The hard life of the ship Goya

The Goya had a vital part in my dad's story as the ship he journeyed to Australia in. Since identifying her and her role in my family history I wanted to know more about the ship, and her fate, in particular I wanted to locate a photograph. I searched high and low on the Internet, hoping to find something quickly, I did find some scraps of information and gleaned a few facts (e.g. at the time of my father's voyage the Goya was Norwegian owned and flagged), however, no photograph anywhere. Goya has a Wikipedia article, but alas, no picture. Much frustration, no satisfaction. I refined my search and googled again, finding nothing of use I gave up for the night ... fade to black.

A few days later, and at a holiday-time loose end, I tried again, this time reworking my search strategy and using Google's advanced search (forgot to do that first time around): better result, fewer hits, and more to the point. This led to a maritime history site, Ahoy-Mac's web log, and that led to a quick email to the site's author; his reply directing me to Australian migrant ships 1946-1977 by Peter Plowman. This I have done and was rewarded with a picture of the Goya (see below) and some additional information (see Plowman, 2006, page 36 if you are interested).


And her fate? Reading through Peter Plowman's book shows me that the Goya was a typical merchant/passenger ship -- not much glamour and a hard, hard life. The vessel started life in 1938 as the German cargo ship Kamerun; performed war service with the German navy until taken as spoils of war and allocated to the Norwegians; six changes of name; several owners; a migrant ship for only part of her life. Finally, in 1969, named Melina she was sold for the last time and was broken up for scrap at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It appears that Goya's most famous voyage was her March-May 1951 journey to New Zealand. The 50th anniversary of that event was marked, in September 2001, by a celebratory dinner (see the New Zealand Government Internet site, beehive.govt.nz for details).

A last note, the Goya I discuss here is not to be confused with another German ship named Goya, which was sank with great loss of life by the Soviet navy in 1945.

The book's details: Australian migrant ships 1946-1977 / by Peter Plowman. Dural, N.S.W. : Rosenberg, 2006; ISBN: 9781 8770 5840 0; price $AUD 29.95.

Voyage of the Goya, September-October, 1949

A belated reading yesterday of the NAA's series notes for Series A11760 provided more information and clarification. The series notes on the NAA database told me that the ship my father traveled to Australia on was the S.S. Goya, departing Naples, Italy on 25/9/1949 and arriving Sydney, 23/10/1949. The note informs that the file for this voyage of the Goya, including the list of passengers is Department of Immigration file A434, 49/3/21770. Further, that file is accessible on the NAA database (see above images, to enlarge click on the image); my dad's name appears on p. 29 of the passenger list as passenger 848 (now I understand what "848" on his file means).

The NAA series note for A11760 states in part:

"The ship's nominal roll is a list of all the passengers that were on board when the ship sailed from its port of departure. (The nominal roll for this voyage of the Goya is on file A434, 1949/3/21770). Each passenger is given a nominal roll number and these numbers have been used as the item control symbols for this series.

There were 890 Displaced Persons on board the Goya when it left Naples on 25 September 1949.

The Goya arrived in Sydney on 23 October 1949.

The passengers disembarked and were transported by train to the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst."

The note partially answers a question I have, "What happened when he arrived and where did he go?" The answer appears to be the Department of Immigration Reception and Training Centre, Bathurst.

Images: © Commonwealth of Australia, 2004, 2008.

First fruits: NAA comes through

A staff member of National Archives of Australia emailed me yesterday to tell me that a digital copy of my father's immigration file is now accessible.

As mentioned in an earlier post the file title indicated that it contained migrant selection documents, well that is exactly we have, a range of administrative paperwork:

• Processing Centre index card (1 card, 2 sides) (see the images above: for an enlargement click on the image);
• I.R.O. Resettlement Registration form (4 pages);
• I.R.O. Resettlement Medical Examination form (1 sheet, folded into 4 pages); and,
• I.R.O. Emigration X-Ray card (1 card, 2 sides; chest x-ray attached).
  

The file was created and maintained by the Commonwealth Department of Immigration, Central Office as file A11760/1. All in all the file contains 12 pages and holds the assessments carried out to verify my dad's suitability (background and medical) for emigration to Australia. The file is quite dry stuff, however, a first examination did turn up some interesting crumbs of information. Once I digest its contents I will discuss it in a future post (yes, Constant Reader, its really a ploy to keep you tuned in for future installments). A couple of things I can say immediately, the alteration of his surname occurred prior to his arrival in Australia, and not here as family lore has it; the documents also allow me to construct a rough list of dates and places and occupations for my dad back to 1937. There is not much detail but there are leads to follow.

The file's series notes (i.e. series A11760) on the NAA database provide additional useful information, namely details such as the ship's name, S.S Goya. The moral here is read the series notes!

A major line of inquiry will be with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (www.unhcr.org). The UNHCR is the successor body for the UN International Refugee Organization (IRO) with the IRO being wound up on 31 December, 1950 and the UNHCR commencing operations on 1 January, 1951. Its a safe bet that the UNHCR may have inherited the IRO archives or know where they are. If the archives exist and are accessable I can track dad before he came to the attention of the Australian authorities.

The IRO was established in July 1947 as a non-permanent body of the UN and was intended to assist the millions of refugees like my dad in the post war period; due to difficulties encountered with the Soviet government the IRO worked only in the areas occupied by the western armies.

The file is viewable as a digital copy at the NAA web site (www.naa.gov.au)

Images: © Commonwealth of Australia, 2008.