Preparing for a Trans-Atlantic Crossing

From the diary of Franz Alter, October 15, 1926:

Relative in Berlin, Germany, has left me an inheritance. That is interesting. I am going by ship. The legal office of Adabert Schulz has provided me with several first-class passages. I cannot sell them, so I suppose I can bring my compatriots. The ship is S/S Athenia. It sails for the Anchor-Donaldson Line from Halifax, Nova Scotia. I hope the ship is clean. I hope Halifax is clean. I fear that Berlin is not.

A late-night conversation at between Professor Mackenzie MacNamara, and Professor Tyler M. Freeborn of the Miskatonic University Department of Anthropology on October 17, 1926. Dinner had been enjoyed at the Metropolitan Restaurant, which is located in the swanky Pawtuxet Hotel:

- Really? You're going to Berlin, just like that? Fan-tastic! I assume that there must me some interesting academic connections worth pursuing, yes?

- Quite so, dear Freeborn. The Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung is rather impressive, and I do have one or two contacts there. I have, as a matter of fact, telegraphed professors Opitz and von Kleist already, and I even have some suggestions as to joint academic endeavors.

- Outstanding, by Jove! I assume you'll be travelling via liner from Boston or New York?

- No, I'm afraid not. We'll be going via (gasp) Halifax, Nova Scotia, in fall weather.

- Oh dear. You know that Halifax has struggled since that enormous explosion back in '17? The end of the Great War also really led to a downturn in business. Speaking of the Halifax Explosion, I assume you've heard Professor Lake's rants about the explosion? You know, Professor Marcus Lake of the Biology Department?

- No, can't say I have...

- Ever since the explosion, Professor Lake has been very secretive about some of the finds that he was privy to. You may recall that the explosion was caused by a fire on board a French munitions vessel, and the ensuing explosion killed as many as 2,000 people in norther Halifax?

- Hm, I was only vaguely aware of this at the time, since I was in Egypt together with my father, dear professor MacNamara.

- OK. The explosion threw fragments of the ship, the SS Mont-Blanc, as far as four miles from the explosions, and if you ask professor Lake, especially after a couple of generous pours of brandy, he'll tell you about the weird, fleshy...thing that he claims landed in the back yard of a Mrs. Hazel Underwood. She found this so fascinating - and repelling - that she kept it on ice. She called the police, and they were clueless, so they in turn called the McGill University in Montreal, where Professor Lake was attending a seminar. So, Lake claimed that he saw the specimen in the ice cellar of Mrs. Underwood, and he described it as "big as a bison, both sort of scaly and with thick, coarse hairs protruding from between some of the scales. Interestingly, there were also vestigal eyes along what might have been a dorsal ridge". Well, something like that. Pictures were taken, but the cellar of Mts. Underwood was way too dark to allow for anything to be seen upon exposing the plates, and the specimen itself dissoled in a matter of days. Strange, considering that Professor Marcus Lake tends to be quite well-founded in reality. A true man of science.

- Let's have one more for the road, shall we?    

The Halifax explosion

S/S Athenia

Howard Lake was carefully packing hus suitcases as well as a trunk. He was excited, but not without a slight feeling of trepidation. The previous sea journey, as part of the MacNamara Expedition of last year, had been terrifuing, and he sincerely hoped that a fall trip to Liverpool, and then Calais, and finally a train ride to Berlin. Lake had never travelled this far, and he was more than a little cyrious about Europe, and the trip over the Atlantic! S/S Atenia was a modern vessel, built in 1924, and equipped with all kinds of modernities. 

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From the diary of Jules Pollack, October 18, 1926:

The tuxedo is packed. I am all ready to leave for Europe. However, I am not looking forward to the train trip up to Halifax. Why couldn't we leave from New York or Boston. Well, the Atlantic cold can be beat with some nice Scotch, right? Seems proper for Nova Scotia. S/S Athenia? Wasn't an S/S Athenia sunk by the Kaiser's u-boats in the Great War? Good thing we're at peace. Come to think of it, my old friend Werner Faust was forced to leave for Germany couple of years ago. I should look him up.

He finally picked up his trusty revolver, weighing it in his hand. To pack or not to pack? Hm, what a vapid question. He placed the (still unloaded) revolver in his briefcase.

From the diary of Felix Jeremiah, October 19, 1926:

I am going to Germany. I really do not know what to expect, And we're going on a Scottish ocean liner! Will there be bagpipes, kilts and haggis? Highland games?