ACHILLE LAURO

I was 7 yes old when we travelled back from fremantle Australia to the uk on the Achilie Lauro: it's sad to think of it laying on the bed of the somalian seas now My family emigrated to Australia in 1966 on the Fairsea star liner, ten pound poms! we only stayed in Australia for a few months before we returned. Going out we went through the Suez canal but I'm sure coming back we had to go around the cape of Africa because the Suez was closed. Unfortunately my parents are no longer here to ask. Being a child, the whole journey there and back was a huge exciting journey, some of which will remain with me until I pop my clogs, including the Italian staff on board the Achilia Lauro who loved us kids

Need info on my arrival in 1969

I travelled to Sydney, in June 1971, at the age of 23, as a £10 pom, on board the 'Achille Lauro, It was a fantastic trip for £10! via Malta. Messina, Naples, Genoa, Tenerife, Cape Town and Melbourne arriving in Sydney about July 7th, which was in the middle of their winter , it was a beautiful sunny day with a temp of 16oC which is cold to Australians after the hot summers they have. Stayed for 4 years then returned to the UK.

My parents 10 pound poms came out in their early twenties. Travelled May 1968 to Fremantle then on to Sydney arrived 27-4-1968. I have vague flash back memories as I was only 3 1/2 years old - Found actual footage on U-tube of journey. First 10mins of voyage then 10mins from around Perth and Fremantle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QID2fXVD2rs My family carried on to Sydney Arrived 3-5-1968 we stayed in up turned water tanks "Immigration centre"

Hey Ian, I was on the same sailing as you - departed Southampton 1st June 1971 - still have the ticket. I was six then. We disembarked in Melbourne and got put up in the Wiltona hostel for a few weeks before moving to Sydney. We came back to England two years later in summer 1973. Have photos from Achille Lauro if anyone’s interested. Thanks for reminder about ports of call. I couldn’t remember them all exactly. Would be good to hear from you!

I was aged ten when my parents took us overseas... We travelled from Sydney to Malta to meet our grandparents and extended family for the first time. My siblings were aged six and three., we boarded the Achille Lauro on this day, 26 May 1969. The journey took five weeks... Sydney, Fremantle, Cape Town - South Africa, then onto Tenerife in the Canary Islands, then to England - ship docked at Southampton dry docks for three days. Then off to Malta!!! I have so many memories. We did the return trip back to Sydney later that year. I recall the ship’s song, the Italian meals, the very Italian staff who were very friendly, the bingo, kids fancy dress parade, and the many ports we visited where our parents took us to see places! We were on Promenade Deck. I remember we had a window to see outside.... we had a lovely family in the cabin next door and they too were enroute to Malta. Shame we didn’t keep in touch!

I travelled with my parents and two brothers from Durban to Fremantle in 1987 aboard the Ahille Lauro and i still live in Perth ever since.It took us 15 days to arrive to Australia.what a awesome experience on the Achille Lauro

I travelled to Malta in October 1966 on the Achilles lauro I have lots of wonderfully memories.I was 20 years old ,I met a girl called Lynette and we shared many memories including an excursion to Cairo. We became close and sadly we said goodbye when I left ship in Malta she was on the way to uk then returning to australia. It was a sad goodbye . I went on to meet another girl and got married a marriage that lasted untill my wife past away after 43 years . Lynette my girlfriend from all those years back found me on Facebook and we met again in 2014 .It was like we never parted and today I'm living with her back in melbourne .A true love story .

I was a £10 pounder from Newcastle upon Tyne and was 19 years old. Spent most of the trip with a mother and daughter in first class. The security guys. Just turned a blind eye as I always wore a tuxedo. The owner of Tarax lemonade offered me a job but never took him up. His name was Ken Pethard. I had a ball till the night before Perth and then I was stopped from going to see the girls in first class. Reality came with a thump we were arriving in Australia next day. The ship died!!!!!

I travelled on the Achille Lauro from Wellington to Southampton in May/June 1971. We stopped in Tahiti, Acapulco, Panama, Miami, Portugal and Southampton. The ship was meant to go to Genoa but I do not remember why it changed to Southampton. I remember the trip well including the burial at sea of a young lady. The food was great and all the staff were so nice to the children. I went to Italian lessons and participated in the crossing of the equator ceremony where the staff threw spaghetti and flour all over people and then promptly threw them in the pool. Fabulous ship!

I travelled on either the Achille or Angelina Lauro from Wellington to Southampton in July 1967, and returned to Auckland in May or June 1968. Can anyone tell me which ship it might have been, and what their routes were? Thanks.

In 1972 I travelled with my new husband, from Southampton to Sydney on the Achille Lauro. We left Southampton in October and when we got to Tenerife the ship's crew went on strike. Each day we were given money to buy food. We had to return to the ship at a certain time each evening and prepare to continue the journey. The strike lasted for around six days. The Italian crew was replaced by a Spanish crew. The Italian burser was named Fredrico. We had French, Hawaiian and New Zealand nights and I was part of the dancing! We were supposed to stop at Durban but made a call at Cape Town only to make up for the time lost. We were ten pound Poms so I was in a cabin with three women and our husbands were in a cabin next door! It was an adventure and was mostly very enjoyable.

I was a crew member on the Achille Lauro November 1966. I was looking after children in the nursery. We left Sydney travelled to New Zealand and back then round the coast of Australia, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth then across to Cape Town, South Africa, Tenerife and then Southampton where we stopped for a few days. Most of the passengers were going back to the UK on holiday or returning for good because of homesickness. After that we went to the Mediterranean and picked a boat load of immigrants from Europe. The boat was overbooked so it was a very hectic time and most those passengers could not speak English. It was very sad. There was a little German boy who was an orphan heading out to Australia. He used to follow me around calling me Tante. I have probably spelled that incorrectly.. The man who supervised in the gym was called Mario di Nardo. I would love to know what happened to that little German boy, I hope he had a happy time in Australia. Australians working on the ship were signed on as passengers. The customs and immigration people got on board at Perth to help the migrants. I was very concerned for them and how they would assimilate. I do have a couple of photos from all those years ago..

Hi Ian and David, My name is Francesca, and I was on the same sailing as you both. I was 14 at the time, and was migrating from Italy to Melbourne, where I still live. I embarked the ship in Messina, and have such wonderful memories from the journey. I would absolutely love to see some pictures from the trip, as I do not have any. It would be greatly appreciated!

We travelled as a family (three teenage girls) to Sydney on the Achille Lauro, setting off in June 1966, with all the big ships tied up in Southampton because of the Seamen's Strike...we went all through the Med, walking all over the Acropolis (like you use to do at Stone Henge), and through the Suez the year before it closed because of the 1967 war.. Some people got off in Alexandria and went down the Valley of the Kings before it flooded... Beirut was just kicking off, and no-one was allowed ashore at Aden.... Crossing the Line was great fun. People were travelling for a reason then, not just the cruise, but it instilled in me a lifelong love of being at sea.... What an experience that was!!

We travelled as a family (three teenage girls) to Sydney on the Achille Lauro, setting off in June 1966, with all the big ships tied up in Southampton because of the Seamen's Strike...we went all through the Med, walking all over the Acropolis (like you use to do at Stone Henge), and through the Suez the year before it closed because of the 1967 war.. Some people got off in Alexandria and went down the Valley of the Kings before it flooded... Beirut was just kicking off, and no-one was allowed ashore at Aden.... Crossing the Line was great fun. People were travelling for a reason then, not just the cruise, but it instilled in me a lifelong love of being at sea.... What an experience that was!!

Around late '68 for me, I was 7...can't remember departing but I think it was Bremerhaven to Syd. Dad was military and we were coming home from Berlin after 2 years there... so in first class, I remember the gate / fence that separated the two class sections of the ship. Was a couple of weeks at least, strong memories of crossing the Equator ritual, Dad was egged and thrown into the pool as a sacrifice to King Neptune (as were many other guests).. spent all day, every day in that pool. The nightly dining galas (no kids allowed) was hilarious, all the officers in white, the women dressed up, all on the dance floor, walzing and drinkning. This was surrounded by a circular balcony above the dance floor, where I would hide and quietly shoot slugs of potato pellets from my spud gun... little bits of spud sitting on the big beehive hairdos and officers caps, to the . The kitchen lads would gift me the spuds from the galley. I knew everyone who worked onboard and with their consent and help, i had the full run of the ship. For some reason, there was no other kids onboard (except my baby sister in her cot)... so I was a solo mischief maker. Going ashore was always a big deal, the gantry to the tender boat and then getting off at the port wharf was always exciting... then it was intense sightseeing before we had to get back onboard... usually several punts back and forth, I would stay on the tender for a couple of extra rides, the Italian lads who worked on the ship were super cool and let me hang about all over the place (in the off limits areas etc). Other ports were docked on the wharf itself and we were right in amongst all the loading and dockside action which was a whole other world of men and machines. Most meals were a buffet and I remember getting a taste for shellfish for the first time.. prawns, lobsters etc.. lots of Italian breakfast treats and I have a strong memory of smoked fish for breaky... kippers!!.. I still like it. I personally never got sea sick (still don't) but I remember a day rough weathe rthat was thrilling but really tough for most passengers, too sick to leave cabins. All the chairs, tables, deckchairs and other bits were lashed to poles, walls and doors were padlocked shut but things did break lose and stuff was rolling around in aisles and in the lobby / lift area. It was weird because I was getting around the whole ship completely alone, virtually never seeing anyone. I went on deck and it was just a constant massive seaspray and wind, very dangerous, the ship heaving up and down... really exciting. Arriving in Oz (I think it was Adelaide, maybe Melb) was a massive ribbons show and a band!!.. Achille Lauro, a nice childhood memory for this little Aussie kid.

I travelled on the Achille Lauro from Sydney to Wellington in July 1966 and returned from Wellington to Sydney in December 1967. I was coming home to reorganise my affairs and then he but did not make it until 1976 buit with a different ship.ad off to Europe later in 1968

I was engaged as the Protestant Chaplain on the Achille Lauro for a cruise from Australia to Asian ports and return in January 1971. I embarked in Sydney and the cruise was lengthy, about 30 days. I was 26 at the time and blown away by the experience. Within a week l had to conduct a burial at sea for a passenger who died on the dance floor! I got on well with the Catholic Chaplain who was permanently on board. He accompanied me into Bangkok then left me to return to the hotel myself! I got lost and didnt have hotel details. Trying to describe my hotel to a taxi driver he took me to a seedy brothel! Luckily l recalled that the hotel had a live elephant out front and staff at the brothel ifentified the hotel from that information. There were a number of VIPs on board travelling incognito. One was Ronald Wilson a future Australian High Court Judge and another was Paulius Matane later PNG Ambassador to the UN and G-G in PNG. All.good fun for me.

I was on it with my family from Genova to Melbourne in 1967-Anyone on it will remember the force 9.5 we hit off the fremantle coast

I was a £10 pom travelling aboard the Achille Lauro from Southampton to Sydney departing 1/2/1969 . It was a 5 week voyage calling at Valetta, Messina ,Naples Genoa , Cape Town , Fremantle Melbourne arriving at Sydney on 8/3/69. We picked up Italian and Maltese emigrants en route. My mate and I shared a cabin with two Manchester lads , one of whom we lived with in Sydney for 3 years before homesickness and a good job offer tempted me home . My memories of the ship were being kept in the cheap part of the ship . The first class areas were out of bounds but we did visit the lounge performing a Maori hacker for the enthusiastic first class crowd ! Our little swimming pool was ok and was used during the equator crossing ceremony when Neptune performed rituals daubing volunteers in paint prior to being thrown in the pool ! The food was awful as I recall . My delicate English stomach never accepted the Italian garlic preferences so I existed on fruit and cereal. I did however come to take to the pizzas served up in a bar . Every port we visited meant a meal out so we didn't starve . I was lucky to go down to the engine room and recall seeing the enormous pistons at work driving us along . The ships stabilizers weren't working so crossing from Cape Town was responsible for much seasickness . I recall standing on the bow of the ship seeing Oz for the first time, like a scene from Titanic ! I recall seeing John Wayne in the film Stagecoach in the little cinema the night a bloke was knifed which led to a crew member in irons attacking a shipmate ! All in all a great 5 weeks . The crew were great despite us whingeing Poms ! Saw the ship some years later tied up at Tenerife prior to resale before the famous highjacking .

I traveled on Achille Lauro from Southampton to Wellington from August 4 till September 14 1970 with my husband Pavel and my 7 year old son Peter.Our trip was paid for by the University of Otago in Dunedin,where my husband and i were teaching afterwards for thirty years. It was a great ship, a great trip. I am a writer and I published two books which include the description of the trip on Achille Lauro. One was written in my mother tongue, Czech language and it is called Smrt a Odpusteni, published in Prague in 1996.Then I translated it into English and it was published in Dunedin in 2015 as Death and Forgiveness. Pavel died in 1994 but Peter and I and my daughter Veronica, who was conceived on the ship during the voyage and was born in 1971 and their children still live in Dunedin. Jindra Tichy

see above

I left England in June 1971 on the Achilles Lauro which I boarded in Portsmouth. I had a great voyage, truly memorable. The workers & passengers were friendly and fun. I even took part in an Hawaiian show. On July I will celebrate 50 years of being in Australia. I have returned to England for two holidays to visit family and friends but I could never live there again.

Hi I’m trying to clarify which ship I travelled on but am sure it was one of the Achille Laura vessels. I think 1970/71, boarded Melbourne and travelled directly east across the Pacific. Fiji, American Samoa, Acapulco, Panama, Curacao, Lisbon, Genoa. A 5 week voyage which was amazing. I was 21. Does anyone remember that voyage ?