From Beachcomber to East 42^nd Street.

Garrett’s experience of America, and that of so many others who worked, on land or at sea, revealed the flip side of Fitzgerald’s ‘Jazz Age’. Not for them the endless parties and pointless conversations, but rather the daily struggle to work and keep on working. Although, in post-war New York, with mass immigration, boom-time economy and a flourishing of hope, people in all strata of society weren’t immune to a feeling of hope after much sacrifice. People were poor, but not by the standards of Europe, but they were rich with ideas. Garrett finds himself in the melting pot, jumping ship with the agreement of his wife, Grace, who waits for him to earn money to send back home. It’s a seeming contradiction – an economic boom, where America finds itself the dominant world economy, although it is yet to assume its dominant role, and bohemian nirvana, where radical ideas of all persuasions hang out together. There is a boom un the US home market, in consumer durables; radio, TV, etc., and the film industry is assuming its dominant role in world culture. Tony Wailey quotes  Jose Luis Borges, saying ‘if you want to talk about a place, imagine yourself in another’. It seems being in New York has this effect upon Garrett.

From The Walker Art Gallery to the First Hunger March.

Detective Sergeant John Barnes, in a written report of the unemployed demonstrations in Liverpool throughout September 1921, held in the lead up to the Police attack upon the demonstrations at The Walker Art Gallery, reports hearing George Garrett speaking at one of the meetings along the way. Garrett, he quotes, said he was,

‘Taking a stand for the working class of this country against the parasites living on the workers. “They are living over there” pointing to the North western Hotel “and they will have to come out of it. In 1914 you fought for your King and Country but why should you fight for a man simply because he wears and ermine collar and has a crown of jewels. It is the wealth of that which you produce and must get. When this is done you will share equally the good things of life and that time will witness the end of unemployment and distress in this country. I do not want to say any more but will close my remarks by saying, “To hell with 1914, up 1921”.’

Radicals Under Pressure – Vigilance and Marching On

The end of WW1 sees the world beginning to close down; the control of the individual states grows as they begin to police their citizens and decide, who are the ‘correct’ members, who are the interlopers, and most importantly, who are the carriers of dangerous ideas? In this our third session of the course, Tony explored the period leading up to 1920 when Britain, although one of the victors of the war, finds its Empire on the wane. Germany, defeated, will be made to pay, while Russia, in the midst of a civil war following the revolution of 1917, is also out of the economic picture. Quoting from The Common People by GDH Cole, Tony explained that by the end of 1918 300,000 soldiers were unemployed. At the time this was regarded as a catastrophe, but by 1920 this figure had grown to one and a half million and had ballooned to 2 million by the end of 1921. After the ‘war to end all wars’, things were getting worse rather than getting better.

In 1918 George Garrett, now married with his first son, Matty, and with the agreement of his wife Grace, who was prepared to eke out a living until he could send money home,  went straight to America, to New York. The conditions on the American ships were better, but he was attracted to the radical life there, and was soon active with The Wobblies.

From Stowaway to a Seaman at War.

Tony’s introduction to our second workshop, covered a lot of ground, and the amount of discussion following his introduction and in the workshops went further and deeper into this area of Garrett’s life. George is back from his travels in South America and into the War in 1914 that Tony argued sees the world beginning to close down; opportunities for unimpeded travel become limited and for the first time the Merchant Marine, and its representatives in the Seamen’s Union, formed in the white heat of battle in 1911, are pulled back from radicalism towards nationalism. The development of the dreaded U-boats, which Hobsbawm argues are the only weapon to have a major effect upon the First World War, wreak havoc on the Merchant Fleet, which prior to the U-boat received little in the way of escorts from the Royal navy. Garrett, although not under threat from a U-boat but from a destroyer, has direct experience of dangers of war on his first ship, The Potaro, which is scuttled by the German seamen after the crew of The Potaro are given just fifteen minutes to abandon the ship. The SS Potaro was a British Merchant Steamer of 4,419 tons. On the 10th January 1915 when 560 miles E by N ¼ N (true) from Pernambuco, off the coast of Brazil, she was captured by the German Auxiliary Cruiser SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm and scuttled. We believe that Garrett, who was taken aboard the Kronprinz Wilhelm and forced to sign a declaration against taking up arms again against the Germans, may have been transferred to an internment camp in Buenos Aires from which he later escaped. George would have felt as though he was on familiar ground, as only a few years before he had spent some time wandering and working across South America prior to sailing back to Liverpool to sign on for the war. The Kronzprinz captured many ships, and took, politely apparently, all the crew and passengers from each ship on board, and held them while searching for other ships to capture. Here is a link to an amazing account published in The New York Times in 1915 of the experience of the prisoners held on board the Kronprinz for six weeks. And look out at the end for a fascinating insight into why, in April 1918, George Garrett writes to The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company requesting confirmation that he was forced to sign the above mentioned declaration.