Henry J. Neils’
Travelogue of 1959 Great World Cruise
Henry J. Neils was a businessman from Minneapolis. He wrote a daily diary of his voyage on the 1959 Great World cruise. Presumably, the 30 faded typewritten sheets had been duplicated for distribution to his employees.
The transcribed document now forms 25 pages of the Timeline, accessible from links on the January, February, March and April 1959 month pages. This was the first special feature to be added to the Timeline as it entered its 2nd year of being on-line.
Henry's quoted text throughout the site start with this indicator: H.J.N.…
Henry J Neils’ Travelogue 18 March 1959
Singapore
H.J.N.…
Temperature: 79°F. - Humid
This British Crown Colony consists of two islands, Singapore and Christmas. The land area is roughly twenty-seven
miles by fourteen miles, lying seventy-seven miles north of the equator.
The population totals 1,500,000 of which 80% are Chinese and 1,000,000 live in the city. The whole city is a series of harbours. An estimated thirty to forty thousand vessels use this port annually, carrying five million tons of cargo.
Sir Stanford Raffles founded this city in 1819. His selection of the site was a wise one, as witnessed by the rapid growth of the city and port. It is located on the extreme tip of the Malay Peninsula.
H.J.N.…
Singapore is a modern city with paved streets and sidewalks. It's a clean city with the exception of certain quarters
of slums which are always to be found.
Several years ago some of the Chinese slums caught fire, resulting in the loss of 4,000 lives. Once these hovels, with palm leaf roofs, start burning in a high wind, there isn't a fire department that can save them, to say nothing about the poor natives who occupy them.
The government is now building multiple housing units in this area that are fireproof.
H.J.N.…
The Marine Drive along the harbour beach is new. It affords a fine view of the harbour with countless ships from the
world over. The Botanical Garden, where the first rubber trees were propagated, is beautiful, with so many species of
tropical trees, shrubs and flowers. Orchids of all kinds are as common as our wild flowers. You can buy them by the
hundred at a very reasonable price.
The Raffles Museum contains fine exhibits of the history of the Malayan Peninsula, its rock formations, minerals, products, weapons and utensils used by the early inhabitants etc.
The famous Raffles Hotel, with its fashionable shops, proved very interesting, and no doubt profitable to the proprietors on the occasion of the Caronia visit.
H.J.N.…
Now a few comments on Singapore from our cruise lecturer, Dr. Croizat…
Research indicates that about 1000 B.C. there was a migration of people down the Malay Peninsula and to the islands
of Indonesia.
There followed smaller migrations from India and a subsequent mixture of these races. Then came the big migration of Chinese, who did not inter-marry.
500-900 A.D. this part of the country was governed by Islam rulers. In 1511 the Portuguese, under Vasco Da Gama, explored the country and established trade in spices with Europe. In 1641 the Dutch captured Malaya.
As early as 1600 the British East India Company had been formed. Under Napoleon the French took over, but lost it to the British, who still govern Singapore, but gave Malaya, consisting of nine states, self government in 1947 as a member of the British Commonwealth. Singapore hopes to attain this status in a year or two.