historic Halifax, Nova Scotia

I’ve been to Canada a number of times, mainly to Toronto and Montreal for IRC gatherings, and to Winnipeg and Vancouver for family reunions. The Maritimes were lovely, but I didn’t have enough time there.

    Lawn cemetery

Visit some of Halifax’s historic highlights. The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, located on the waterfront, is the perfect place to learn about Nova Scotia's maritime heritage. The Titanic is central to the museum’s role. While the survivors of the disaster made their way to New York, the dead were transported to Halifax, along with their precious possessions. Many Titanic victims were then taken to Fairview Lawn Cemetery, the headstones paid for by White Star Line, the British shipping line who owned Titanic. This was the burial site for the tragedies that have befallen Halifax. Consider those who lost their lives in the 1917 explosion. A French cargo ship, full of high explosives, collided with the Norwegian vessel in the harbour. The explosion devastated a district of Halifax - 1,800 people were killed by the blast, fires or collapsed buildings, and another 9,000 were injured.

The Maritimes, on Canada's east coast

A key part of Canada's history is Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, so visit this C19th fort with a sweeping view of Halifax city. Between May-Oct, the Citadel is enlivened by two historic regiments of the British Army, the pageantry of the 78th Highlanders and the precision of the Royal Artillery thrilling visitors with daily live enactments. The bagpipes and rifles help the recruits with the next foot drill. At sunset, join the other side of the Citadel i.e the Citadel Ghost Tour, seeing the creepy lore from the early 1800s.

Discover historic Halifax by embarking on a walking tour through the city centre. See the history, culture and architecture of the coastal city, visiting the Old Burying Grounds and Grand Parade. The special Halifax’s Old Town Clock (1800) is in a tower located at Fort George in the centre of town. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and commander-in-chief of the British military forces, wanted a clock for the British Army and Royal Navy garrison.

    Old Town Clock, 1800  

Halifax Public Gardens is one of the finest surviving examples of a Victorian garden (1867) in North America. These Gardens are a living testament to an era where visitors welcomed respite from the urban atmosphere. The 16-acre public space, marked by ornate metal gates, still displays well shaped flower beds, quiet walkways, a picturesque gazebo and perfect picnic spots. Locals and visitors love the beauty and peace of the park, next to the Citadel. The gardens are open daily from 7a.m to sunset.

 entrance to the Halifax Public Gardens, opened in 1867 

See the other important historic sites eg St Paul's Anglican Church, St Paul’s has been an historic community since 1749. Continue along to the beautiful waterfront, passing the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Walk on the boardwalk to see the Discovery Centre and fine restaurants. The tour ends at the Canadian Immigration Museum at Pier 21! See City Hall 

A small part of the Halifax Boardwalk

St Paul's Anglican Church, opened in 1749  

For centuries, the lives of Maritimers have been shaped by the ocean, whether through fishing, shipbuilding or the navy. Browse through a variety of exhibits tracing the history of navigation, from the first explorers to the age of steam, and shipping accidents. In 1948, Fisherman’s Market became one of Canada’s first federally regulated seafood plants. The Halifax Market is a wholesaler, retailer and world exporter of fresh, frozen, smoked & salted seafood, and live Atlantic lobster. Fisherman’s Market is a direct link to the sea in every aspect of the fishery, from licence owners, vessel operators and fishing, to processing, distribution and retail. Seabright Smoke House products include hot and cold smoked salmon, mackerel, haddock and cod, all of which are smoked daily on-site by the market’s smokehouses.

Towering over central Halifax, the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site is a tribute to the city's military past. 4 forts have occupied this hilltop since 1749, when career British military officer Edward Cornwallis governed the region; the fort that stands today dates to 1856. Wander the Citadel's corridors to see Halifax's involvement in war eg American Revolution, American Civil War and both World Wars. The on-site Army Museum gives a closer look at the fortress's history. And to relive the hill back in its heyday, re-enactors of the Royal Artillery fire the traditional noon gun. From May-Oct the kilted 78th Highland Regiment give guided tours of the fort and show what it was like to be a soldier there. The Citadel is a 15-minute walk west of the waterfront.

 

The Citadel

Visit the super Farmers' Market which delights locals and tourists every Saturday and Sunday. 230 exhibitors offer fresh produce and handicrafts. Enjoy the colours and smells, while enjoying a wide selection of products to choose from: cheeses, sea-food, sweets and breads. And souvenirs to bring home from the Maritimes.

Visit the scenic Peggy's Cove fishing village and then go into Peggy's Cove’s charming rural community. Visit the picturesque Peggy’s Cove lighthouse and enjoy time walking around the small fishing village with scenic ocean views. Watch the sunset from Peggy’s Cove and then return to Halifax, taking a leisurely coastal drive with stops for views. The Metro population is c480,000 

Peggy’s Cove lighthouse

    

Norway's North Pole Expedition Museum

In C19th, exploration and discovering new lands had become a much smaller endeavour as the world "shrank". Instead, exploration looked to the world's more dangerous reaches, even beyond the atmosphere. The Industrial Age allowed humans to create structures that assisted exploration of the ocean’s depths, escape from the earth’s gravity, and navigation over treacherous frozen terrain. However within this new, dangerous age of exploration, there still lies a question: who was the first to the North Pole?

Greatest Polar Explorers,

Polar Routes Blog

Several land discoveries have been disputed, given continued research and archaeological digs. One of the most famous being Christopher Columbus not being the first European to reach the New World. But the question of the North Pole is a bigger challenge. Roald Amundsen’s claim to the South Pole in 1911 can be proved, so why not Robert Peary’s claim only 2 years earlier at the North Pole? The biggest trouble lies deep in the Arctic ice.

While Antarctica is a land mass holding relics of human presence, the Arctic Circle is nothing more than ice once it escapes the reaches of Canada and Greenland, the land masses that stretch closest to the North Pole. Explorers not only had to deal with the extreme temperatures but with the unpredictability of the ice. Even when waiting until the summer months of the Northern Hemisphere, temperatures still average around freezing and below. Many vessels became trapped, even when led by seasoned explorers, due to the risky gamble of navigating Arctic waters.

Realizing the limits of these vessels and the dangerously temperamental conditions of the ice, several explorers chose the safer route of making the trek by foot and sled. One of the most famous U.S explorers was Robert Peary, who manned multiple expeditions throughout Greenland and toward the North Pole. Having begun his explorations of the Arctic Circle in 1886, Peary led bigger and riskier expeditions up until his final expedition, ending in 1909.

His first attempt to the North Pole was in 1898, which was followed by other attempts before 1905. Each failed expedition taught Peary and his crew how to navigate the ever-changing, fluid landscape until he believed he'd finally reached his goal in 1909. Upon coming back to the U.S, however, he made a shocking discovery that someone else was trying to claim his prize.

Frederick Cook, explorer and surgeon, had accompanied Robert Peary on his 2nd expedition to Greenland. An ambitious man who wanted to make his own mark, Cook pursued his own path to fame rather than continuing under Peary's shadow. Cook quickly sought out grand trophies, starting with claiming first to the top of Denali,  in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska in 1906, then claiming to have been the first at the top of the world in 1908. Having well-kept travel journals, photographic evidence and the friendship of Ronald Amundsen, what could possibly go wrong for the young explorer?

Evidence disputing Cook’s claim to being the first atop Denali quickly started to tarnish his reputation even before he returned from his attempt to the North Pole. This, in addition to Peary and his association with the National Geographic Society, created doubt that resulted in a hearing in front of the United States House of Representatives’ Naval Affairs Subcommittee in 1911.

In order to secure his claim to the North Pole, Peary worked to expose Cook as a fraud. Cook’s photographs and journals were analyzed down to the finest details. Companions in both the Denali and North Pole explorations were questioned and interviewed. In the end, Robert Peary prevailed, and Frederick Cook’s efforts in exploration were left tattered in Peary’s wake.

Robert Peary, however, was not without his own flaws. His journals were locked away by the National Geographic Society and his family, and were never used as evidence in the case of Peary vs. Cook. Peary’s claim rested on the proof of Cook’s fraud and his reputation as an experienced explorer of the Arctic, not from his own evidence. Even if his claim to the North Pole was accurate, interviews years after the expedition placed his right-hand man, Matthew Henson, at the coordinates first.

Henson, who had been beside Peary on all but his first expedition to the Arctic, was sent ahead of the final exploration party to scout the area. This meant that the black dock worker from Maryland, not the white rear admiral from Pennsylvania, was the first to walk on top of the world.

Even though the National Geographic later cast doubt on Peary’s claim to have been first to the North Pole, and reputable historians and explorers have published disputing accounts, Peary’s claim persists in the popular mind. However, who else could possibly take up the trophy? The first runner-up, journeying not on the ice but in the air, is also shrouded in mystery: Richard Byrd in the airplane Josephine Ford vs. Roald Amundsen in the airship Norge.

In May 1926, both the Josephine Ford and the Norge took off from Spitsbergen Norway, and flew toward the top of the world. Richard Byrd, flying with Floyd Bennett in a Fokker tri-motor airplane, left Spitsbergen on 9th May toward the North Pole. The round trip took about 15 hours of continuous flying over the icy landscape.

Less than 72 hours later, Roald Amundsen, with a crew of 15 including Lincoln Ellsworth, took off from Spitsbergen in the airship Norge. Slower moving than the Josephine Ford, it took the airship around 15 hours to get to the North Pole, continuing on to land in Teller Alaska, three days after their departure. Amundsen and his crew landed knowing that they weren’t first to fly over the North Pole, but were happy with the flight over the Arctic Circle.

Just like Peary, more recent reviews of documents and equipment from Byrd’s flight on the Josephine Ford have raised doubts. The claim has since been determined to have been made in error due to equipment and calculation issues. There were a few who believed that the claim was fraudulent, but his undisputed successes in the Antarctic make such a claim unlikely. Unlike Cook, Byrd’s reputation as a polar explorer has not been tarnished by the discovery that he may not have reached the North Pole. These revelations would have meant that Roald Amundsen was not only the first to the South Pole, but to the North Pole as well.

However can the claim to be first go to an explorer who just flew over the North Pole? There have been multiple attempts to get to the North Pole since the 1926 flights, and all for different purposes.

Since the Peary claim to the North Pole wasn’t disputed till the 1980s, scientists and explorers looked to new challenges and opportunities in the Arctic. In 1948 a Soviet scientific expedition flew to and landed on the North Pole. Consisting of 4 scientists, the expedition was kept secret during and briefly after, but it was acknowledged by Guinness World Records in 1997 as the first at the North Pole at ground level.

The next achievement came from the first to sail under the North Pole. The USS Nautilus, a nuclear-powered submarine created from the ambitious mind of Admiral Hyman Rickover, challenged the limits of scientific innovation during Operation Sunshine in 1958. The use of nuclear technology in the compact, submersible vessel allowed the Nautilus to move faster and stay underwater for up to 7 times longer than previous submarines. Operation Sunshine tested the limits of the nuclear submarine, and in Aug 1958, the Nautilus successfully sailed beneath the North Pole.

North Pole Expedition Museum

visitsvalbard

While the submarine became the first vessel to reach the North Pole, no other expedition risked crossing the Arctic by sled and foot since the final Peary expedition. The next party to attempt this feat was done on a dare! Insurance salesman Ralph Plaisted & medic Arthur Aufderheide began their expedition when discussing snowmobiles, building a team and gaining sponsors. Instead of selling insurance, Plaisted sold his exploration to the North Pole on Ski-Doos. The Minnesotans, along with a team of navigators, scouts and mechanics, began their North Pole attempt in 1967.

The first attempt suffered bad luck and even worse weather. But the Plaisted expedition decided on a second try in 1968. It was this attempt that the team managed to make the successful trek from Ward Hunt Island Canada, to the North Pole. While the team was less experienced than the Peary team, the Plaisted expedition had an impressive support team that airdropped supplies and modern navigational tools to ensure the expedition’s arrival to 90 degrees north, the North Pole’s latitude location.

The road to the North Pole is as uncertain as the Arctic ice. The definition of what it means to be first to 90 degrees north has been fractured since the release of Peary’s journals in the 1980s. But the continued urge to explore and reach the North Pole showed that explorers, scientists and insurance salesmen dreamt about challenging the ice to stand at the top of the world.

Lori Norris is an archives technician at the National Archives at College Park. The Polar Expeditions record includes papers, journals, and artefacts from Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Held at the National Archives, these records were donated mostly from the explorers or their families. The largest part of the collection belongs to Rear Admiral Robert Peary, the explorer who believed claiming first to the North Pole was his birthright and who is still credited for his claim today.

The formerly Spitsbergen Airship Museum is today the North Pole Expedition Museum and the northernmost aviation museum in the world. The museum is about expeditions to the North Pole, departing from Svalbard, the emphasis being on The America, Norge and Italia expeditions. Several hours of the original expedition films run continuously. The exhibitions displayed old newspapers, postcards, photos, plane models, original movie material, clothes, stamps, letters and telegrams. Open daily from 9am-5pm during Feb-Nov, the guided tour was a great way to learn about the history of Arctic exploration! Book a guided tour.

History of North Pole expeditions in the Arctic.

visitsvalbard

Migrants welcome to Australia - Bonegilla

Bonegilla is a rural area on the western shore of Lake Hume in N.E Victoria. The nearest large township is Wodonga Vic, 9 km to the west and c12 km from Albury NSW, on the southern bank of Murray River, the border between the two states. Bonegilla primary school opened in 1876, a railway connection (1889) to Wodonga, and 2 hotels in 1910.

  huts in Bonegilla Rd, Bonegilla

VHD

Children enjoy the games and the fresh air

Albury City Council

Children in primary school

Albury City Council

In 1940 a large army camp and military hospital were built at Bonegilla and a huge ordnance base was built nearby, the camp being used to train troops during the war. The hospital cared for them and for wounded soldiers returned from the battle fields. The ordnance base stored and supplied military equipment and vehicles. This was a convenient location for such activities because there was a change in the railway-gauge between the two states. 

 During WW2 a military camp was established at Bonegilla for the training of infantry and bomb disposal personnel. Some Italian prisoners-of-war were also held there, and after the war some Australian and American prisoners-of-war from Japanese prisons were brought there. In 1947 the military camp was acquired for a reception centre for migrants, mostly from Europe. There were 24 camp blocks, comprised of 800+ buildings.

It was post-WW2 when millions of war-damaged people seeking peace looked to Australia. An army camp at Bonegilla was transformed into a migrant reception and training centre where new arrivals lived while they were processed and allocated jobs.

Bonegilla Migrant Reception & Training Centre received 300,000+ migrants from 30 nations during 1947-71, opened to provide temporary accommodation for newly arrived migrants. In the years after, more camps or hostels were set up around Australia to meet the demand of increasing numbers. Most migrants stayed in these for 4-6 weeks, although some stayed for months and even years.

So the Bonegilla Army Camp was re-used as a reception and training centre for the first contingents of displaced persons who Australia admitted under an agreement with the International Refugee Organisation, Europeans who couldn’t return to their former countries post-war. My Czech parents-in-law and their children sat in a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Austria, until they were accepted in a refugee camp in rural NSW.

Many migrants had not socialised since WW2 started in 1939.

Group activities were greatly enjoyed

Albury City Council

From 1960 it was retitled as the Bonegilla Reception Centre and took in more migrants and refugees, largely from European countries. Altogether to 1971 when it closed, Bonegilla proved to be the largest and longest-lasting reception centre in post-war Australia, at a time when the economy was growing rapidly. These new arrivals changed the face of Australian society; they and their families helped shaped Australia.

The Reception and Training Centre consisted of 24 blocks. It had its own churches, banks, sporting fields, cinema, hospital, police station and railway platform. Today, Block 19 is all that remains of the original site so the Bonegilla Migrant Experience Bonegilla is an excellent tour. 

Block 19 today

Big4 Holiday Parks

In May 1990, Block 19 was put on the Victorian Heritage Register. As a registered place of special value to future generations, it is protected from any major change. In 2002, it became a commemorative place and tourism venue. In Dec 2007, it was included on the National Heritage List as a place of outstanding heritage value to the nation. A plaque declared the old reception centre was a symbol of post-war migration which transformed Australia’s economy, society and culture. Block 19 is now a special place which attracts visitors wanting to reflect on the experience of being a migrant; and was recognised as a place with powerful connections for many people here and a symbol of post-war migration which helped change Australia's economy, society and culture.

In the middle of sunny fields and on the banks of Australia's greatest river lies Bonegilla, the reception camp established by the Australian Government for European citizens. The travellers spend their first weeks in their new homeland here in order to become acquainted with its customs and thereby ease their passage into the Australian way of life. (Ad encouraging Displaced Persons to come to Australia).

Between 1947-71 Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre was the first home in Australia for the migrants. It was the largest operating migration reception centre. It is of national significance as a place associated with and demonstrating a defining change in Australia's immigration policy following the war.

For years Albury City has been collecting objects owned by former residents of the migrant reception centre; things that people brought from their homeland to give them comfort, photos, kitchen items, toys, books and clothing. Albury actively collects written memories from Bonegilla migrants.

The 1,295 oral, written and pictorial records in the Bonegilla Collection at the Albury Library clarify post-war immigration policies/procedures that changed the national origins and size of Australia’s population. These photographs, documents and memorabilia, provide insights into post-WW2 migration and refugee occurrences. The collection displays immigration policies and procedures that changed the composition and size of the Australian population, and thus transformed the nation economically, socially and culturally. To locate and identify a immigration record, including individual Bonegilla cards held by the National Archives, use the Making Australia Home programme.

In Dec 1987, a Back-to-Bonegilla day was held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the migrant reception centre opening. Another was held in 1997. Numerous published histories and reminiscences followed.

Most of the migrants and refugees who passed through Bonegilla were drawn from non-English speaking European countries but with diverse arrival and settlement experiences. Some migrants recalled arriving lonely, unsure of where they were going and what they'd be doing. Others saw Bonegilla as a place of hope, symbolic of a new start. Even more importantly, the shift from prioritising Anglo-Celtic sources helped change political and social expectations, and thus the cultural diversity of Australia.

The Reception and Training Centre consisted of 24 blocks. It had its own churches, banks, sporting fields, cinema, hospital, police station and railway platform. Today, Block 19 is all that remains of the original site so the Bonegilla Migrant Experience.

The reception centre was temporary home for 320,000+ migrants. Some had short stays, but others remained there for a year or more, often because of non-recognition of their overseas qualifications. Disturbances in 1961, mainly caused by unemployed migrants who expected better food, climate and job prospects 15 years after the war, resulted in police action which fizzled out and migrants were transferred to hostels in metropolitan Melbourne. During that time a primary school (1952-71) managed changing student populations and many languages.

The arrow points to Bonegilla, half way between Sydney and Melbourne

Read Histories of Controversy: Bonegilla Migrant Centre by Alexandra Dellios, 2017 revealing the centre's other, more difficult history that included control, deprivation, slow job locating and dismal food.

A great Wool Museum, Geelong.

Sheep arrived in Geelong in 1832, before it was proclaimed a town in 1838. When it was developing as a Victorian port, Australia was still a series of separate colonies which levied customs duties on goods coming from overseas and goods passing between colonies. For some years, all customs clearances had to be made through Williamstown, forcing ships trading with Geelong to travel north for customs before offloading the goods back in Geelong.

Merino sheep across Victoria produced wool that was soft, plentiful and appealing to Britain's mills. And so in the 1840s, wool became Geelong's most important industry. The raw product was transported into Geelong, processed there and exported from Geelong. Wool heading for the Australian colonies was taken to the port in loosely packed bales, but wool to be shipped to Britain was packed in solid bins.

National Wool Museum, Geelong

Victoria's Museums

Pioneer merchant James Ford Strachan constructed his first bonded store in 1840, the first stone building in newly colonised Geelong. Only when Geelong was declared a free port in 1848 was a proper Customs House needed near the Geelong wharves. The officers made sure that duty was fully collected, on both colonial and overseas trade. The Geelong Customs House was built in 1856 as a three storey ashlar sandstone and basalt structure, and a slate roof. Architect WG Cornish’ distinctive colonial Georgian style clearly reflected the influence of earlier NSW colonial buildings.

In 1857 Charles Dennys conducted Geelong's first wool auction. Wool stores were needed, as close to the foreshore as possible. In the very early days, the difference between a wool store and one for general merchandise was largely the existence of a wool press.

Not until 1872, with Dennys Lascelles bluestone wool store, was a specific design of building evolved for wool. A row of very impressive wool stores stretched down the street in a unified manner. Wagons entered from the street via an archway, discharged their load and moved out into a right of way on the other side of the building.

Sheep shed

Trip Advisor

Dennys, Lascelles, Austin and Co. was the proud owner of an important early modern structures in Australia. This concrete woolstore, designed by Edward G Stone, was mostly free of architectural decoration, and was in a style that anticipated European and Australian trends of the inter-war years. Dennys buildings had used solid bluestone in 1872, cement render in 1880 and a mansard tower in1889. And when expansion was planned in 1900, the firm elected to use the most modern material, reinforced concrete.

By the 1880s, no other Australian city had the diversity of wool related industries as Geelong. This city was eventually called the Wool Centre of the World.

Handling the recently sheared wool

The Strachan, Murray, Shannon and Co. wool store was systematically developed as the wool industry expanded, this four storey brick complex stylistically unified from the 1889 section onwards, to present an impressive austere Classical Revival structure of great note. 

The 2 storey brick Wool Exchange in Corio St was constructed in 1927-8, designed by local architects. The Wool Exchange was and is one of Geelong’s major public buildings from the inter war period and as a late example of the renaissance revival. Roofed with a barrel vault, the main sales room had a striking interior decorated with Neo-Greco detail. Sales of wool, sheepskins, hides, tallow and other products were conducted weekly at this site. Alongside Western District properties, railways, gorgeous wool stores, woollen mills, scouring works and port facilities, the Exhange illustrated the economic and social history of late C19th and early C20th Geelong.

Processed wool being readied for the loom

Trip Advisor

Dennys Lascelles and Co. still forms part of an historic woolstore precinct. Today it hosts the National Wool Museum, Australia's only comprehensive museum of wool, showcasing wool's enduring impact on Australia social and economic life. To explore the past, present and future of the Australian wool industry, the Museum acquires, documents, preserves, stores and exhibits objects and materials directly related to the Australian wool industry.

Completed items of clothing

Facebook

The collection shows textiles, images, machines and records with 25,000+ objects aross the City. Before you travel to Geelong, see some of the treasures on-line.

Saving Jewish orphans Ochberg 1921

I was fascinated by Isaac Ochberg (1879–1938) who was born in Uman in Russia/now Ukraine. With thousands of other Russians, the Ochbergs went to South Africa in 1894 where Isaac became a successful Cape Town businessman.

Isaac Ochberg, March 1921

aish.com

After the old Czarist regime ended in 1917, rival armies were fighting for control. With law and order failing, transport for many thousands of demob'd soldiers ended. Plus vast armies of German ex-POWs tried to make their way home after the Soviets’ Peace Treaty at Brest-Litovsk.

The battles did not start out as particularly anti-Semitic. But owing to the oppression to which they had been exposed for gener­ations, the lives of the impoverished Jews worsened. With famine and typhoid epidemics, ancient horrors surfaced in the misery. Polish and other peasants joined forces with reactionary officers and troops, to kill Jews in pogroms.

Survivors begged their cousins in South Africa for help. A great surge of compassion swept the South African Jew­ish community who would try to save some of the victims, partic­ul­arly children. But would the Union Government create any difficulties in admitting them? 

Ochberg quickly met Gen Jan Smuts, prime minister between 1919–24, who gave the children entry visas. Smuts could have sunk the rescue plan in an instant, had he chosen to. His support was essential and warmly welcomed.

A South African Relief Fund for Jewish War Victims was already in place when Ochberg pro­p­osed that the Cape Jewish Orphanage take responsibility for the children. The Relief Fund had to raise £10,000, enough for 200 or­phans. [Sadly 400,000+ destitute Jewish orphans were eventually found]. By Jan 1921 the Un­ion Gov­ernment agreed to give pound for pound to the Pogrom Orphan Fund.

Someone had to go to Europe, so Ochberg made himself respon­sible in Mar 1921. He travelled to Ukraine for a few dangerous months, vis­iting lots of villages in the Polish Ukraine and Galic­ia. Och­berg proceeded from town to town, visiting Minsk, Pinsk, Lodz, Lemberg, Stanislav and Wlodowa etc. When a letter came to him from Port Elizabeth's com­munal leaders, Ochberg answered and expressed his very great thanks for their boxes of second-hand clothing. The gen­er­os­ity displayed by South African Jewry made it possible to rescue the children. Otherwise they would surely have died of st­arvation, disease or Ukrainian pogrom wounds.

At first Pinsk was isolated by the fighting and Ochberg and helpers were thrown on their own resources. The 3 Jewish orph­an­ages in Pinsk had few beds, bedding and clothes - they used flour bags to sleep on. Typhus spread in the orphanage and shells were bursting in the streets. A notorious Ukrainian fanatic descended with his gangs and the pogroms raged for a week. The Federation of Ukrainian Jews did its best to assist but with civil war raging over large areas of Poland and elsewhere, and only a minimum of transport in operation, progress was slow. As order was restored, supplies began to arrive, first from Juedischer Hilfsverein in Berlin, and then from U.S Joint Distrib­ution Committee: cocoa, condensed milk, cooking oil and clothes.

One day the orphans heard that a "man from Africa was coming". He was going to take some of them away with him and give them a new, safe home. Nearly all the orphans had lost both par­ents, many in pogroms, on the Ukrainian border, at Minsk, Pinsk and other places. 

Group passport photo

The Observation Post

Confronting Ochberg was how to make his choice from the vast number of destitute children. He chose 8 children from each orphanage, making a total of 200 for whom he had funds. Since the South African Government had specified that the children must be in good health, of reasonable intel­lig­ence and willing to leave, the cream of each orphanage was selected.

Even though they were scared of being eaten by African tigers, the children were excited. And when Ochberg appeared, with his gingy hair and welcoming smile, the orphans called him Daddy.

The Polish authorities put many children trav­elling to Warsaw on cattle-trucks. Though their passports carried the usual Polish word Paszport with the Polish Eagle, there were no individual photos. Instead group photos app­eared, some with 30-40 small children sitting in rows.

They travelled in overcrowded, dirty trains to Warsaw, each child having a tiny package of clothing sent from overseas. In the middle of Warsaw was a restaurant, belonging to Pan­ya Engel, a kindly Jewish woman who the children adored. For several months the Ochberg orphans stayed in local schools, and Panya Engel and friends worked hard to protect them. Just as it seemed as if most of the difficulties had been overcome, there was a serious outbreak of eye trachoma which held up their departure.

From Warsaw, they travelled by river boat down the Vistula to Dan­zig. There, on the Baltic, they boarded a steamer bound for London, and the other kind people took charge of the orphans. A few of them were again taken ill, and spent the time in London in hospital.

Warm reception awaited the orphans

who came ashore in Cape Town, late 1921.

Observation Post

There was a warm reception when they finally landed in Cape Town in Sept, with huge crowds waiting on the quay for them. So large was the group of children that Cape Jewish Orphanage could no longer house them all, and some went to Arcadia Johan­nes­burg Orphanage instead.

In South Africa, the once-pathetic, poorly dressed children clearly profited from the kindness and instruction they received. There were numerous invit­ations to Jewish homes, and some of the children were adopted. Special English language classes were organised.

Nicholas Winton saved far more children from murder before WW2 and took them to Britain. But Ochberg set the model for humanitarian heroism in taking c190 Jewish pogrom orphans from the Ukraine and Poland to South Africa after WWI. See the honours he received and the formal dedication that was made in 2011.

Read Ochberg Orphans and the horrors from whence they came, David Solly Sandler, 2014

Medieval travellers were quite like us

 Our perception of medieval Europe is of a confined world in which people rarely travelled beyond their own locality, and when they did it was for religious reasons. But Paul Oldfield asked us to consider Southern Italy and Sic­ily. Due to its central Mediterranean location, the region began to at­tract more European visitors for three main reasons:

Canterbury Tales

Amazon

Firstly various factors converged to boost the popularity of distant pilgrimage. After the crus­ading movement started in 1095, Europe experienced its golden era of devotional trav­el to Jerusalem. Pilgrimage offered the best med­ieval equiv­al­ent of the modern tourist trade, even though some pilgrims travelled not solely for pious motivations eg a crusade might have cloaked political and economic agendas.

Secondly South­ern Italy and Sicily were conquered by bands of Normans who unified a region which had previously been polit­ically frag­ment­ed (eg Greek Christians, Latin Christians, Jews and Mus­lims). By 1130 the Normans had created a powerful new mon­archy which had been domin­at­ed by Muslim sea-power.

Thirdly Europe underwent a cultural renaissance so learn­ed ind­ividuals travelled to seek clas­sical traditions. South­ern Italy and Sicily, with clas­sical history and with a Greek and Islamic past, attracted both an­cient & eastern learning.

The result of these three combined strands saw an influx of visit­ors who could properly be called tour­ists. High numbers of people regularly travelled both short and long distances, and some of this move­ment was driven by modern motivations: renewal, leisure and thrill-seeking.

While the pilgrims were travelling across foreign lands, they were encouraged to imitate Christ, to feel hardship and to focus on salvation. At many shrines en route, pil­g­rims could stay near a holy tomb, to receive cures or divine rev­el­ations. Even pilgrims were exper­ient­ial travellers.

South Italy possessed one of medieval Europe’s more sophist­ic­ated travel infrastruc­tures. Being so close to the heart of the former Roman empire, it still boasted functioning Roman roads which linked into the main route - it brought travel­l­ers from western Europe across the Alps to Rome. Via Appia helped travellers to move across the south Italian Ap­en­nines to the coastal ports of Apulia, while another road went via Calabria towards the bustling Messina port.

South Italian ports hosted fleets of local ships as well as those of the emerging commercial powers of Genoa, Pisa and Venice. So the pilgrim had secure, effic­ient and direct connections. At the same time, new hospitals, inns, bridges and monasteries emerged along It­aly’s main pilgrim routes, or near shrines for foreign vis­it­ors. The major Apulian and Sicilian ports often hosted pilgrim hospit­als belonging to Holy Land military monastic orders, Templars and Hospitallers. Mes­s­ina was a particularly hectic port.

 

Pilgrim badge bought at

shrine at Saint-Josse-sur-Mer, France

Pinterest

Most of the surviving evidence focuses on elite travellers – nobles and bishops. But travel, and pilgrimage in particular, was also undertaken by the very poorest. Monastic rules out­lined their monks’ duty to offer free hospitality to all trav­ellers. It was also good advertising for shrine centres to be seen to cater for all backgrounds. After all, foreign visit­ors spent money on local serv­ices and on profitable tolls. The guardians of southern Italy’s shrine centres actively competed for travellers.

Many pilgrims suffered from debilitating conditions, and struggled to cope with travelling demands. Many died. One chronicler of the First Crusade saw the drowning of 400 pilgrims in Brindisi harbour but, he said, dying as a pilgrim brought the hope of salvation. Of course threats of robbery, shipwreck and dis­ease remained - no wonder pilgrims travelled in groups. It makes sense that the word travel comes from ancient word travail, meaning hardship.

Southern Italy’s landscape drew wonder and fear. Its seas in the busy Straits of Mess­ina were full of tidal rips. Muslim travellers suffered a near-fatal shipwreck in the Straits in the 1180s. The famous 1280 map, Hereford Mappa Mundi, por­t­rayed two sea monsters lurking in Sicilian waters.

Erupt­ions at Vesuvius and Etna were a regul­ar feature: one struck at Catania Sicily in 1169 killing 15,000 people. The region’s volcanoes had even greater potency, connecting them to Hell’s Entrance and showing God’s disapproval.

In c1170 a Spanish Jewish traveller and author, Benjamin of Tudela, pas­s­ed near Naples and marvelled at the sight of an ancient city submerged just off the coast. Like many travellers, he came there to access cutting-edge medical knowl­ed­ge, a fusion of Arabic and ancient Greek learning that had been a specialty in Salerno.

To prove that travellers had been to the distant city they had aimed for, each would buy a badge to show off back at home. Typically made of lead alloy, the badges were sold as souven­irs at Christian pilgrimage sites and related to the part­ic­ular saint ven­er­ated there. The shrine at Saint-Josse-sur-Mer in France was named after a hermit, St Jos, in a monastery. His hermitage became a popular site for late C14th English pilgrims on the way to more distant shrines.

In the most appealing and popular sites across Europe (Jerusalem in Is­rael, Compost­ela in Spain, Canterbury in Eng­land, Cologne in Germany etc) the badges tended to be standardised eg St Thomas Becket was the most popular sub­ject in Canberbury and a shell was sold most frequently in Compostela.

Hereford Mappa Mundi

map created in 1280.

Media Storehouse

Conclusion 
Medieval travellers displayed traits that reflected aspects of our modern understanding of tourism. Southern Italy was an alluring travel hotspot - it had devel­oped travel and serv­ice structures, it catered for those seek­ing spiritual salvat­ion, it provided learning and tested those who sought chall­enges. Those challenges were often sought as ends in them­selves.

Mercy Ships, lifesaving surgery in Africa

Don Stephens founded Mercy Ships in 1978, as a Christian charity headquartered in Texas, with the purchase of the SS Anastasis. During his time as President of Mercy Ships, Don directed and led thousands of volunteers from 60+ nations, plus employees in 16 countries.

Don Stephens and wife Deyon

Global Mercy at dock

Mercy Ships

Don pioneered The Mercy Minute, a daily radio broadcast on 840+ stations for decades. He handed over the programme to Mercy Ships spokeswoman Raeanne Newquist while Stephens wrote 3 books: Trial by Trial (1985), Mandate for Mercy (1995) and Ships of Mercy (2005). Then he won an International Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Surgical staff

Mercy Ships focused public attention on providing surgery, and strengthening the healthcare infrastructure in the nations served. Thanks to family support, children and adults suffering from painful, disfiguring and ?preventable diseases were able to find the healing they so desperately needed.

Screening day used to be the biggest day of the year for Mercy Ships. Sometimes 4,000 children and adults were waiting, hoping to be accepted onboard as patients. Recent steps in the building process included 16 months of detailed design work, construction of new machinery systems, installation of new medical equipment, and outfitting the hospital and recovery units. The vision to transform lives by bringing healing has guided Mercy Ships for decades. But the need is ongoing and growing.

Potential patients waiting on screening day in Guinea, 2012

Tertius - jpg

Still, many more children and families are waiting. So together with the nations served, hopefully the Mercy Ships will be able to make a difference in the lives of thousands. With the arrival of our new custom-built hospital ship, the Global Mercy, our capacity to provide free surgery and medical training will more than double.

This newest ship is the world’s largest purpose-built hospital ship, capable of more than doubling its surgical and training capacity. Over the 50 year expected lifespan, 150,000+ lives should be saved through surgery alone. Recent steps in the building process included 16 months of detailed design work, construction of new machinery systems, installation of new medical equipment, and outfitting the hospital and recovery units. The vision to transform lives by bringing healing has guided Mercy Ships since 1978. But the need is growing.

Previously Global Mercy spent Feb-July 2023 in Dakar, helping patients from both Senegal and The Gambia from the one port. In 2023, the Africa Mercy underwent an extensive refit in Durban Sth Africa, to prepare her for years of future service. Its hospital deck will carry out a wide range of surgeries eg cataract removal, plastic surgery to address tumour removal and debilitating burn contractures, cleft lip-palate repair, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair . This expansion and growth will allow surgeries for those in need; more health professionals trained and mentored; more local lives changed.

Africa Mercy’s hospital on 2 decks contains: supply services; 6 operating theatres; 102 acute care beds; 7 ICU beds; and 90 self-care beds. All pre-operative and post-operative work can be done aboard rather than ashore on busy ports. The new ship will more than double the annual medical capacity and is designed to carry out a wide range of surgeries.

recovery ward

 

In addition to the surgeries performed on board, ship-based teams serve in local villages providing a wide array of health facilities which include: dental and medical clinics, community health education and agricultural training. Plus there are conference rooms aboard for lectures and training.

It is estimated that 70% of the global population lacks access to safe surgical care, a 1/3 of them children. This burden is most heavily felt in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly half are under 18. A 2021 study in four sub-Saharan African nations found that 60-90% of patients in need of surgery would face awful outcomes if there was no operation. Eg Senegalese parents who could not afford surgery to correct their children’s bowed legs. In any case, those parents could not be able find a surgeon near home to operate.

But in 2023, those parents received free surgery aboard the Global Mercy. The operation that finally straightened the children’s legs was the result of a partnership between Mercy Ships and Senegal, powered by the passion of African leaders, healthcare professionals from 71 countries, and 1,382 very skilled volunteers.

She is waiting for the surgeons to deal with a muscle contracture, 

especially when her knee hyperextended backwards.

The ships provided 3,513 surgeries in 2023, 1,400+ of them aboard the Global Mercy in Freetown, Sierra Leone and Dakar, Senegal. From those ports, the ship served patients from 3 countries: Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone. And apart from those field services, Mercy Ships’ work in Africa had partnerships with 8 countries; 3,513 surgeries; training in nutritional agriculture for 93 farmers; and training for 56 dentists. The volunteers provided 105,000+ hours of training for 1,522 professional healthcare workers. Via mentoring and training, Mercy Ships continue to partner local professionals and governments to build up a work-force of skilled surgeons and healthcare workers in the African countries.

Two Mercy Ships and the host nations made an even greater effort in 2024 when double the number of volunteers joined. Global Mercy is now serving in Sierra Leone until 2025, and the newly renovated Africa Mercy is in Madagascar.

Enjoy reading the book Ships of Mercy, written by Mercy founder Don Stephens. It tells about the remarkable hospital ships that dramatically changes the lives of millions of people in the most impoverished and diseased corners of the world. Or see the excellent Surgery Ship tv series (2017) 

Ship University: learning, US power1926

As a graduate, James Lough had wanted to link exper­ien­ce with education. Later Lough became Prof of Experimental Psychology at NYU (1901-27), when he wanted to create a new kind of education that allowed students to learn on location. Lough took students to places like Grand Central Station and Wall St, to learn from experts.

 Students arrive on board  

This became the foundation of an experiment that he ran in 1913 to take students offshore; he ran the first study abroad programme in Am­erica that gave university credit for travel exper­ience. And it ran again in 1914. But not until 1923 were around-the-world cruises planned.

Students gathered on the ship deck for lecture
Semester At Sea

One of Lough’s most significant partners was Constantine Rais­es, a Greek student who as­s­isted with nec­essary ac­ademic and it­inerary preparations. Al­th­ough the programme was success­fully planned, en­rol­ments fell short and sailings were postponed. NYU dropped its programme sponsorship.

Shipping companies used to make money by bring­ing poor immigrants from Europe to US. But when the US intro­d­uced im­migration restrictions in 1921, that bu­siness model coll­ap­sed. Thus the shipping companies needed to find a new bus­iness quickly. They converted their  sto­r­age acc­omm­odation into Tourist Third Class and tried to fill it with stud­ents.

This made ship travel a perfect fit for Lough's passion for learning on-site. And a Float­ing University was the perfect fit for the shipping co­mpanies' new business model. It could be successful globally with stud­ents, ad­vertising a whole new, cheap third-class trav­el business.

Exercising and socialising around the ship's pool   

 

New York University/NYU had initially backed the ship venture but pulled out a few months prior to its departure. NYU real­ised that study­ing ab­road could be dangerous. Furthermore it threatened their academic model, i.e to con­t­rol the educ­at­ion the students would receive in the C20th. The universities wanted to determine “what was know­led­ge”, not the silly st­ud­ents on a ship travel­l­ing the world. Yet des­p­ite NYU with­drawing from the experiment, the ship university went ahead.

Because the prog­ram­me was no longer spons­ored by a single college, uni­versities were ea­ger to join and applications poured in. Thus Lough’s original vision eventually led to the suc­cessful maiden voyage of SS Ryndam in Sept 1926 when the grand educat­ional experiment started. It departed New York, to take 8 months. SS Ryndam was decor­ated with flags from stem to stern, thousands li­n­ing the Fifth St pier to see off their loved ones, the excited students coming from 143 colleges in 40 st­ates, as well as Canada, Cuba and Hawaii.

The ship had 504 stud­ents and 64 staff aboard, dock­ing in c50 ports. The University World Cruise, the brain­child of NYU Ps­ychology Pro­fessor James Lough, was in­tended to br­oaden stud­ents' learning, especial­ly in global aff­airs. Lough thought the voyage would help stud­ents bec­ome Citizens of the World, linking education with real experience.

As the ship sailed, Lough described the plan: This shall not be a mere sightseeing tour, but a college year of educ­at­ional travel and sys­tematic study to develop an interest in foreign affairs, to train stud­ents to think in world terms, and to stren­g­th­en internat­ional good will. The lectures covered business studies, history, politics, biology, economics and many other subjects.

During the 8 month voy­age, the ship covered 66,000 ks and visited 35 countries and 90+ cities, including Shang­hai, Hong Kong, Manila, Bang­kok, Colombo, Bombay, Haifa, Venice, Gib­r­altar, Lisbon and Oslo. They were host­ed by local univ­ersities who org­an­ised lectures and receptions, and went on excur­sions to important sites eg Taj Mahal in India, pyramids in Egypt and Acropolis in Greece.

University students visiting the Taj Mahal India 

ABC.

America emerged from WWI rich but it hadn't yet establ­ished the global dominance that it later claimed. What's remar­k­able about 1926 was that Amer­ic­an pow­er was still being created so students were exploring and learning from British imperialism. They're were thinking about how the American empire was growing in the Ph­ilippines and comparing it to a British emp­ire in India. They visited the Dutch East Indies and went to French Alger­ia, asking what would American world dominance look like?

The global venture allowed them to meet world leaders en route. In It­aly, they met notable figures such as Pope Pius XI, prime minis­ter Ben­ito Mussolini and in Thailand, King Pra­jad­hipok of Siam. The organis­ers had written to foreign gov­ern­­ments and asked for their cooperation, leading to the connec­tions. The stud­ents had Am­erican prosp­er­ity and post-war internation­al­ism on their side; the world that was presented to these students was one shaped by American power in the interwar era.

Criticism increased as the ship sailed. The voyage was deemed an ed­uc­at­­ional failure then, because students were enjoying them­selves instead of attending lectures. And it was deemed a failure by the media, partly be­cause of reports of students par­tying antics when docked in ports. The press spread stories of misbehaviour, alcoholism and pregnancies! But had the educational goals really failed?

Dr Tamson Pietsch at UTS's Australian Centre for Public His­tory says many students on the floating university voyage desc­ribed it as one of the great turning points of their lives. The trip was desig­n­ed to allow stud­ents to learn beyond the classroom and the exp­eriment was created with a diplomatic pur­pose in mind for America after WWI. It was also fash­ion­ing the elite that would go on to have great influence in USA. At their 1976 reunion, the students described the voyage as the greatest educational experience of their lives.

Conclusion 

Were there study courses run by NYU before 1926? Had there been other experiments in educational travel? In 1926 an American univ­ers­ity went to sea and many people said they caused an internat­ional scandal and an educational failure. Yet this is now a significant part of student life, with one in four Australian students going abr­oad. I, Helen, person­ally spent 12 months studying in Israel, and my son went on a shorter course in Canada and USA. Both experiences were full of learning.

Read Dr Tamson Pietsch, Floating University: Experience, Empire and Politics of Knowledge, 2023.