(3 of 5)
The Author. The fame of Hon. Bertrand Arthur William Russell will hardly be increased if he becomes third Earl Russell (he is heir presumptive). Philosopher, mathematician, he is great & good friend to Philosopher-Mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, with whom he wrote Principia Mathematica, incomprehensible to laymen, to mathematicians a delight. During the War Russell's pacifist activities in the No Conscription Fellowship cost him his Cambridge lectureship, £100 fine, six months in prison. Twice married, he has two children (by his second wife), lives in Cornwall, where he conducts a school for children on his own educational principles. Clean-shaven, red-faced, he has thick white hair, seamed cheeks, a trenchant nose, a stubborn but unaggressive jaw, a wide, clear eye. He has written many books. Some of them: The A B C of Relativity, Education and the Good Life, Problems of Philosophy, Proposed Roads to Freedom, Why Men Fight, Marriage and Morals (TIME, Nov. 4. 1929^-
Open Boats
THE WRECK OF THE DUMARU—Lowell Thomas—Doubleday, Doran ($2.50).
On Sept. 12, 1918, the new wooden steamer Dumaru sailed from San Fran- cisco with a cargo of gasoline and explosives for Honolulu, Guam and Manila. In her Wartime camouflage she looked "like a clown on an evil sea." The grisly tale of what happened to her and her crew was told to Author Lowell Thomas by one of the survivors, Fritz Harmon, first assistant engineer.
Two hours after leaving Guam the Dumaru ran into a tropical thunderstorm and was struck by lightning; the cargo in the forward hold exploded. She began to burn. All the crew got safely off but the boat Fritz Harmon was in had 32 men, too many. For five days they tried to make Guam against head winds, then gave it up and headed hopelessly for the Caroline Islands or the Philippines.
On the 13th day the first man died, raving; on the 14th day their water gave out, two more died. They tried to make a condenser to get fresh water, but had little success. On the iyth day the chief engi- neer died. With part of his body they made a broth. "The salt in the sea water in which the flesh was boiled was absorbed by the flesh, leaving the broth free from salt and not unpleasant to taste. The flesh was like tough veal." On the 23d day the survivors drank the blood from a fresh corpse. Next day they sighted land. Out of 32 men, 16 were alive.
One of the 32 had been Lieut. E. V. Holmes, U. S. N. Says Harmon: he committed suicide by jumping out of the boat. On account of his death a naval investigation was held. The Dumaru survivors decided to tell the truth, the whole story came out but no arrests were made. They had admitted cannibalism but not murder.