Swing by Sailor

It is a mid winter afternoon, sunny but cold, and the crews’ eye view from HMS Victorious down to the wharf is of families crowding the dock. The mood on board is uplifted by the spectacle and the hundreds of young women, dressed in their best daywear, excited by their approaching adventure.

But down on the wharf family dramas are stirring. New coats are pulled fretfully about shoulders, corsages are crumpled by hugs, and makeup is running with tears. Fathers enquire once more about luggage and passports, staving off the looming ‘farewell’. Their newly-wedded daughters are taking a side-door exit from childhood…crossing oceans to be with foreign men wrought by war. They are young women charged with optimism about their future.

“Sydney’s most stirring show last week was the departure for England was HMS Victorious with 700 Australian wives of British servicemen aboard. Hours before the ship sailed the road outside the wharf was dense with relatives and friends. Aboard the carrier the brides made an animated display as they lined the flight deck, sat astride guns, clustered in turrets, or peered from portholes….Mostly the brides were amazingly young….As the streamers snapped, snatches of songs could be heard, among them, ‘Maori’s Farewell’, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, and ‘Bell Bottomed Trousers’. Only then did many of the girls on board start to weep.”   The Bulletin, ‘Women’s Letters’  10 July 1946

DAPHNE MOSS
I climbed right up on top of the ship; I don’t think I was supposed to be there. The officers were there who were going to steer the ship and I was up higher. I was up on this thing, like a bloomin’ bird…I could see my mother standing right on the edge of the pier, and there were hundreds and hundreds of people there and I thought, my God they’ll knock her in the water. My girlfriend was standing a bit back from her, and I’m way up on the ship trying to tell her to go to Mum and stand beside her. I could just see these people pushing her off….

JUNE MARTIN
...Mum and Dad, the family were there, my sisters and my brother, all waving me off…. Someone had given me a boomerang and said, “This is so you’ll come back.” But as I looked back to Sydney I thought, I’ll probably never see it again. I just didn’t expect that we’d ever have the money to come back…

CECILÉ WOOLLEY
One poor girl was hanging over the side and singing out, “Goodbye, goodbye!” and her false teeth dropped in the water. She spent half her voyage getting off at each port trying to find new teeth.

A lot of my family came down to wave me goodbye, but my dad was late because of the traffic jams. I thought, oh he hasn’t come down to see me. I cried and cried when he didn’t arrive. My darling father…he’d come from work and he couldn’t find the group, there was such a crowd. My cousin told me, ‘I remember being there and everyone’s waving, but you’re hanging over the ship calling, ‘Where’s Dad? Where’s Dad?’ And Cec, (that was my dad), didn’t appear until the ship was well out and gone.’ Mum told me once he got on the train to Strathfield, he cried all the way home. She said he was wiping his eyes all the time…and he wasn’t a crying person…Isn’t that sad; the darling thing.

I’d never been away from my mother and father, and boy, my eyes were opened to the world. There were some very nice girls on board and there were some dreadful girls on board - some shockers. It was an experience!

EDNA MONK
My sister Phyllis was joining Bob in England, and she and I were up on the top deck of Victorious. No civilians were allowed on board apart from us. Suddenly my father walks up the gangplank. I’d only seen him once in three years, when I had to ask his permission to marry Eddy. They say, “Excuse me?” And he goes, “PMG,” and just carried on. He was working for the PMG at the time and he’s got a handset in his hand. Aussie brass - you see where the boys get it. He totally ignored Phyllis but he kissed me on the cheek, and he said, “You were always my favourite.” Then turned around and walked off the ship. I wouldn’t stand for his bullying so he respected me. I’ll never forget that. I was shocked and astounded.

Extract published courtesy of Hatchette Australia
© Catherine Dyson