Fifth Fleet Forums

I guess I am one of the few people who was able
to sail on the same boat twice.

In Dec. 1950 my parents (DPs) and I left
Germany via Nordenham / Bremerhaven
heading for Australia on board this ship.
From what I could find on the Internet,
our date of arrival in Melbourne was 22.1.1951.

My parents, like many others had to spend an
unhappy time in Bonegilla before my father
was sent off into the Victoria bush for the
obligatory period. Later,  we moved to Brisbane.

In 1964, we were compelled to leave Australia
and as fate would have it, the ship we embarked
on was the Fairsea.  I have fond memories of
the voyage on board this lovely ship, where we had
a small 6 berth cabin on Deck D (the bottom row of
portholes - just above the waterline - in case you
have a photo) and its great Italian crew who doted
on us kids.

My parents however did not recognise the new Fairsea
as it had nothing to do with the converted troop ship they
had to board on the trip to Australia,  which had no cabins,
just huge big open spaces with triple decked bunks and still
had segregation, men were assigned to one section, women
to the other. The toilet and shower facilities were one huge
long one and stank of disinfectant.

On the return voyage in 1964 most of the passengers
were young men and women heading for England where
they hoped to find better job opportunities. In order to
cater for these passengers, the ship had a large range
of leisure possibilities such as shooting, disc sliding and
a swimming pool. On top of that,  there were a few bars
and a small cinema.

We travelled via Singapore, Colombo, Aden, the Suez Canal
and Naples. At each port of call land excursions were made
available.

The ship was barely half full on this journey, so it is no
wonder that the Sitmar Line could no longer afford to keep
it, seeing that the number of emigrants going the other way
had also declined by the early 60s.

Hope this short story has been of interest to someone.