The 1966-built ship
Kungsholm of Swedish-American Line features in a 1970 picture, as background to a pelican in the Galapagos Islands; passengers on board her at Lifeboat Drill in about 1967 are in another picture, and smartly-dressed American passengers pose beside Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue also about 1970. Many of us consider
Kungsholm to be one of the most beautiful ships ever built, but her looks changed considerably after 1975 with subsequent owners, and I knew her as
Victoria when she was chartered to celebrate Union-Castle Line's Centenary Voyage in 1999/2000 for a voyage around Africa.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"219553","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"500","height":"498","alt":"Unidentified couple posing in front of the Mermaid sculpture, Copenhagen, Denmark"}}]]Unidentified couple posing in front of the Mermaid sculpture, Copenhagen, Denmark (P96771)
Passengers travel for so many different reasons: nowadays cruising is hugely popular and a growing leisure activity. I worked as a Purserette on Union-Castle Line's cruise ship
Reina del Mar for a two-week Mediterranean cruise and that was a completely different experience to being on a Mailship to South Africa ('Union-Castle Line Purserette', by Ann Haynes née Williams).
I remember people travelling to Cape Town, or the islands en route, perhaps on Government contracts; the South African cricket team came north with us prior to playing the Test Matches in the UK; passengers were going on holiday; groups of UK West Country farmers were visiting similar groups in South Africa; people were emigrating, or simply enjoying being at sea.
In December 1999 on board
Victoria I met one lady who had been on the maiden voyage of
Pretoria Castle in 1948, whose British Passport was marked "null and void if not married within a week" for when she arrived in South Africa. She was to marry a British man who had just started a new job with Rhodesia Railways, and was to join him as soon as she left the ship. She did join him, they did marry within the week, and all was well!
She also told me that her maternal grandfather had lived in New Zealand and was invited by
Sir Ernest Shackleton to join his
Second Expedition in Antarctica in 1914-1917, which he did. She was a passenger with a fascinating story to share.