brief spell as a hotel ship in Seattle for the World’s Fair, she was taken to Japan at the end of that year to be broken up.
A photograph taken from the same spot today would take in the terminal buildings of London City Airport beyond the far end of Saville Road.
Jeff Owen, Orpington, Kent.
QUESTION Why is the principle of gun ownership important to Americans?
To UNDeRSTAND this, it is necessary to appreciate the climate and culture that grew up as the United States of America established itself as a nation.
The Second Amendment to the Constitution granted the right of the people to bear arms. This was passed in 1791 as a consequence of the need to defend the fledgling U.S. against attempts at recolonisation, not just by Britain, but by any major european power.
To maintain a militia capable of responding speedily to any threat, citizens had to have firearms. This danger is epitomised by the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, when 200 Texan civilians held out for 13 days against a Mexican army intent on keeping Texas.
Firearms were also seen as a defence against tyranny: it is more difficult for a government to oppress people who are armed and capable of fighting back.
As the country started to expand westwards, there was also a need for settlers to be able to defend themselves. The indigenous population wasn’t too happy with the steady encroachment of european migrants!
Criminals also roamed freely around frontier lands, and farms were often far from any form of law enforcement. Firearms were seen as a means of survival.
hunting was another reason for owning a weapon. Much of the food eaten by the settlers had to be shot because there was no way of keeping meat fresh while on the move. And in times of drought when crops failed, if you couldn’t hunt you starved.
Right up until the 20th century, access to law enforcement in rural areas was limited. There was no telephone to summon the sheriff, who would be many miles away and travelled by horse. So, the ability for rural folk to defend themselves was seen as essential.
While modern advances may have done away with many of the arguments for gun ownership, the Americans still see it as their right, under the Second Amendment, to keep guns.
U. S. politicians have always been reluctant to challenge this view, despite the many atrocities, such as mass school shootings, resulting from easy access to guns and bullets.
Legend has it that as late as World War II, the Japanese government saw widespread gun ownership as a deterrent against invading the U.S. mainland.
They realised they wouldn’t just be facing the U.S. military, but every man, woman and child with access to a weapon.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
QUESTION I read a novel 40 years ago in which all the plastic in the world begins to disintegrate, with disastrous consequences. Does anyone know who wrote it?
THIS novel is Mutant 59: The Plastic-eaters by Dr Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, co-creators of the Cybermen for Doctor Who and of another Seventies TV series, Doomwatch, where the story about disintegrating plastic originated.
A micro- organism that could break down various plastics was accidentally released into the environment, where it attacked components in aircraft, with appalling consequences.
Though the story originated from Doomwatch, the book didn’t feature any of the TV show’s scientists, such as Toby Wren or Dr Spencer Quist, instead featuring a new set of protagonists in a greatly expanded story.
Pedler and Davis collaborated on two further sci-fi novels.
Brainrack was about lead pollution affecting people’s brains, reducing intelligence and the ability to concentrate — another idea taken from Doomwatch, though again not featuring any of its characters.
The Dynostar Menace is about a powergenerating satellite in orbit above the earth. A saboteur among the crew runs amok committing murder, leading to the threat of a huge pulse of radiation devastating the planet.
The three books were published between 1972 and 1976, but are now out of print in the UK.
Matt McLean, Odiham, Hants.
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