Last Boxing Day, there was a family get together planned. Didn’t happen – my sister was snowed in and the rest of us were snowed out. Moving on, the re-arranged fixture was due to take place this weekend. The Gods of snow did their best to scupper the whole event yet again but we triumphed over them. We are just back from a magic weekend with sister, nephew, nieces and offspring, made even more magic by said snow. I will blog/post about all that in due time but I am sitting here in Embra tonight just thinking one thought.
I am sixty years young and my older and wiser sister is still capable of confounding me completely. Fifty eight years ago, my Dad was posted to Singapore. We sailed from Liverpool on the ‘Empress of Australia’ in February 1952. I was far too young to remember the voyage but I had always been told that we had gone out on that troopship and come back on the ‘Empire Trooper’.
The ‘Empress of Australia’ began life as the ‘Admiral von Tirpitz’ in 1913. Her keel was laid that year in Stettin and Kaiser Wilhelm II intended to use her as his Imperial Yacht when reviewing the victorious German fleet after World War I. Didn’t happen and she was completed in 1919 and handed over to us as part of the war reparations. Bought by the Canadian Pacific Steamship company as the ‘Empress of China’ and renamed as the Empress of Oz in 1922. Almost destroyed in 1923 in Yokohama harbour when the Great Kanto earthquake (7.9 Richter) struck. Used as the Royal Yacht when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth went on tour to Canada in May 1939.
Then, of course, she went on to even greater glory when she ferried me to Singapore.
Today, Big Sis suggested a trip to a Speyside distellery, Now, if Bilby were here, she would tell you that I am an Islay malt man and not at all Speyishly inclined. Nonetheless and notwithstanding, I was not about to say no to a small malt whisky sensation on a cold Easter Monday morning.
BS suggested Glenfarclas as being within easy reach. It was only when we got into the tasting room that she confessed to her devious machinations. Said tasting room is panelled with wood from the ‘Empress of Australia’. The Royal British Legion Club of Rosyth bought it when she was scrapped in Inverkeithing dockyard in the mid-50’s and the distillery bought it from them in time.
BS tells me that the tasting room is a replica of the quiet lounge on the ship where Mum and other officers’ wives whiled away the voyage playing bridge.
She also told me that the ‘Empress’ was not able to dock at Port Said on the way through the Suez Canal. She had been involved in the transport of Jews from the holding camps in Cyprus to Palestine when the British mandate ended in 1949 and the Arab dockers black listed her as a result. We had to dock in Algiers and take on supplies there instead.
I got to sign the book that the distillery keeps for for people who have sailed on the ship. Just a great and totally unexpected day out which sent me back nearly six decades in an instant and which gave me new facts and even more respect for my sister. Doesn’t get a lot better, in my opinion.
Boadicea's Chariot 
nice one.
it’s always interesting hearing about the history of any ship
Brilliant and fascinating.
How wonderful to have such relatives.
Hi JM, I was a similar age when we left Southampton for Africa on the Durban Castle. Don’t remember the trip, though I do remember arriving in Rhodesia. I have often wondered if I were able to tour the ship today whether it would be at all familiar. It was probably broken up decades ago. Have never been to Islay, but went to Jura a few years back. I may be making a trip to Europe this summer. England and Italy are my main ports of call, but one of my brothers and many of my relatives live in Beauly, Inverness so I may make it there too.
Nice post JM. My first trip was in 47. Harwich to the Hook of Holland. Rough, rough, rough. Sick, sick, sick!
Here you go Sipu. You have probably had many a shave with razor blades made from her.
🙂
Thanks Tocino.
I found a pic.
What a great story – and a great sister. 🙂
Wow, good story and a fascinating account.
I too travelled by ship as a child, on the Transvaal Castle, in about 1963-4. Out to Durban, Sipu when I was three. I can remember certain snippets of the journey. Our dog in the kennel area being travel sick, the ceremony of crossing the line, a fancy dress party dressed as a cat, and getting measles. I’d love to see the ship again.
Pseu,
If you look at the link I provided for Sipu, you will see what she is doing now.
Thank you, tocino,
Transvaal Castle: 1961 – 1966 transferred to South African Marine Corp., renamed S.A. Vaal, 1977 sold to Carnival Cruise Line, Miami, renamed Festivale.
(The ships doctor wouldn’t diagnose the illness as measles as it would have meant going into quarantine at Port Elizabeth.)
I did a couple of trips on the Rhodesia Castle back in the 50’s, round Africa twice. Not as a paying passenger, just a working member of the crew, but hey, thats another story!
🙂
Great story. Magical even. I have no ship story from my childhood, sadly. Just a few ferries from a few mainlands to islands as a traveling adult. I like this remaking of one ship to another: it speaks of legacy and continuity.
tocino, as a medic, not diagnosing notifiable diseases perhaps? Or a chef, musician, captain? We should be told….
Pseu,
Lol.
Total whee and thanks everybody who has commented.
Not a lot more to say, except that I am glad that this post sent quite a few of you off on your own flights of memory.
Still swithering about whether I should alert Big Sis to its existence. I would not want her to get too full of herself, of course.
How wonderful! What a lovely sister you have. Yes. Definitely give her a link to this. As a big sis myself I salute her thoughtfulness.
Good too that people went to the trouble of preserving the panelling and re-creating the whole ambience so that other generations can also enjoy it. DT man talks wistfully of a childhood which included three-yearly voyages from Tanzania to the UK and back on Union Castle line ships calling at Port Said, Marseilles, Genoa etc. Fascinating snapshot memories.
Theses were the ports of call for the Rhodesia Castle:-
London, Gibraltar, Genoa, Port Said, Suez, Aden, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Beira, Lourenço Marques, Durban.
Return voyage:
Durban, Beira, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Tanga, Mombasa, Aden, Suez, Port Said, Genoa, Marseilles, Gibraltar, London.
Wow, some of you guys have travelled far and wide. I feel quite in awe now!
I think big sis would enjoy this, John. I did, thank you.