Meher Baba's Life & Travels
BIARRITZ FERRY
In 1931 Meher Baba travelled to the West for the first time. The ship he travelled from Bombay, India was the S.S. Rajputana, and docked at Marseilles in the early hours of Friday, September 11th.
Later that afternoon at 1:30pm, Baba, Chanji, Rustom, Ali, Meredith and Herbert departed by train from Marseilles for London. Seated in the train, while looking at Herbert, Baba remarked that Herbert's features resembled Vajifdar's. Herbert had worked hard and sincerely in taking care of the group's travel arrangements and comforts. For Baba and the mandali, Herbert had arranged for vegetarian food and in this way was paying close attention to every special request of Baba's.
On September 12th, they arrived in Paris where they were met by an American woman named Enid Corfe who worked for the Texaco Oil Company in Europe and was a friend of Meredith and Margaret Starr. They continued their journey via Boulogne and Folkestone, and reached Victoria Station in London at 4:15 that afternoon. Mahatma Gandhi was also on the same train till Folkestone, but traveled secretly to London by car.
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Lord Meher Volume 4, Page 1405
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The ferry boat that took Meher Baba's group from Boulogne to Folkestone was called the BIARRITZ
The rail distance between Paris - Lyon and Marseilles was 862 kms or 536 miles.
continued....
The rail distance between Paris's Gare du Nord station and Boulogne Port
is 220 kms / 137 miles.
In the 1930s, it took approximately 11 to 13 hours to travel this distance.
The ferry distance Boulogne, France and Folkestone, England is 95 kms / 59 miles.
It took about 2 hours to cross the English Channel.
The ferry was called SS Biarritz.
The rail distance between Folkestone Harbour and Victoria Station, London is
112-120 kilometers / 70-75 miles. It took between 1 hour and 40 minutes to 2 hours
in the 1930s.
