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Re: Verne at Oban 1879

From: Brian Taves <btav~at~loc.gov>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:29:57 -0500 (EST)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Ian, as my younger colleagues here would say, "You are awesome!"

I have to also applaud Scotland's free travel by bus!


Brian Taves
Motion Picture/Broadcasting/Recorded Sound Division
Library of Congress
Packard Campus
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center
19053 Mount Pony Road
Culpeper, VA 22701-7551
Telephone: 202-707-9930; 202-707-0848 (fax)
Email: btav~at~loc.gov


Disclaimer--All opinions expressed are my own.



On Tue, 18 Dec 2007 ian.thompson~at~ges.gla.ac.uk wrote:

>
> In Scotland, residents over 60 years old are entitled to travel free of
> cost by bus anywhere in the country. So last week, I decided to travel
> north to Oban to look for traces of Verne. Almost half of the route
> coincides with his own journeys.
> The first part of the route follows the River Clyde to Dumbarton, the
> route taken by Verne aboard the SS Columba on Thursday the 17th July 1879.
> >From Dumbarton the road travels north alongside Loch Lomond. Verne sailed
> the length of Loch Lomond in both 1859 and 1879. The bus stops at Luss
> where Verne sited Malcolm Castle, the castle of Lord Glenarvan in Les
> Enfants du Capitaine Grant. Ben Lomond, much admired by Verne, had the
> first snows of winter covering its summit.
> After a three hour journey, my bus arrived at Oban where Verne spent the
> nights of the 17th and 18th July 1879. I had expected to see immediately
> the hotel where Verne and his companions stayed; the Caledonian Hotel. In
> a previous posting, based on scrutiny of an old photograph, I stated that
> this hotel was still standing although no longer a hotel. Sadly this was
> misinformation as it was immediately obvious that the Caledonian Hotel had
> been demolished. More seriously, in its place is an ugly two storey
> building housing three shops and a café. The appalling architecture of
> this building is typical of the 1960s and ruins the appearance of Oban's
> seafront. At this time, the Caledonian Hotel would have been 130 years old
> and probably prohibitively expensive to modernise (I am checking this out
> with a local historian). So, the main physical representation of Verne's
> visit no longer exists and the name pof the hotel was appropriated by the
> Station Hotel, built after Verne's visit.
> The North Pier,where he arrived aboard the "Chevalier" steamer and from
> where he sailed aboard the "Pioneer" to visit Iona and Staffa, still
> exists and has been extended and modernised. It is now mainly used by
> smaller tourist boats and fishing vessels and is only usuable by larger
> ships at high tide.The Caledonian Hotel was opposite the North Pier and I
> timed the walk at three minutes...ideal for taking the 7am sailing round
> Mull with the stops at Iona and Staffa the day after his arrival. The main
> quay for the inter-island steamers is now Station Pier which was built
> after the arrival of the railway in 1880. In his carnets de voyage, Verne
> complains of difficulty changing money although at this time there were
> four banks in Oban. However, having arrived at 6pm the banks would be
> closed. It is likely that he changed his currency at the hotel.
> The panorama of the seafront from the site of the Caledonian Hotel shows
> that indeed the Bay of Oban is almost entirely enclosed by the island of
> Kerrera, and beyond that by the mountains of the Isle of Mull. It is
> obvious that Helena Campbell, in Le Rayon vert, could not possibly have
> seen the green ray, not even from the top of the five floors of the
> Caledonian Hotel nor by climbing the steep hillside behind the town.
> One thing that might have interested Verne is that today all the
> settlements in the area are signposted in both English and Gaelic....at
> the time of his visit probably at least half of the population were
> gaelic-speaking (Oban is An t-Oban..."the little bay").
> The return journey to Glasgow initially follows the route taken by Verne
> by coach to the railhead at Dalmally. This is a distance of 25 miles
> including some steep sections and I marvelled at the strength and stamina
> of the horses that hauled his royal mail coach. In his carnets Verne
> delights in "the delicious pays of the glens and Highlands and the narrow
> valleys".
> This refers to the Pass of Brander and Loch Awe...indeed a spectacular route.
> To clarify this posting a little, I will post tomorrow a map of Oban at
> the time of Verne's visit and two photos. One photograph shows the
> seafront at Oban and the disfigured site of the original Caledonian Hotel.
> The second, taking from the site of the hotel, looks across Oban Bay to
> Kerrera and the mountains of Mull are just discernable in the distance
> (remember that at this latitude and on a cloudy day, it is almost dark by
> 3pm and the quality of my photograph is not good). It also shows the
> position of the North Pier on the right of the photo.
> My visit shows that when we try to reconstruct Verne's travels, it is
> essential to "faire le terrain"..(go over the ground) Thus my error in
> thinking that the Caledonian Hotel still existed whereas in fact it
> probably disappeared approximately 50 years ago.
> Ian Thompson.
>
Received on Wed 19 Dec 2007 - 01:30:11 IST

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