£10 Assisted Passage (Australia)

[Bob Bryden]

That certainly was a good documentary - Ten Pound Poms. I taped it when it was shown here in N.Z. several years ago.

Further to my previous post, it took a few days after leaving Southampton before I got my sea legs although the weather was by no means rough. We passed close by The Azores in mid-Atlantic & 8 days after leaving the U.K. the ship docked in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Had our first experience of a monsoon there & the ships "scuppers" (I hope that's the correct term) were soon overflowing. In the evening the sunset was magnificent. A few days later we stopped in Curacao where the ship was re-fuelled. Dad, Uncle Andy & I went for a walk & finished up at Captain Henry Morgan's Fort overlooking the ship. Going back to the ship along the jetty, a gust of wind picked up the hat I was wearing ( it was originally my Uncle Andy's from when he was in East Africa during WW2 & one side folded up like the similar hats I've seen worn by Aussie troops). The hat finished up in the water but no-one was game to try & retrieve it as there were sharks about as seen by the shark fenced area of the beach near-by.

Going through the Panama Canal was an experience of a life-time. Passengers were allowed up on the deck one level below the ship's bridge during the Canal passage.

Arriving in Tahiti no-one was allowed off except those scheduled to disembark there as the ship was quarantined with cases of scarlet fever & chickenpox or something similar. We had to remain anchored several miles off shore. To compensate we were allowed extra time in Fiji.

At the beginning of the voyage Dad went & saw the ship's doctor & arranged to borrow a folding bed or stretcher whenever we wanted to take Billy (my brother) up on deck. We did that regularly & he really thrived on the 5 weeks of sea air. We had no problem with him at all for the whole voyage despite some people back in Ardrossan thinking Mum & Dad were crazy to even consider taking someone with my brother's severe disability all the way to N.Z.

Dad, my Uncle, Billy & myself had a 4 berth cabin to ourselves while Mum shared a nearby cabin with 3 other women. Mum had more peace as our cabin was right next door to a ladies toilet & right underneath the main dining saloon. The voyage introduced me to sweet corn, a regular on the Friday menu (I've retained copies of quite a few of the menus) & it was the only item with which I asked for seconds. Our table in the dining saloon was right next to the entrance from the kitchens & it was interesting watching the waiters trying to balance their heavily laden trays as they came through the kitchen's swing doors. The higlight was one evening when one waiter lost it & his tray was up ended on the floor. Not surprisingly he was somewhat upset & his language was well...less said. We arranged for my brother's meals to be available to take back to our cabin.

Our longest spell out of sight of land was the 10 days between the Panama Canal & Tahiti although we did sight a few very low lying islets (not big enough to support any human inhabitants) a day or two out from Papeete.

Bob

[Bob Bryden]

Just came across the following article entitled
"Why the Ten Pound Pom is back in demand"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main. ... npom19.xml

Bob

[Bob Bryden]

For those of us who were lucky enough to travel down under in the Southern Cross, have a look at
http://www.ssmaritime.com/sthcross2.htm
It's a great story of the history & sad end of a great ship.

Bob

[arrangazer]

Hi Bob thank you for posting of your experiences plus pictures. My husband worked for P&O shipping for a bit so we both shared with your memories and photos. we both passed the Azores plus Pamama many times also with different shipping company but never on the SS Southern Cross.

Unfortunately the times I traversed the Panama canal it was always on a cargoe vessel which normally do not stop so therefore we had no chance of getting ashore although on one occasion we were anchored waiting for the convoy so the master arranged a liberty boat for the crew to get ashore for a few hours. So on that occasion I found it to be very interesting managed some good shopping, with a nice meal ashore. This was due to the immigration officer assisting us to find a decent restuarant .

Isobel

[Hughie]

Bump! Would love to see a few more additions to this thread. Great reading in this. If you migrated elsewhere consider starting a similar topic.

[bobbydarg]

Nice one Chriso.

[chriso]

I was raking through the loft looking for some lost papers, when I came across this.

[JimMcCub]

I think this is a very good thread , great reading from Chriso and others didn't realise you were such an intrepid explorer Chris you will have to expand next time we bump into each other over a pint.

[maggie T]

Just came upon Christo post.Still have my passage contract,sailed 5 years before on the Castile Felice,been on another site trying to trace Fellow Ten pounders.

[unicornheart]

I wanted to do the £10 package but hubby was wary so i still here.

[chriso]

I was rakeing through my filing cabinet when I came across these old documents pertaining to my emigration to Australia

Going


Citizenship


Coming back

"Sigh", fond memories.

[Milda]

Quite a looker Chris