PLAIN PEOPLE: Cruise of the Ada Rehan

In life, tall, soft-voiced Victorian Actress Ada Rehan had been a discreet lady.

A biographer said that Ada Rehan's sense of comedy shielded "her love life* from vulgar comment." Her seagoing namesake in World War II never learned the trick. Rusty and listing noticeably, the S.S. Ada Rehan hung on her chains in Shanghai Harbor last week while drunken voices rose from her decks. In sea men's bars along Blood Alley, comment was vulgar.

Eight long months ago the Ada Rehan, her reputation spotless, had sailed out of San Francisco on a two weeks' voyage to...