Ship of Fools

Ship of Fools Summary | Embarkation Summary

Ship of Fools is Katherine Porter's novel of prejudice, hatred, and racial discrimination among the passengers of a ship bound from Mexico to Germany in August 1931. The novel explores the personal dynamics among strangers confined in close quarters and the friendships and animosities, which are heightened.

The novel begins in August 1931 in Veracruz, Mexico, where an assortment of people of different nationalities is waiting to board the German ship Vera bound for Bremerhaven, Germany. The local people view the travelers with resentment and try to extract as much money from them as possible in this brief window of time before they depart. Most of the passengers are happy to be leaving Mexico, which is in a state of uprising as evidenced by today's news of the attempt on the life of the Swedish Consul.

Although the passengers have mixed nationalities, they are similar in that they weary of the maze of official offices they have had to visit in order to obtain their travel papers. The heat is oppressive and the travelers are weary and irritable, as they begin their month long journey to the cooler climate of Germany.

The ship's doctor, Dr. Schumann, watches the unidentified people, whom he will soon come to know board the ship. The German people include Herr Professor Hutten, Frau Professor Hutten, and their bulldog, Bebe. Herr Hutten had been the head of a German school in Mexico, and he and his wife now are returning to their native country. The Huttens are both very overweight, as is their pampered and overfed dog. Frau Rittersdorf and Frau Otto Schmitt are traveling alone.

Herr Siegfried Rieber publishes a ladies fashion trade magazine and Fraulein Lizzi Spockenkieker works in the garment business in Hanover, Germany. Herr Karl Baumgartner, an attorney from Mexico City is traveling with his wife, Frau Greta Baumgartner, and their eight-year-old son Hans Baumgartner. A hunchback named Herr Karl Glocken is returning to his native Germany after selling his newspaper and tobacco shop in Mexico.

Herr Wilibald Graf, a dying religious zealot convinced of his own healing abilities is traveling with his nephew, Johann. Herr Wilhelm Freytag is a thirty-year-old man associated with a Mexican oil company, who is returning to Germany to get his wife and mother. The final German passenger is Herr Julius Lowenthal, a Jewish man, who sells artifacts for Catholic churches.

Three of the passengers are from Switzerland and include Herr Heinrich Lutz, who had owned a hotel in Mexico for fifteen years. Accompanying Herr Lutz are his wife, Frau Lutz and their eighteen-year-old daughter, Elsa.

The Spanish passengers consist of an eight-person zarzuela dance troupe including the women, Amparo, Lola, Concha, and Pastora. The men of the troupe are Pepe, Tito, Manolo, and Pancho. Lola's six-year-old twins, Ric and Rac, are also with the group. A nobler Latin woman named La Condesa, who is a Cuban political exile, is traveling to Tenerife.

The Mexican passengers include a newly married couple on their way to Spain for a honeymoon. The wife of the attachy of the Mexican Legation in Paris, Senora Esperon y Chavez de Ortega is traveling with her newborn son and nanny Nicolasa. Also traveling to Spain are two Mexican Catholic priests, Father Garza and Father Carillo. There is also an unnamed political agitator, who is recognized only by his cherry red shirt and his singing.

A Swedish man named Arne Hansen, who has a long-standing feud with Herr Rieber, boards alone.

There are four Americans on board. William Denny is a young Texan chemical engineer, headed for Berlin. Mary Treadwell is a forty-five-year old divorcee traveling to Paris. David Scott and Jenny Brown are artists and lovers on their first trip to Europe together.

As the ship gets underway, the passengers find their cabins and meet their cabin mates, most agreeing to themselves that the roommate selection seems to make the journey ahead extend out even longer than thought possible. The call to dinner on the first night provides an opportunity for the passengers to segregate by nationality, which seems to be the only time they are comfortable.

The second day of travel passes relatively comfortably and there is a stir of excitement on the third day, because the ship will be docking in Havana, Cuba. Some of the passengers debark for sightseeing and other entertainment and are met with a disturbing sight when they return to the ship. A large group of eight hundred and seventy six dirty and ragged Spanish people are waiting to board the Vera.

The original passengers on the ship learn that these people are being shipped home to Spain, because the Cuban sugar market has dropped, eliminating what meager employment they had, and Cuba does not want them living off the system since they are not native to Cuba. The ship's passengers are worried about dirt and disease from being in such close quarters with these unclean people and vow to speak to the ship's captain.

In addition to the Spaniards, six Cuban college students board as first-class passengers and provide some rowdy singing and dancing, as the third day of the ship's journey comes to an end.