Castel Felice
Castel Felice was a SITMAR (Società Italiana Transporti Marittima) Line liner built in 1930 for the British India Company as the Kenya, commencing her maiden voyage to Bombay on 18 December 1931. Refitted and renamed several times, once to serve as a troop carrier in World War II, in 1952 she became the Castel Felice (‘Happy Castle’) after being transferred to the Sitmar line in 1950. From 1952 to 1970, on a total of 101 voyages she carried over 100,000 immigrants to Australia[1] and New Zealand. She was broken up in 1970.
Configuration
- Engines: 11,000 s.h.p. six single-reduction-geared steam turbines / twin screws
- Rigging; 1 tripod style communications mast (2 masts, with cargo cranes)
- Surface Speed:15 knots, later 16 knots
- Dimensions: 150.3 x 19.6 m
- Depth: 7.6 m draught
- Tonnage: 12,150 GRT
- Passengers: 1400 one class - based on her final configuration.
- Previous names: Kenya (1930), Hydra (1941), Keren (1941), Kenya (1949), Fairstone (1950), Kenya (1950), Keren (1951–52)[2]
Notable Passengers
Arrival of the "Castel Felice" with Indo Eurasian repatriates from Indonesia; on the Lloydkade in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 20 May 1958
- Giorgio Mangiamele (13 August 1926 – 13 May 2001) was an Italian/Australian photographer and filmmaker.
- The Groop travelled to UK on the Sitmar line cruiser Castel Felice in 31 January 1968. Traveling with them was Molly Meldrum[3]
- Ray (Raymond Frank) Mathew (14 April 1929 – 27 May 2002), an Australian author, was born in Sydney, New South Wales. Mathew wrote poetry, drama, radio plays and filmscripts, short stories, novels, arts and literature criticism, and other non-fiction. He left Australia in 1960 on the Castel Felice and never returned, dying in New York where he had lived from 1968.[4]
- Andrea Dworkin, while a student, was arrested in 1965 during an anti-Vietnam-War and imprisoned at New York Women's House of Detention, later testifying before a Grand Jury about her maltreatment there, receiving national and international news coverage resulting in the closure of the prison. Soon after, Dworkin left on the Castel Felice to live in Greece and to pursue her writing.[5]
- Marina von Neumann Whitman (born March 6, 1935) is an American economist. She is a Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business as well as The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Her father was John von Neumann, mathematician. She traveled to from USA to Europe on the Castel Felice in 1954.[6]
- Jeffrey Smart departed Australia for London on the Castel Felice out of Sydney just after Christmas 1963, driving to Greece fellow painter Justin O’Brien.[7] On the same sailing was Margaret Reynolds (born 19 July 1941), Australian Labor Party Senator for Queensland from 1983 to 1999.[8]
- Robyn Williams AM (born 1944 in Buckinghamshire, England) is a science journalist and broadcaster resident in Australia who has hosted the Science Show on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation since 1975, Ockham's Razor (created 1984) and In Conversation (created 1997). He immigrated to Australia from England in 1964 on theCastel Felice[9]
- George Holmes Honadle, advisor on issues of sustainable development.[10]
- Jutta Feddersen, tapestry and installation artist migrated alone from Germany to Australia on the Castel Felice in December 1956 at 26 years of age.[11]
- J. Brian McArdle, photojournalist and editor of Walkabout (passenger 1955) [12]
- Bruce Beresford, Australian film director, moved to the UK in 1963.[13][14]
In Popular Culture
- Events on the Castel Felice are at the centre of action in Calvin C. Hernton’s novel Scarecrow (Doubleday, 1974) which explores the fatal psychosexual, racial conflicts of voyagers on board.
- Mentioned in King of Thieves: The Adventures of Arthur Delaney and the Kangaroo Gang by Adam Shand p. 44, p. 49
- Mention in Gee, Maurice (2000). Going west. Penguin Books, Auckland, N.Z. p. 158.
Historical References
- Burdett, S. (2013) Ten Pound Poms. Author House. ISBN 1491878010, 9781491878019
- Jones, L. (2013) A History of Silence: A Memoir. Text Publishing ISBN 1922148369, 9781922148360
References
- ↑ Plowman, P. (2006) Australian Migrant Ships. Rosenberg Publishing, ISBN 1922013250, 9781922013255
- ↑ Plowman, P. (2004) The SITMAR Liners: Past and Present. Rosenberg Publishing, ISBN 1877058254, 9781877058257
- ↑ Cadd, Brian (2010), From this side of things, New Holland Publishers (Australia), ISBN 978-1-74257-057-0
- ↑ Jennings, Kate (2010)Trouble: Evolution of a Radical/Selected Writings 1970-2010 p.207 Chapter “Ray Mathew: An Australian for Life” p.191-293 ReadHowYouWant.com. ISBN145871585X, 9781458715852
- ↑ Andrea Dworkin (2006 )Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant Continuum, ISBN 0826491472, 9780826491473. p.66
- ↑ Marina von Neumann Whitman (2012) The Martian's Daughter. A Memoir. University of Michigan Press. p.85
- ↑ Barry Pearce (2012) Master of Stillness: Jeffrey Smart Paintings 1940-2011 Wakefield Press, ISBN 1743051239, 9781743051238
- ↑ Reynolds, Margaret (2007) Living Politics. Univ. of Queensland Press ISBN 0702234389, 9780702234385 p.31-32
- ↑ “I arrived by boat for 10 quid. It wasn’t exactly leaky, but the Castel Felice, a converted troop carrier with the buoyancy of a brick and the cuisine of a remand home, was no castle of happiness.” “Vicki Laurie Journalist and author. She and I were on the same ship to Australia, the Castel Felice back in 1964.”
- ↑ Honadle, George H. (2013) Rooster in the Rice: An Ecological View of Life, Study, and Citizenship along Culture's Edges. Hamilton Books, ISBN 0761861203, 9780761861201. p.4
- ↑ Feddersen, Jutta (2010). Substance of Shadows: The Life and Art of Jutta Feddersen Murdoch Books,ISBN 9781741964554 p.77
- ↑ his wife Marie relates: "Last night at sea was celebrated with a party - vino flowed freely, bottoms were pinched by hitherto very dignified and authoritative officers bent on dancing the night away. Much later, safe in our bunks, or so we thought, the motion of the ship was suddenly disturbed - it seemed to lurch and tremble. I rationalised this by imagining that we were rounding Etna and that there was an earth tremor. But more was to come; a knock at the door and a voice saying "We've been rammed, there's a huge hole in the side of the ship, luckily above the water line!" Phew! Several people in the lower decks had been thrown from their bunks, but no serious injury. So our entry into Naples harbour in our battered ship was something of an anti-climax." Marie Shaw in personal correspondence to Dr James McArdle, 1999
- ↑ Wortham, Anne and Wortham, Christopher J (2009) Fragments; from Two Lives on Three Continents. Strategic Book Publishing, ISBN 1606933302, 9781606933305
- ↑ Jeffrey, Antony (2011) Many Faces of Inspiration: Conversations on Australian Creativity. Wakefield Press, p.92. ISBN 1862549540, 9781862549548