Capt. Sir James Charles, 33-year veteran and Commodore of the Cunard fleet, brought the flagship Aquitania through a bitter gale, "one of the worst ever," on his last westward passage. A graduate of the wind-jammers, he has crossed the North Atlantic 726 times, covered 2,323,200 nautical miles. Much-respected, much-loved, burly Capt. Sir James retires to grow cabbages.

Donald G. Swenson, Cornell University graduate, sailing on the lie de France, planned an unusual itinerary. Two days in the ship's engine room, four days in the dining room and steward's pantry, several weeks in the Hotel Ritz at Paris, more weeks at other famed European hotels, will complete Student Swenson's postgraduate course in hotel management. In the autumn, Manhattan's Hotel Astor will benefit by his experience.

Brig. Gen. John Henry Russell, U. S. High Commissioner to Haiti, arrived on the Ancon, pointed to press reports of a Brooklyn gang murder, had this to say of the land of King Christophe: "You can go anywhere in Haiti and be safe, and that is more than you can do in some countries."

Dr. Isaiah Bowman, Col. Claude Hale Birdseye, Samuel W. Boggs, erudite scientists, left for the International Geographic Congress at London with one burning purpose : "To prepare a map of the world with a scale of 16 miles to the inch." Their ship, the Leviathan, celebrated its sixth anniversary crossing.

Roy Wilson Howard, newspaper tycoon, glittering link of the Scripps-Howard chain, did not sail by the Leviathan. But Mrs. Howard and Daughter Jane sailed first class. Son Jack sailed as a steward, without telling his father.