Lounge on the Captain Cook immigrant ship

I was 2 ½ when I travelled on the Captain Cook with my parents Harold and Frances (originally from Manchester) in 1959. I’ve got a copy of the Farewell Dinner menu on 24 June with some autographs – it lists the dates as departing Glasgow on 20 May and arriving Wellington 25 June. Presumably it went via Curacao and the Panama Canal but I have no memories of the trip or its route. I’ve recently looked at copies of Wellington newspapers, the Dominion and the Evening Post in the National Library and both have articles on the arrival. There’s a great photo in the Dominion of the ships arrival on ‘a midwinter day of glorious sunshine and not a breath of wind’. It arrived at 10pm on the 25th and anchored in the harbour overnight, berthing the next morning at Kings Wharf with 1,036 passengers including 150 children under 12, like me, according to the Evening Post. The Evening Post has two stories – one with a photo of ‘Miss Captain Cook’, 19 year old Katherine Dale, bound for Christchurch from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne ‘who won the title from 24 other entrants’. Apparently she ‘is keen to do modelling work in this country. She is interested in fashions, dancing – and also in getting married’. She was accompanied by her fiancé, a Mr T. Wilkinson. The second story has a photo of the five Bailey sisters, aged from 3 to 10, from Norwich and off to Auckland. He’s keen to ‘do broadcasting work in this country and is planning a brochure on the Captain Cook’s voyage’ – wonder if that ever eventuated? Last word to the Dominion that quoted two young immigrants ‘well, it’s good to be off that thing’.

I was six when we arrived in NZ in March 1955. We kids had separate meal times to the grown ups and because I was older had to look after my brother. We pretty well had run of the ship and could go just about anywhere on deck. I remember the particlar smell coming out of the air intakes that seemed to be all over the deck. My Dad's cousin met us in Wellington and that night we sailed on tha Maori for Llytelton. Then travelling by train and bus we arrived at Roxburgh Hydro. In 1957 we went to Wairakei and then in 1960 moved to Taupo. My mother and father were Norma and Fred Williams and they lived in Taupo until their deaths. It's been interesting reading what others have written and there are one or two names I recognise.

I had my 6th birthday on August 7, 1955 on the TSS Captain Cook. Dad, mother and sister we were heading for the USA. Dad was a civil engineer, he died in 1975 I was home on leave from the Army. Mother is now 95 and in poor health, sister is married and her son is a civil engineer. I was a Funeral Director and now Iam retired and living in Florida with my wife.

We arrived in Wellington about May 31- June 1954 on my 7th birthday. John and Evelyn Smith from Falkirk Scotland, with twin sons Jimmy and Johnny (me). Dad worked for the Wellington Gas works for years before he moved the family to Chch where it was easier for him to buy his first home. Each visit of the Captain Cook to Wngtn Dad would have a party for some of the cabin crew and mess stewards. Even after the TSS C,C, stopped sailing, many of the crew signed on to the Southern Cross so we still had our party's. From the memory of a 6 1/2 yr old it was a fairly rough crossing in places, weather wise with big seas. What a great adventure for two young boys, and what a great country to come to.

I came to New Zealand in 1957, aged 2 and a half. I had the measles and was in isolation. My family, Andrew and Sadie Redmond and my sisters Irene and Ann came to Christchurch where my dad had a job waiting at the Christchurch Transport Board as a bus driver. We came from Northern Ireland.

I along with my parents Roy and Doris Cox arrived in New Zealand June 1959 .
Bob Lindsay posted on this site we were on the Same voyage.

I previously posted to this site on Feb 2016 as Anonymous I realize I should have included my name. My post talked about the Lowe family's assisted imigration to NZ and my brother and I being left alone on the ship due to my mother being in the ships infirmary for the whole of our trip in 1958. My mother was Olga Lowe. I just want to add my name to the post.

I came to NZ on the Captain Cook late 1958 . I was 9 years old. We were from Suffolk. I traveled with my parents and two sisters, one older, one much younger. We landed in Wgtn. then went down to Central Otago. After time on a sheepstation we moved to Dunedin then later on to Wellington.

My uncle William (Billy) Gilmour served on the captain cook between sept/Dec 1953,I'm guessing during that time the ship sailed out to wellington NZ?
He worked as assistant steward,he would have only been about 19 at the time,anyone remember him or the ship at that time? Or perhaps know of anyone that worked along side him.
Regards.

I arrived in Wellington NZ in November 1954 with my brother and my parents having left Glasgow on 12th October (mu 9th birthday). I am keen to know the precise date of our arrival in NZ. I think it was about the 16th of November. Can anyone tell me the exact date? We were in Draft 37 of sailings. My surname at that time was SHAW.