A Journey With The Mails

Inter-war ephemera from the Orient Line of mail steamers.

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No recent shinies because everything I've found on eBay lately has been in the UK, so it's all gone back there and is waiting for me.

Australia is distressingly sparse on Orient Line goodies.

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New pretty! A booklet containing the itineraries of the northern cruises for the European summer of 1933 on the SS Orontes.

[galadriel1010]

Hey Tumblr. I bought this record of a voyage from 1920, and it has this note. Can any cryptographers help me decipher the message?

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An update!

Huge thanks to @esoteric-merit, who cracked the code and got us the following translation: "To [name] with love from kim in appreciation of the through understanding and awakening of true friendship. In the giving of this book, it will re? all the silent thanks we can not give what he has received, however much he wants to"

The [name] is actually Number Two. What this means, we can't know. However, I can tell you who Number Two was.

Bernadine Blanchfield Englefield (née o'Halloran) was born in 1894, so 25 or 26 at the time that she sailed to Australia. She worked there for some time as a teacher, first in Brookton and then in Kweda.

In July 1926, though, she married Henry Englefield, born 1891, in Kensington. Their son Dermot was born the following year, and spent most of his career as a librarian at the House of Commons.

She returned to Australia in 1952 to visit her brother and sister-in-law, who were living in Peppermint Grove in Perth. (She did not travel out there with her brother in 1920).

Henry died in 1959, having served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in both wars, as far as I can tell. Bernadine, apparently known as Blanche to her friends, died at the age of 97, in September 1991, 7 years after she left us this note.

Sadly there's not a lot I can do with "Kim" since the ship manifests only list surnames and first initials, and there's a lot of Ks. I hope he lived as long and happy a life as Blanche appears to have.

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1929-1930 timetables

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Front cover of the slipcase for a Record of a Voyage. Standard issue through 1930s

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Map of Adelaide from 1936. Part of a Record of a Voyage belonging to Mr AG Wash

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1925 sailing schedule for the England-Australia and return voyages, with all ports of call

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General Information for Passengers travelling on the SS Ormonde. Undated

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SS Austral Sinking

Did you know in 1882 a perfectly serviceable Ocean Liner sunk in Sydney Harbour? The Austral was a major disaster that confounded Sydneysiders and journalists alike. But the cause was a simple case of human error. And the solution was a showcase of human ingenuity!

[galadriel1010]

It was the first ship they launched with a name that didn't begin with the letter O, and also the last.

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First class public rooms on the RMS Orama. The Orama was the second Orient Line ship to bear the name, the first having been launched in 1911 and sunk in 1917 by a U-boat when she was serving as an armed merchant cruiser. The second Orama was launched in 1924 and sunk in 1940 when serving as a troop ship.

Pictured clockwise from top left are the dining toom, the lounge, the writing room and the smoking room.

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1896 timetable and track chart for the England to Australia Route. This has been amended by hand to show where alternative ships are being used from the original announced.

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People need to stop beating me in auctions on eBay.

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Track chart showing the route and calling points from England to Australia

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Shore card and information for passengers on a 1927 cruise of the Mediterranean calling at Dubrovnik.

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1929-1930 list of sailings for all ports on the Australia to England and return mail route. This one printed in Australia.

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Record of a Voyage souvenir front cover.

The Souvenir of a Voyage gives details of all the ports called at on route and some details of the ship itself. The Orama is one of the 5 20,000 ton vessels built for the Orient Line in the years before and after the First World War. It had accommodations for 600 First Class passengers and 1,250 Third Class.

This was printed by the ship's on-board print room, which also handled the menus, shore cards and other printed materials required on board, the wireless press messages received at sea, and anything else needed to entertain the passengers and keep up the smooth running of the ship. It would probably have been available either in the ship's store, or from one of the stewards.

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