The calligraphic flourishes in the flyleaf of this book express hopes for everyone.
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| "With my very best wishes" |
"With my very best wishes" are from Michael H. Pathe C. Ss. R., a priest of the Redemptorist Order who served parishes in the upper Midwest. In 1931, he published "A Summer in Ireland".
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| Title page |
In his book, he describes his visitations and observations of Ireland, his birth place. He departed from New York City on June 1st, aboard the RMS "Baltic" of the White Star Line. He returned via Galway, leaving there on September 4th.
The author does not provide the year of this vacation. The book itself was copyright-ed in February, 1931, with a "Cum Permissu Superiorum". We can speculate that the vacation was in 1930, or even earlier?
Passenger lists and voyage logs from that time are not complete. The RMS "Baltic" was launched on November 21, 1903 in Belfast. Its maiden voyage was from Liverpool to New York on June 29, 1904. Its primary routes (with returns to Liverpool) were: Liverpool to New York; Liverpool, via Queenstown (now Cobh), to New York; and Liverpool, via Queenstown (now Cobh), to Boston and then New York. She made roughly fifteen of these round trips per year.
On September 17, 1931, the ship began her last voyage of Liverpool to New York and a return to Liverpool. On February 13, 1933, she left for Osaka to be scrapped. RMS "Baltic" was one of four ships known as "The Big Liners", the others were RMS "Adriatic", RMS "Cedric", and RMS "Celtic".
