When I was almost nine years old, my family migrated to Australia. This is a picture of the ship we travelled on for four weeks to reach our destination. What an adventure!
All my relatives went with us on the bus to South Hampton where we were leaving from. It took several hours to get there, and I can remember playing cards with my cousins in the bus. To me it was like a huge travelling party.
I can remember waving good bye, and not feeling any great sadness, as to me this was an adventure, a holiday. It was only in the following months that the reality sunk in.
On the ship my brother and I attended school in the mornings. There was a cinema on the ship and also a swimming pool. When the seas were tough the water in the pool would slop from side to side. In the afternoons, tea trolleys would appear around the ship and us kids [we made a few friends] would collect a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits from a trolley. Then we would eat the biscuits, tip the tea overboard and go to the next trolley!
Breakfast wasn't so good. My family's cabin had no porthole hence it was always dark and we would miss the early morning breakfast bell for the kids sitting. So my mum would make up hot dogs when she went to the adult sitting, and give them to us when she got back to the cabin. My sister turned two years on the ship and therefore was at a difficult age. Too old for the nursery but too young for the kids club. So mum and dad had her with them full time, whereas my brother and I had full run of the ship. My sister would often feed her dummy to the 'fishies' during the day, only to cry at night for her lost pacifier!
On route to Australia we stopped at the Canary Islands off Spain, and also Cape town in South Africa. We also stopped at Perth Australia before finally arriving at our destination of Melbourne. That was on July 10th 1974, one day before my ninth birthday, and it was pouring with rain. My mum slipped on the platform as we left the ship and hurt her ankle.
We travelled by bus to the emigration hostel, where we stayed for three weeks. It was a vast contrast to our terraced house in England.
I recently googled the ship [http://www.ss-australis.com/enter.htm]and it is laying in a state of wreck on the island of Furenventura - Canary Islands. This happened in 1994, and it surprised me that I felt a pang of sadness as I saw the photos of the wreck. I have no desire to travel by ship again, but it definitely was a great experience.
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