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The SS Captain Hobson brought settlers to New Zealand under one of the the post-World War II immigration schemes. This is the story of my husband's parents and their journey to New Zealand in 1953 on board the Captain Hobson. This story also appeared in New Zealand Memories magazine, Oct/Nov 2016; n.122:p.14-19 - Debbie McCauley:
Arthur Barnabas Turner and Barbara Elizabeth Wallace married in Hull, Yorkshire, on 30 June 1951. On the night that Barbara met Arthur, three years earlier, he had expressed his desire to emigrate. Arthur was coming to the end of a seven year apprenticeship specialising in electric motor rewinding with Pardoe Engineering in Witham, Drypool, Hull. The firm was located opposite the Red Lion pub.
Conditions for a young couple after World War II were difficult. Rationing continued for many years and there was a post-war housing shortage. After Arthur and Barbara married they boarded with a man called Fred at No. 1 Skerne Grove in Hull. Fred loved to sing and also had an amazing strawberry patch.
The couple’s hopes of a place of their own were dashed when a promised flat fell through which triggered Arthur’s serious inquiries about emigration. He was keen on immigrating to Australia, but Barbara wanted somewhere not quite as hot. Arthur eventually found a position bonded for two years to electrical engineers W J Parlour Ltd in Auckland, New Zealand. They would be assisted emigrants whereby their passage was paid for by the New Zealand government.
To prepare for emigration the couple gave much of their clothing away as they were only allowed to take one trunk of belongings. Barbara remembers a favourite coat she had which she passed on to her younger sister Margaret, “It was a lovely coat, but looked better on her than it did on me because she was taller” she said. They went on a tour of London, Cornwall and the South of England, thinking that they may never get a chance to see those places again.
The couple left from Glasgow, Scotland, in June 1953 aboard the SS Captain Hobson, formerly known as the Amarapoora. The Amarapoora has an interesting history. It was a passenger liner built in 1920 by William Denny & Bros, Dumbarton, Scotland, for the Henderson Line’s service from Glasgow to Burma.
Aboard the ship was the New Zealand Coronation Contingent returning from London where they had represented New Zealand on 2 June 1953 at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. One of the soldiers was Victoria Cross (VC) recipient Jack Daniel Hinton (1909-1997). Barbara remembers him as a ‘nice bloke’ and prone to attacks of malaria during the voyage. Seeing him sitting on a deck chair and ‘looking terrible’ Barbara asked him if he was alright to which he explained about the malaria attacks that laid him low.
The soldiers often flirted with the single girls onboard and there was more than one shipboard romance. Barbara remembers one between a returning soldier and a girl onboard that had seemed fairly serious. When they docked, however, she observed from the deck the soldier disembarking. On seeing what must have been his ‘real’ girlfriend waiting for him he threw off his hat, ran towards her and swept her up in his arms in an over-the-top show of affection. Eyebrows were raised all round and fellow passengers sent rueful smiles the way of the girl who had been so flippantly cast aside.
Like the families on board, Arthur and Barbara were in separate cabins. Barbara was with a mother and daughter plus another woman while the men were in together. Barbara remembers lots of families aboard with copious amounts of washing hanging everywhere. It was a very boring time for her as she was feeling unwell and the onboard diet was lacking in fresh fruit. Fruit was only made available on Sundays when passengers could choose either an orange or an apple. Boat drills helped to pass the monotonous time and everybody took part.
While they were sailing through the Atlantic, the SS Captain Hobson received a request to pick up a very ill seaman from another ship. The ship turned about and headed north, about sixty miles back the way they had come to pick up the ill man. He was suffering from appendicitis and was operated on by the SS Captain Hobson’s ships doctor. Barbara recalls that the doctor was a Scotsman who had his wife with him for the voyage. The incident was reported in the Dominion on 8 August 1953: SHIP INTERRUPTS VOYAGE TO HELP SICK MAN. The Captain Hobson interrupted her voyage to New Zealand with nearly 600 English immigrants to help a sick man. On July 2, on her way across the Atlantic, the ship picked up a signal from the freighter Tricape, asking for medical assistance. One of the crew needed an appendicitis operation. The Captain Hobson received the call about 6.30 p.m. and just before midnight the two ships met. The medical officer, Dr. T. Brannan, of Glasgow, went over to the Tricape in a boat and brought back the sick man. He then operated on the seaman, who was well enough to be able to walk off the ship at Curacao. (Dominion, 8 August 1953, p. 12)
During the journey they saw albatrosses and flying fish. Barbara cannot recall any storms at all during that journey, but remembers the Irish Sea as being rough. There was also the boiling heat of the 51 mile long Panama Canal which opened on 15 August 1914. Barbara remembers the ship being towed through the narrow canal by locomotives operating on tracks on the lock walls. After they were through they called into Balboa which is a district of Panama City located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.
The ship sat well in the water being a good sailor with a skilled captain. The officers were all British while the crew were mainly Indian. On most nights the couple sat at the Captain’s table. Barbara suspects that this was because they had no children with them. On one occasion they were seated on either side of the Captain, and when he learned they were a couple he swapped chairs with Barbara so she could be seated next to Arthur, giving her the ‘Captain’s Chair’. Also seated at the table was the ships surgeon. One night, when they were all dancing, Barbara remembers watching the porthole which was one minute showing the sea and the next minute the sky. Fortunately everybody had their sea legs by then and as the ship still felt very stable it didn’t affect their dancing!
Barbara was feeling very ill by the time of the crossing of the line ceremony. The ceremony is a tradition for when a ship crosses the equator. Those who had not crossed before were in line for a dunking. On board the ship was a canvas swimming pool into which some people were dunked. Arthur fortunately escaped this experience.
During the journey, Arthur and fellow passenger, Joe Spearman, built and painted little toy boats for each child on board. Barbara recalls that none of the father’s of the children aboard helped, it was just Arthur and Joe on their own, but that was fine as they were enjoying themselves. These boats were given to the children at the end of voyage party.
Barbara remembers a little boy of about three years old during the journey. She believes that he must have been a New Zealander as he had a buzzy bee with him. He used to walk around the ship with one hand in his fathers and the other holding the buzzy bee’s string. Barbara could hear his approach via the buzzy bee’s clacking then him going past into the distance and coming right around the ship again, all the time clacking away.
The Captain Hobson’s lounge boasted a piano along with pianist. One of the passenger’s was always requesting Granada (1932) to be played so he could sing along: Granada, I'm falling under your spell, And if you could speak, what a fascinating tale you would tell... Needless to say, the passenger was not a good singer and his fellow passengers cringed at every request!
The SS Captain Hobson arrived at the Port of Wellington on 7 August 1953. Two nurses that were seated at the Turner’s table asked what Barbara thought of Wellington. To their dismay she commented that it looked better than Glasgow and was a bit like a fairyland with all the twinkling lights from the houses on the hills. There were lots of nurses on board that voyage. The Dominion of 8 August 1953 records the arrival of the ship:
FAILURE OF SHIP’S PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM PREVENTS WELCOME. Immigrants who arrived at Wellington yesterday in the Captain Hobson could not be officially welcomed when immigration officials met the ship in the stream. Nor could the Adjutant General, Brigadier J. R. Page, who went out to the ship to welcome home 12 members of the New Zealand Coronation contingent, get his men together for a welcome aboard the ship. The ship’s public address system had broken down. So Mr. J. V. Brannan, chief immigration officer, walked up and down the ship hoping none of the 600-odd immigrants would want to return to England because of official indifference. Brigadier Page did his official welcoming on the wharf. He was able, though, to speak to the men individually in the ship. Efforts were made to repair the system but by the time the ship tied up the loudspeakers were still croaking: “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten; testing.” (Dominion, 8 August 1953, p. 12)
After arrival, most of the passengers caught the overnight train from Wellington to Auckland which meant that they were awake all night. Barbara remembers that it looked as if the whole country was flooded and wondered if she had arrived in the antipodean equivalent of Venice! The Dominion recorded that the Captain Hobson was being temporarily taken off the migrant run:
MIGRANT VESSEL TAKEN OFF RUN TILL NEXT YEAR. The migrant ship Captain Hobson, now in Wellington, will leave the migrant run for the remainder of this year. The Minister of Immigration, Mr. Sullivan, said yesterday that there had been a decline in applications under the British scheme, and the previous backlog as assisted immigrants awaiting passages had now been overtaken. This decline was caused mainly by the reduced number of family groups at present being nominated in New Zealand by employers and relatives. As the larger ship, the Captain Cook, could cope with the number to be brought out, for the remainder of this year, the Captain Hobson could be released temporarily to the British Ministry of Transport, and it would be used for special duties for the British Government till January. (Dominion, 8 August 1953, p. 12)
Arthur and Barbara boarded with Hull woman, Mrs Kemp, in Auckland for three months after their arrival. The house was in Grey Lynn where they could hear the lions in the Auckland Zoo roaring at night. Her most vivid memory of Mrs Kemp is that every time she turned a light on she said ‘Let there be light’.
The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip had a summer visit to New Zealand from 23 December 1953 to 31 January 1954. The photograph below was taken by Arthur in Karangahape Road, Auckland, possibly on Wednesday, 23rd December:
Four months after Arthur and Barbara’s arrival, on Christmas Eve (24 December 1953), one of the nurses who had come over with them on the SS Captain Hobson was killed in the Tangiwai Rail Disaster. Mount Ruapehu’s crater lake wall had collapsed, sending a lahar and two million cubic metres of water into the Whangaehu River. A massive wave then swept away one of the concrete supports of the rail bridge at Tangiwai (Māori: Weeping Waters). At 10:21pm the Wellington to Auckland night express plunged off the weakened bridge. The nurse was one of the 151 people that died. Queen Elizabeth, broadcasting her Christmas message from Auckland, finished with a declaration of sympathy and on December 31st Prince Philip attended the state funeral.
In 2003 a reunion for those who sailed on the 1953 voyage of the SS Captain Hobson was held in Cornwall Park, Auckland. Barbara did not attend as she was unaware of the event.
Source: Biography of Barbara Elizabeth Turner (nee Wallace) by Debbie McCauley, her daughter-in-law: http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/tauranga_local_history/topics/show/974
Comments:
RE Debbie McCaulley article SS Captain Hobson 1953. Most enlightening article well done. As a 5 year old boy I was a passenger on the specific sailing referred to in this article. My parents were Tom & Mary Barlow. I am very keen to obtain any photographs that were taken onboard during that voyage, can anyone assist? Next week it is the 60th anniversary of the ships sailing from Glasgow. Thank you. Dave Barlow (16 June 2013).
The most detailed documentation that I have yet seen on the Captain Hobson. I was a 3 year-old child on the 1953 voyage with my late parents, who have kept some detail, but not comprehensive. As an emigrant family from Conisbrough, Yorkshire - I was always aware of my parents early years and the difficulties they faced at that time in New Zealand . Thank you for the further insight. (2 July 2013).
Our family travelled to New Zealand in 1953 on the Captain Cook and settled in Tauranga. We lived in a farmhouse owned by the then Ford Dealer in town, F.N. Christian, on Hampton Terrace, (then a metal road), Merivale, at that stage all farmland and orchards. There was only this house and another, then owned by the Merrimans beside Yatton Park that I can remember. Fraser St ended where Esk St. is now, and a gate allowed access onto Merrimans farm. State houses had not started being built, although the first was built beside the farmhouse sometime around 1956 (28 August 2013).
I really enjoyed reading about the voyage taken by my uncle from Glasgow to Australia in June 1953. Unfortunately he died a few months before I managed to track him down. Thank you (30 August 2014).