Footsteps in the Sea
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: HSFA 1994.9.1
name: label: Creator
content: Burg, Amos
label: Collection Creator
content: Fleischmann, Julius
label: Collection Creator
content: Fleischmann, Dorette
creator: label: Creator
content: Burg, Amos
setName: label: See more items in
content: Julius and Dorette Fleischmann films
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 8 Film reels (2 hours 49 minutes, tinted black-and-white silent; 4,827 feet, 16mm)
label: Extent
content: Linear feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1931-1932
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Edited film with intertitles documents the round the world cruise of the Fleischmann family and friends on board the yacht "Camargo."  Film begins with Bermuda (deserted streets) and continues to Nonesuch Island (Dr. Beeke's expedition headquarters); Port Antonio, Jamaica (rafting down the Rio Grande River); passing through the Panama Canal; Cocos Island, Costa Rica (Fleischmann released crates of domesticated fowl in an experiment to see if the birds could adapt to life in the wild and rescue of three shipwrecked sailors who had been stranded on the island for several months); crossing the equator ceremony with members of the crew plaing the roles of King Neptune and his court; Marquesas Islands (Nuku Hiva and Hiva Oa islands; Marquesans washing cloths and pounding poi; men dancing; man being tattooed; Camargo party welcomed by the French administrative official; and visit to the Vale of typee. (End film roll one) Marquesa island Fatu Hiva (Camargo party visits Bay of Virgins and barters for Marquesan crafts, Marquesans rowing outtrigger canoes and weaving baskets); Tuamotu Archipelago (view of atolls from ship, men and children casting fishing net, and Tuamotu women making shell ornaments); Tahiti (Papeete harbor and scenes of daily life taken while motoring around island including Tahitian women washing their hair; canoes; Tahitian men making slatted baskets, possibly for fishing; cutting and drying copra; girls perfoming "Kula-hula"; men and women dance with men drumming; men and women dancing in a circle; and group of women decorating tapa cloth); Tongatapu Island (group inspects stone ruins thought to be Haamonga or perhaps the tombs of Tui Tongas and guide peels coconut so travellers can drink coconut milk); Nukualofa (children at an outdoor men's house sits in middle of villageschool); views of Tongatapu and Vavau coastlines; Suva on Vita Levu Island, Fiji (steamship Niagra where they meet the Fleischmann parents and in-laws); and Fiji (Fijians displayiing crafts for sale on deck of ship, a dance in honor of the party at the village of Suvavua, and market at Nausori where a line of men are being shaved and Indians walk around displaying wares). (End film roll two) Voyage continues through the New Hebrides (Tomman Islanders coming to Camargo in dory;woman from Espiritu Santo Island scraping another's head to create artificial hairline; woman from Espiritu Santo blowing conch shell, Hog Harbor, Espiritu Santo; scenes of dancing inside a house with drumming; view of men, some of whom carry old rifles; loading bags of copra at Tulagi harbor; islanders making poi; women carrying bundles of wood; woman weaving mat; women, children, and men thatching roof of structure with palm fronds; men shaving, carving with curved axes, and shaving wood; village scenes with church, man paddling canoe, children with harmonicas given to them by Fleischmann, man making arrow/spear point, scarification of women and men, man blowing pipes, and many canoes and outriggers); Matty Island, Irian Jaya (travellers witness dance performed in their honor with men dancing and drumming and parading in a circle and women dancing in two lines with a long pole between them, villagers rowing to Camargo on canoes and rafts, and coastline scenes). (End roll three.) Continuing, Hollandia Bay, Irian Jaya (coastal village with men's house in middle of village and villagers ride out to the Camargo in outrigger canoes); Sarong on the eastern tip of New Guinea mainland (travellers are entertained by a group of children playing flutes and displaying the Dutch flag and dancers, probably Biak, dancing between two long poles being clacked together rhythmically); Seget, also on the eatern tip of New Guinea mainland (women drumming and dancing indoors); Bali, Indonesia (rice planting on terraced fields, Balinese burial tower being carried to cremation grounds, young Balinese temple dancers and a gamelon orchestra performing possibly, the "Legong" and another possibly featuring "Garuda" and "Barong" characters); and Java, Indonesia (rice planting, Batavia canal with women and children bathing and laundering, the Batavia acquarium, large unidentified saw mill where all the sawing is done by teams of men, Borobudur, the guards of the Sultan of Jogja people carrying wares to market, the Sultans dance troupe and gamelon orchestra, fighting crickets, fighting rams, and scenes of the General Motors plant in Batavia). (End film roll four.) Journey continues in Java (women weaving cloth on looms and making batik designs on cloth with hot wax "pen"); travellers have tea with the British Rajah of Sarawak; Saigon (harbor with tugboat bringing in Camargo); Cambodia (Pnom-Penh and Mekong Valley from road, Angkor Wat, Cambodians digging among the ruins covered with tree roots, and Cambodian "kick-boxers" accompanied by musicians and groups of Cambodian dancers with feather fans, travelling mountain road into Annam, women on the roadside carrying baskets and bundles on their backs, lines of men and children along roadside, Moi settlement with women pounding rice and showing ear decoration of the Moi); train to Bangkok, Thailand (Fleischmann group inside train, rice paddies and stilt villages); Bangkok (temple and palace spires, crowded canals with boats selling goods, cadets of the Royal Siamese navy practicing paddle strokes in ceremonial "praus" for the festival of the 150th anniversary of the reigning dynasty, cadets drilling on a field, acrobats entertaining a crowd by jumping through hoops studded wtih knives and with other tumbling feats, and adults and children Siamese dancers adjusting costumes and applying makeup for dance at Arun Wat. (End film roll 5) Continuing travels to Singapore, the Camargo is put in dry-dock (harbor scenes and waterside activity, men scrubbing Camargo's hull, funicular railway up Penang Hillmarching to drums and flutes, and man watering crops with unusual double-spouted watering can); Sumatra (water buffalo wallowing in stream; Bataks near Lake Toba harvesting and threshing rice with their feet; Batak village with distinctive thatched houses; children; unidentified rice mill operated by hand and by water which moves series of pounders up and down in rows of holes filled with rice; man weaving net; woman weaving on a loom; women harvesting tea on tea plantation; Camargo party looking at view of Lake Toba and Samosir(?) Island; arrival of canoes to mainland shore of Lake Toba and possible Sarawaks or Bataks unloading bags, basekts and pots; people walking along roadside; large group of men standing around cattle; large market in unidentified town which is possibly Prapat with possibly Sarawak, Batak or Minangkabu people; women breaking rocks; men dressed up; fight or commotion; and various faces and clothing syles); and Nias ("warriors" in armor, mock fighting, and close-ups of armor and sword hilts decorated with tigers teeth). (End film roll 6)  Film continues with Nias "warriors" with continuing travels to Colombo, Ceylon (harbor activities, surf on beach, street activities, and architecture); inland Ceylon (jungle vistas from high ground; Buddhist monument referred to as a dagoba; cliffs, caves and carvings of Sigirya near the village of Dambulla; and various statues of Buddha throughout countryside); Kandy (street beggars and faces in a crowd; turtles massed in a small stream; the Temple of Buddha's Tooth during the Buddhist New year; different groups of women filling pots of water from different wells and weaving mats;   a Singhalese boy dressed up with, presumably, his family; crowd watching while children dance to drum music, men dance and children dance with tambourines; a "ferris wheel" being turned by somone walking around inside the wheel; beggars; and working elephants and their owners moving stone blocks, doing tricks, splashing in a stream, and being rubbed down by their owners. (End film roll 7) Continuing, the ship stops at Aden (port activities; freighters and warehouses; windmills on a long jetty; travellers on balcony of a building overlooking the city square; men making or fixing building with adobe brick; potter smoothing pot, man turning pot on wheel, and emptying a kiln; various Arab peoples including children and men with turbans and fezzes; women braiding rope; water vendors drawing water from large cisterns; camels, camel train, and baby camel suckling; and the Suez Canal.  After passing through the Canal, the travellers journey by camel inland to tour the pyramids (group of Egyptians in uniform; architecture; laden camels walking through fields; threshing wheat with oxen and sledges; and rural roadside scenes of fields, market and foot and animal traffic.  Also shown are a market outside an unidentified city, city walls and gate, and waterfront activities.  In Cypress and Rhodes, travellers are shown picnicking among unidentified Greco-Roman ruins and shots of Fleischmann family on deck of Camargo looking towards the sheep moving across a rocky plain in Turkey.  (End film roll 8).


Supplementary materials:  "Footsteps in the Sea", a book by Julius Fleischmann.

Legacy Keywords: Oceania ; French Polynesia ; Melanesia ; Vietnam ; Cambodia ; Ceylon ; Tahiti ; Fiji