This is a very interesting archive of original documents and papers including a handwritten illustrated account and diary relating to the emigration from England to Australia of a British family just before the main outbreak of World War II.
Mr & Mrs Horace & Phyllis Fuller and their four children sailed from Liverpool on board the SS Ceramic. On 26th August 1939, the second World War started on 1st September.
Included in the lot is a 60 page handwritten and illustrated account of their voyage which lasted from August 26th to October 13th, with stops at Cape Town & Durban in South Africa,
Catching their first glimpse of Australia on Sunday October 1st, making port at Freemantle, then on to Perth, then Adelaide, Melbourne, and onto Sydney.
Also loosely inserted in the that book is a 8 page handwritten account by Phyllis Fuller starting in 1938 when she recollects standing outside the school dropping off her children and along with other mothers waiting to collect their gas masks, and then recalling her own memories of World War One when she was a child of 9 going through air raids and hearing the Zeppelins dropping their bombs, and being wholly terrified, and knew if war came to our land again it would be infinitely more terrible,
in 1938 the family got the opportunity to move to Australia through her husband's job, and as a result they missed the whole of the war which she was eternally grateful for.
Also included in the archive are the families cabin class passage ticket and receipt for £125 for the cost of the ticket.
A number of brochures on the ports called at for stops along the way.
Copies of the ships passenger list.
Two menus, once of which has been signed by fellow passengers.
Brochures from Shaw Savill Lines on the ship and schedule, sailing list etc.
And a large folding plan of the ship.
The SS Ceramic was a steam ocean liner built in Belfast for White Star Line in 1912–13 by Harland and Wolff, and operated on the Liverpool – Australia route, Launched the year after the Titanic.
The Ceramic was torpedoed and sunk in 1942 with the tragic loss of over 600 lives.
A VERY NICE ARCHIVE OF A VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA ONBOARD THE SS CERAMIC AT THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR TWO.
THE CERAMIC WAS SUNK BY A GERMAN U-BOAT THREE YEARS LATER