Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.
Love, loss and redemption amidst the clash of empires.

Saigon, Adieu

Saigon Adieu: Last Voyage of the SS Beguine

A story of love lost; and in losing love, self-renewal. The object of the love is not a person. It is a time and a place and a way of life. This love has much beauty, yet is unsustainable. It is star-crossed and doomed. The lover is not one person, but several. They are the misfit men, and two women, of the cargo tramp SS Beguine of the port of Saigon, French Indochina, on the eve of WWII. Their very lives and loves are on this ship in this port and at this time. In the moment of crisis, the nexus of historical events, they must face the music. They must leave behind all that they know and love, and strike out into an uncertain future. To do so, they must be willing to risk themselves as sacrifice for the chance that others may live, and that if they survive they may find “a new way to be alive.”

This historical novel is a work in progress, planned for publication in 2022.

SS Beguine gets her name

It was the year that Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific ocean; Italy invaded Ethiopia; Babe Ruth hit the 714th and final home run of his career. And Cole Porter set out upon a world cruise. Although he never set out to give a name to a tramp steamship from Saigon. It was just one of those things to Begin the Beguine. read more

Christian Bardinet

Captain of the SS Beguine read more

Perle

“I detest ice,” she muttered. “It’s bad for the digestion and it fails to cool you. And it makes a mess like this.” - an excerpt read more

Phạm Văn Khôi

For half the year 1910, one of his younger colleagues was a 20 year old man named Nguyễn Văn Thành, one of the many aliases of the future Hồ Chí Minh. - an excerpt read more

Emilio Cardini

Emilio could never quite fit in his native land. Too many rules and prohibitions for his free nature. But in French Indochina very little was illegal. - an excerpt read more

Bardinet's Saigon

Paulatim Crescam: Little by Little We Grow (Saigon’s motto)

French Saigon was always a young city, chartered in 1862, the same year that Christian Bardinet’s Uncle Marius was born. 79 years later, in July of 1941, they both died. They all knew about Uncle Marius. But few could apprehend the quiet death of the ville jeune.

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dinner with eisenhower

1:15 AM, Saturday, August 21, 1939 read more

Sir Michael and Lady Regina

Lady R was a tall, statuesque redhead, a few years senior to her husband. While Sir M was rather reserved and taciturn, she was vivacious, loved to dance, eat, drink and wear all kinds of fancy clothes. read more