Lounge on the Captain Cook immigrant ship

Emigrating to New Zealand on my own in June 1958 at the age of nineteen without any costs and the promise of a job upon arrival was too great an opotunity not to miss. My voyage on the SS Captain Cook started at Glasgow on Tuesday 17 June and finished at Wellington NZ via the Panama Canal.There were six of us sharing a cabin, some of them Danish. I joined the Entertainments Commitee and also played records on the ships PA system acting as a DJ. We arrived at Wellington on 24 July and I continued my elected journey to Auckland. Many friendships were made including a James Patrick Harland from Ireland. I would realy like to make contact with him again.

I came out when I was 14 on the Captain Cook in 1958 with my parents and young brother. We left Glasgow in the snow in February and arrived in sunny Wellington at Easter. I remember sitting in that port side lounge, praying the ship would stop rolling so I could move! I distinctly recall the smell of the ship, not that unpleasant but very memorable. The crew were Scottish and always gave me an extra orange at mealtimes. My mum and dad were separated at night during the journey and we were in Cabin B94 with 2 other women, one of whom I recall smelled of baby powder! Is there still a group of immigrants who get together in NZ?

My parents (Derek & Ethel Masters & daughter Elizabeth) came to New Zealand on the Captian Cook, Mum & Dad stayed in touch with a lot of the friends she made on that ship, they were on assisted passage and moved on to Christchurch after the ship arrived in Wellington. I have a few pieces of memorabilia that she kept from the trip,Menus with Autographs, a post card of the inside just like the picture on this page. There are also some lovely pictures that they took while they were stopped at Curacao. I believe that they arrived in February 1954.

I came on the same voyage as Olavi Hanninen in October 1954.I was just 18 months old, my parents Lucy and Hughie always made comment about the big strapping Finnish men on the voyage. Dad was seasick and was never so glad as when he stood on dry land at the stop in Curacao, I think he had to be dragged back on board.

I came out on the 'Captain Cook' in 1955 The Cook had been refurbished as ours was the last trip to N.Z. before it went on a Canadian run.Arriving March 3rd.There were a 100 single women on board and a fuss was made of us, as in the November 1954 headlines in one of the London papers read "Forty thousand unattached males in N.Z." - we left in the January but being the first ship to leave U.K. for N.Z. we were of interest to the media, Headlines in the Dominion with a photo reading 'Marriage plans "Oh No" greeted us as we stepped ashore in Wellington.A number of the women had families to go too, I was one and going to relatives in Hamilton.We had a good trip out, hit a rough patch a few miles from Wellington otherwise very pleasant.

My Mother brought us to New Zealand in 1957 on the Captain Cook,three boys and one girl after my father was drowned of Ardamurchan Point in 1949. We have all had a great life here and all have our own children. Mum passed on two years ago at age ninty eight sad she did not make the ton. We went by train from Wellington to the big city of Takapau where mum cooked for Mrs Rolleston at Oruawharo Homestead till the sixties when Mrs Rolleston died.

My family sailed on the Captain Cook in October 1954 from Glasgow-Curacao-Panama canal to Wellington. 17 Finnish familes were going to Kawerau to start the new Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill. The Finns won the rope pulling championship on the boat. We watched movies in the evening under a starlit sky. My sister ( 6 years old) was lost on the big boat but was luckily found later. Mollie Mccallion taught me English on the boat. She resided in Auckland.

My parents brought us to New Zealand as assisted immigrants on this ship. We left Glasgow in January, 1954 and sailing via Curacao, Panama and Pitcairn, arrived in NZ in February 1954.Regardless of marital status, men and women were separated in their sleeping arrangements during the six week voyage. The crew were almost entirely Scottish.