Chapter 10

LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE

When we at last got on the ship we found that friends and relations had come to see us off – several of Reg’s friends from the Teachers’ College and two of his brothers with their children. We went up to the lounge with them and had a farewell drink before they all left and Reg and I unpacked pyjamas and got everyone into their bunks. One of our friends had brought me a packet of disposable nappies for Tom – the first that I had ever seen – and a lipstick, a very kind and thoughtful present. Needless to say, for the first couple of days the nappies were an enormous help as well as being quite a novelty but they were soon gone and we were back to washing the familiar old towelling ones every morning in the ship’s laundry.

When Reg booked our passages on the P&O Canberra , he had asked for adjoining cabins. When at last we found our cabins they adjoined all right – but through the back wall! We had to walk down seemingly endless corridors to get to each other’s cabins. In mine were Belinda (10), Madeline (3) and Tom (11 months) while Reg had Celene (8), Marcus (nearly 6) and Nick (4). We soon worked out a code of knocks by which to communicate through the wall and the girls made wonderfully efficient runners which was why Reg and I each had one of them. We were in the economy section which used to be called steerage so we were far under the waterline with no portholes. I think the girls may have managed to infiltrate the first class area but I didn’t ever go there.

The ship didn’t sail until 5am the following morning, while we were all still asleep. On our first morning we all slept in having gone to bed late the previous night and we were wakened by a steward knocking discreetly and then opening the cabin door, wishing us all a good morning and asking what we would like to drink – tea, coffee or juice – and serving us all with our drinks and biscuits – a delightful surprise and one that was to be repeated every morning. The children had orange juice and digestive biscuits and I had a cup of tea – a wonderful way for all of us to start the day. The steward would also bring our daily copy of The Canberra Times , the ship’s newspaper and also the Port Notes describing whatever port we were visiting that day.

We were miles from a bathroom (hence The Blue for night time for Madeline) and it was quite a performance even finding the nearest bathroom the first morning for toilet needs. However eventually we were all dressed and ready for breakfast; we met up with the other half of the family and set off to find the dining room. There were three sittings of each meal – the first for children as they were not allowed to eat with adults and the second and third for the adults. We were allotted a table for six with a high chair for Tom and I always went to meals with the children but didn’t eat anything, then I would drop them off at the supervised playroom while Reg and I ate at the second sitting and we would then collect the children from the playroom because they didn’t like it there. Before we left home people had told us that we would have a wonderful holiday on board ship because we would be able to leave the children in the playroom all day. It didn’t work out that way because none of them liked it although sometimes the older children would stay there for an hour or so while Reg and I went to the laundry. Many children were dropped off in the playroom for the whole day except for mealtimes and there were always children crying, screaming, fighting – not a pleasant atmosphere and we found plenty to do all together out on deck.

We had one full day on the ship and the next day we arrived in Sydney which was the end of the P&O run so we then had three days in Sydney while the ship was refuelled and restocked with food which was so exciting because we had always wanted to take the children to Sydney for a holiday but could never afford it – now here we were with our luxurious ship to stay on, all meals provided and we could go off during the day and do some sightseeing. On the first day we went to the top of the 26-storey AMP building to see the panoramic view; that was the first time the children had ever been in a high building and at the time that was the highest in Sydney although it’s now been dwarfed by many others.

In the afternoon we went to the Botanical Gardens and met my mother who had flown up to Sydney from Melbourne to farewell us. The next day was Sunday and we all went to Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral and afterwards on the way back to Circular Quay we stopped to play in Hyde Park (right). The fountain had no water in it and the children were climbing on the statues but suddenly we noticed that Nick had disappeared. Panic ensued; I stayed put with the other children while Reg ran frantically round the park, looking for him. At last he found him down near St James railway station walking along hand in hand with an elderly gentleman who said that Nick had told him that he was going to Canada on a big ship and that his parents had gone away and left him. The man had offered to take him to the ship, Nick told us afterwards. To this day he maintains that we went off and left him and we believe that he went off and left us. Never mind, huge sighs of relief all round at finding our little livewire.

The next afternoon we took a ferry to Taronga Park Zoo which was a great novelty as none of our children had ever been to a zoo although some of them had been to Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary. On Tuesday we farewelled my mother at her motel in Potts Point and then at 4 o’clock in the afternoon the ship sailed for New Zealand. Hundreds of people threw streamers as we left, the tugs turned the ship under Sydney Harbour Bridge and we were finally off, sailing past the partly built Opera House and leaving Australia for the first time in our lives. My mother had gone to a cousin’s house who lived at Lane Cove in order to see the ship as it left – we couldn’t see her of course but she had a good view of the Canberra as it sailed out of the harbour.

Our first port of call was Auckland and we were all glad to get off the ship and have more space for running round so we thought we would make the most of the opportunity to walk and didn’t join one of the bus tours but instead walked to the Domain and then on to the Museum which was fascinating with a model of an early pioneer village and a Maori exhibit with weapons, canoes and a meeting hut all beautifully carved. We had walked so far that all our legs were tired and we took a taxi back to the ship for lunch and then caught a bus to Torbay, 15 miles from central Auckland. It was a pleasant ride, over the Auckland Harbour Bridge and then through the suburbs mostly around the water. We then went to a shopping centre and Marcus reminded me that we lost him there – he could see Reg at the top of a down escalator and wanted to run up it but a man wouldn’t let him do that, Marcus was crying and was afraid that the ship would go without him but eventually we were reunited. You see it’s not easy to keep track of six children – well five and a stroller actually.

On the dock there were local people selling souvenirs and I bought six tikis, Maori lucky charms. Ours were just plastic but good replicas of the real thing which is normally greenstone. I sewed them on all the children’s coats hoping the tikis might help to keep them safe as it was already becoming apparent that we needed all the help we could get. We were back on the ship in time for tea and by bedtime it was beginning to get rough. The ship pitched and rolled as we hit a fierce storm which got even worse the next day. Many of the staff were sick as well as most of the passengers but I told our family `This trip is costing us $100 a day – nobody is going to miss a meal and nobody is going to throw up.’ Mind over matter I suppose – as I recall we were the only family in the dining room for lunch on Friday and none of the Carrs were sick or as far as I know even felt sick.

By the next day the seas were calmer, it was beginning to get hot and seasickness had abated. The swimming pool was open and became a very popular place to go in the afternoons. Another port came the following day – Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga. We had to anchor a mile offshore because of the shallow water, we were all given box lunches and a launch took us to shore where a band was playing to welcome us. We made our way to the market where women were selling woven baskets and necklaces made from cowry shells. The Tongan people were friendly and some of the local girls came to the beach with us where we all had a swim and then ate our lunch of ham sandwiches and salad. We then took a trip round the island and saw several Tongan villages on the way with little grass huts and palm trees all around – a real tropical paradise.

As we drove down a bumpy unsealed road, we saw a man with a cart full of freshly cut bananas – he gave us a bunch and we ate them in the car, then we stopped at another village where hundreds of flying-foxes hung from the trees and a man tried to sell us one for a dollar. We drove on to the copra factory and went through it and a lady who was working on one of the machines gave us a handful of fresh coconut to eat, then we went to another sandy beach where we collected cowry shells and coral – and then it was time to go back to the wharf where the launch was waiting to take us back to the ship. We all collapsed in deck chairs after a fairly exhausting although very pleasant day. At 4 pm the ship sailed. It was Monday but the following day was also Monday because we crossed the International Date Line with the attendant ceremonies and a certificate for those who had not crossed it previously which of course included all of us.

Each morning, because the older children were missing school (not that they minded that!) we would find a quiet place to sit and we would write up the previous day’s adventures. I had bought a drawing book before we left with that in mind. Belinda was the scribe, she would do all the writing in her beautifully neat printing and the others would all contribute the sentences – plus we would paste in the daily programs, bits of interesting souvenirs etc. That book is still one of our family treasures – a record of an amazing adventure for us all.

A few days later it was July 4 ^th and we celebrated American Independence Day with a special American menu of turkey and pumpkin pie, neither of which any of us had ever tasted before. The food was always wonderful and of course it was an amazing treat for me not to have to prepare meals for three whole weeks, but one afternoon I went on a conducted tour of the kitchens which I thought would be interesting and it was but it almost put me off my food for the rest of the voyage as the kitchens (in my view) were far from clean. There were about 100 people employed in the kitchens with 150 stewards and waiters to hand out the food and some of the statistics involved in the 9300 meals per day for the 1354 passengers and nearly as many staff were 5000 lbs of meat and poultry, 3400 lbs of vegetables, 3400 lbs of potatoes and 5000 eggs.

The children’s food caused a few complaints as it was not the same as ours. A typical meal for them would be a scoop of minced beef, a scoop of mashed potato, a scoop of mashed carrots or pumpkin and a scoop of mashed cabbage – followed by some fairly bland dessert such as stewed fruit and custard. Sometimes one of the older children would order something different but would be served the usual meal and as most of the stewards were from Goa and didn’t speak much English, we never asked them to take anything back. It was all wholesome enough, just not very interesting and not much variety – not like home in fact! But if they chose to stay in the playroom during the day they were given icecream and biscuits. Belinda remembers that they sometimes got a real treat at the table such as pistachio icecream, the first time they had ever tasted it.

Our next and last port of call was Honolulu, that’s the Overseas Terminal on the right. Following our usual procedure, we decided to make the most of the opportunity to walk but by the time we were about half way to Waikiki Beach we were all exhausted by the hot steamy weather and got a taxi the rest of the way. The beach was a bit of a disappointment as we had been looking forward to a refreshing dip but the water was like a warm bath. We went then to the International Market which was a fascinating place with all kinds of food, clothes and souvenirs but everything seemed very expensive to us – I think Reg had a beer and paid $7 for it. Back to the ship for lunch and then in the afternoon we took a taxi for a tour of the island and a look at the local scenery which was beautiful with lush tropical plants and flowers as we passed banana and pineapple plantations. After that we walked to the downtown shops before sailing again in the evening.

During the next few days the weather seemed to get hotter and more steamy as we passed through the tropics and we all spent a good part of the day in the swimming pool. The cabins were still very cool and our table stewardess said that since the big ships had been airconditioned she had seen many more passengers getting sick because they would be on deck in the heat and then would go down to their cabins and catch a chill – and in fact Tom by this time had developed a chesty cough and I took him to the ship’s doctor. The waiting room was full of people who mostly seemed to have the same complaint. He gave me antibiotics for Tom which didn’t make much difference.

There were various entertainments for the children; one evening there was a Fancy Dress party and none of our family wanted to dress up except Celene who went to the shop and bought a couple of rolls of crepe paper and spent all day sewing herself a Cinderella dress. There were prizes but as well every child got a present at tea time and there was a special party tea. Another day was Sports Day with a variety of races and events such as egg and spoon race, toddlers race, bunny hop race, obstacle race and a tug of war to finish up with and the Carr children scooped the pool that day, each winning several ribbons.

The whole trip was tremendous fun for Reg and me and I think for the children too - you would think it would be a lot of work for us what with looking after six children and laundry and so on but we just loved it. I used to stand at the rail sometimes looking at the wake of that huge ship streaming past and I had the sensation of having just come out from beneath a rock in a river and having joined the mainstream of life - it was a wonderful feeling and the first time in my life that I had ever experienced anything like that freedom. After three weeks our cruise came to an end; that night we saw the lights of Blaine, Washington and were all excited as next day would be Arrival Day in Vancouver.

Reg and I were up at 5am to have our first glimpse of Vancouver, still one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen and still one of my favourites. The sky was an unbelievable blue, the gulls were flying overhead and as we sailed up the harbour we could smell the spruce trees in Stanley Park (below). I turned to Reg and said `This is the land of milk and honey’ and so it proved to be.