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LYZ's CRUISING STORY
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Me! The first(!) time I emigrated
to the States from England. |
FUN FACTS
The original Mardi Gras (not the one sailing now) was Carnival Cruise Line’s first ship, bought in 1972. The original Mardi Gras used to be the RMS Empress of Canada, owned by Canadian Pacific Steamships, which… is the ship on which I immigrated to the US (from the UK - for the second time) in 1970! The original Mardi Gras (formerly the Empress of Canada) was sold to Epirotiki Cruise and Shipping Company, based in Greece, in 1993, and sadly scrapped in India in 2003. A CruiseHive article claims "It’s a shame Mardi Gras was broken up at a shipbreaking yard in India in many ways. She deserved to be kept as a museum, like Queen Elizabeth and S.S. Rotterdam are."
I learned to swim in the pool on that ship. My dad bought be a koala from the gift shop for learning to swim. I still have that koala! Also, my mum bought me Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first book, Little House in the Big Woods, to read. She thought I should learn a bit about the country I was immigrating to. (Even to this day, when I drive around the hilly prairies of Colorado, I imagine what it must have been like in the pioneer days!)
I learned to swim in the pool on that ship. My dad bought be a koala from the gift shop for learning to swim. I still have that koala! Also, my mum bought me Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first book, Little House in the Big Woods, to read. She thought I should learn a bit about the country I was immigrating to. (Even to this day, when I drive around the hilly prairies of Colorado, I imagine what it must have been like in the pioneer days!)
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EMPRESS OF CANADA
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EMPRESS OF CANADA as CARNIVAL MARDI GRAS
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But... that wasn’t the first time I immigrated to the States. When I was 18 months old, we first emigrated from England. That’s me on a deck chair on board, in the photo at the top of this page.
And - when going through some old photos, I found that my parents had kept our immigration cards! |
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That time we sailed on the SS America, a United States Line ocean liner.
The SS America launched on August 31st, 1939. Fun fact: She was one of only a few ocean liners at the time to have had its interior designed by women. Not long after launching, during World War II she was called up to service by the United States Navy and renamed the USS West Point. After the war, from 1946 through 1963, she sailed the Southampton to New York route that she had originally been intended for. In 1963 she did 8 trips, one of which I did at age 18 months that August. Shortly after my sailing, she was sold in November. After changing ownership several times during her lifespan, she was eventually sold for the last time in 1994 with the intention of becoming a floating hotel, but sadly wrecked enroute during a thunderstorm which broke tow lines, and went aground in the Canary Islands, eventually sinking into the sea, and becoming an artificial reef for ever more. (3 years later we moved back to England, which is why I ended up emigrating from England twice.) |
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And then… I immigrated a third time, to Perth, Australia. That time we sailed on the SS Oronsay, owned by P&O. (Not to be confused with the SS Oronsay troop ship sunk in WWII.) Sadly that was one of her last trips before being sent to the scrap yard.
I was 12 years old at the time, and it’s on that trip – 3 weeks! – that I developed my love of cruising.
(3 ½ years later we immigrated back to the States - for the third time!)
I was 12 years old at the time, and it’s on that trip – 3 weeks! – that I developed my love of cruising.
(3 ½ years later we immigrated back to the States - for the third time!)
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SS ORONSAY, P&O
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FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
TO THE SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE
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IT'S IN MY BLOOD
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Some of my ancestors on my Dad’s side, were Master Mariners in the 1800’s.
The Babots hailed from Guernsey, Jersey and later Southampton. (Babot was my Grandmother's - my Dad's mother's - maiden name.) |
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In my Dad’s (the genealogist of our family) words:
George BABOT was commander of the South Western Railway Company's Royal Mail Packet, "Dispatch", which was a paddle steamer with auxiliary sails. |
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All the other BABOT master mariners in Lloyds Index were either his sons or grandsons, except William James Lancaster, who was his nephew.
His Master Mariner's Certificate was issued August 20, 1886. Sadly he was drowned at sea on October 14, 1886, less than two months later. |
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Edwin Sinel BABOT was the most famous of George's sons. His exploits, consisting mainly of the transporting of migrants to New Zealand in his three-masted ship, "Hydaspes", are recorded by Sir Henry Brett in his book, "White Wings". He took his new family to New Zealand in 1877, but they did not stay. They were back in London in 1881. They finally emigrated to New Zealand in 1884 and Edwin died there in 1903. Edwin was the cousin of William. They were both master mariners.
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My Mum also had the sea in her blood herself, and was in the Sea Rangers (a part of the Girl Guides in England).
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Blowing the boatswains whistle.
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Holding the ores on the left.
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Standing on the boom on the left.
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And then…well, I let her tell you… In 1955, I joined the Wrens (WRNS – Women’s Royal Navy). I trained as a Radar Plotter stationed near Haverfordwest in Wales. After a year there I transferred to London where I stayed for another year. I had an ulterior motive for requesting a transfer to London. A few weeks before I was committed to joining the Wrens, I met Roy who was an undergraduate student in London. The Navy allowed Wrens to apply for an honorable discharge if they are going to get married. I was discharged in 1957. |
FOLLOWING IN THE FAMILY FOOTSTEPS
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I myself learned to sail at age 13 in the Swan River, Perth, Western Australia. We each had a 7’ dinghy (really not much more than a bathtub with a sail and a center board!), and we would race around grabbing each other’s booms trying to capsize each other! Then we would lay on the sail in the water and pretend it was a (very wet) water bed – complete with jelly fish!
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It wasn’t until I moved to the Seattle area in my 20’s that I sailed again.
I volunteered on the crew of a 30’ C&C, and we would participate in races all around the Puget Sound.
I volunteered on the crew of a 30’ C&C, and we would participate in races all around the Puget Sound.
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As you can imagine, being Seattle, it wasn’t all smooth sailing, and we would sail in all sorts of weather, including once getting caught out in a lightning storm! Not good. This photo shows a boat breaching behind us during one of our races. But we had so much fun, and it wasn’t too bad getting cold knowing you would be warming up with a coffee drink in the yacht club afterwards!
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I didn’t sail for at least a couple of decades after that while raising kids, but then after moving to the Denver area I had the opportunity to go sailing in a 22’ J/22 - on a reservoir of all places! I discovered that, despite being land-locked, Denver has quite the sailing community. The weirdest thing about sailing on reservoirs and lakes is watching the cars go by, sometimes higher than you are! While I realized that I didn’t have the terminology-memory for what all those metal bits and lines are called, I surprised myself that I still had the muscle-memory needed to take the tiller and heel over. Still great fun after all these years!
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Let's be ship mates!