Decision of the decade, never regretted: leave the RAF and emigrate with a growing family to an uncertain future in Canada.
I sailed on the S.S. Homeric, flagship of the Home Line, going ahead of the family who followed three months later by air. Even though I had a cheap cabin, crammed full of bunks with a bunch of other hopeful emigrants, the five day voyage was all too short. Fresh from the austerity of postwar Europe, we had never eaten food and drunk wine in the quality and quantity that was freely available on board.
(Homeric photo from an old postcard, credited to T. Raynor)
In the Fall of '57 the passengers, mostly emigrants, watch with mixed emotions as we moor up to Canada at the port of Quebec.
"All those cars!" - we looked down from the ship in wonder. So brightly colored, so big, so many! Few of us has seen anything like the array of vehicles in this very ordinary parking lot by the wharf. We had clearly arrived in a different world.
Next day, on to
Montreal. In a heavy rain, I disembarked to face reality. No job, no friends,
knew little about life in Canada - and my wife and two sons would be flying out
in a few months. It felt heavy on my lonely shoulders.
We ended up in British Columbia, surely one of the most exciting and beautiful places in the world. Our third son was born in North Vancouver, where we lived for many years.
Around 1960, this North Shore beach by Lions Gate Bridge was a favourite place for our family to watch the ships.
In this photo the P&O liner SS Arcadia is arriving. Many thanks to Aniceto Bernal, a visitor to this page, for identifying the ship after 45 years!
In those days Lions
Gate was a toll bridge, ship traffic was controlled from that box-like office
perched high above the centre of the span, and there were few lights on the supporting
cables. Point Atkinson light can be seen flashing in the distance just astern
of the ship.
Our three sons grew up in Vancouver between the mountains and the sea. We
spent all our holidays and many weekends exploring, either camping or by boat.
Here, in December 1962, two of the boys are riding down from the top of Grouse
Mountain (or maybe it's Seymour). North Vancouver, Stanley Park, Lions Gate bridge,
English Bay and Point Grey can all be seen in the background.
It became a tradition that we went down to the beach for a picnic on
Christmas Day or Boxing Day to get some fresh air after the festivities, even
in rainy Vancouver. The boys are shown here in Stanley Park with some of their
presents in 1963.
On holiday in August 1965, on the home-built Davy Jones,
we went from beach to beach in the Gulf Islands in great weather.
