On Wednesday February 13, we said goodbye to Jan Brodziak, Uncle Tony's dad and Delta's Jadeck (Polish for Grandfather).
The service and the Rosary were held at St Augustines in Yarraville where they have a Polish preist (who was fantastic and had a beautiful voice). I am not a religious person, however I found some comfort in the rituals of the Catholic Church that day, and saw that our beloved Uncle Tony and Auntie Niv did too.
When Nivea told me Jan had passed on, I felt compelled to look him up on the internet and see if any of his history had been recorded, of his internment with the Nazi's or his travels to Bonagilla, a labour/migrant camp in Melbourne. I've had other members of the family stay at Bonegilla and when I asked them what they did there they said, 'we hunted for rabbits, there was nothing else to do.'
Nivea gave me the following image to put on the blog for historical purposes to keep in the family. It is his photograph taken by the nazi's for his nazi 'passport' into the camp where he was stationed and his boarding pass for the MS Nelly, which was the ship that brought him to Australia - he was only coming here to have a look, and then he planned to head off to America with the rest of his family. However, here he met Janina and they were pregnant and married before he knew it; thank goodness or we wouldn't have been lucky enough to add Tony and the wonderful Delta to our family!
For a detailed history of the Polish people and their struggle during the WWII please go to the link at the end of page.
This is the ships info and image.
On March 26, 1946, she was released from service and laid up. Two years later on March 12, 1948, Long Island was purchased at action by Caribbean Land & Shipping Co (a Swiss based company) and was renamed Nelly. She was extensively rebuilt to operate migrant services. When completed she could accommodate 1,300 in the most basic of accommodations. Nelly was placed on the migrant trade to Australia. Her first voyage was from Naples was in June 1949, sailing via the Suez to Fremantle, completing her voyage in Melbourne. Later the voyage was extended to Sydney arriving on January 15, 1950. She continued on the Australian run, including a special voyage to Jakarta to bring Dutch nationals back to the Netherlands. Nelly also operated a number of Trans-Atlantic crossings to Canada. In 1953 Nelly was withdrawn from service and was comprehensively rebuilt and upgraded to operate both migrant and passengers services.
Renamed Seven Seas, her decks were extended forward and aft as well as her bridge house being enlarged. She was now a two class ship with accommodations for 20-first class and 987 tourist class passengers. Her accommodations and lounges were modern and attractive. In May 1953 she undertook another voyage to Australia departing Bremerhaven on May 9, 1953. She was then chartered to the Europe-Canada Line, which was jointly owned by Holland America Line and Royal Rotterdam Lloyd. Europe-Canada Line was established especially to provide inexpensive student/migrant travel to Canada.
Her new service departed Bremen sailing via Le Havre, Southampton to Quebec and Montreal also making occasional calls to New York. However, whilst she was now mostly employed on the Atlantic service, she still operated the occasional run to Australia and back as past passenger reminded me who departed Bremerhaven on October 24, and arrived in Melbourne on November 26 in 1954. Thank you Manfred Wiesemes for the details.
Towards the end of 1955, she was bought outright by Europe-Canada Line and having been registered in Panama she was registered in West Germany. She was used mostly on the Trans Atlantic service until 1960.
Whilst under charter to Royal Rotterdam Lloyd, she departed Southampton on October 30, 1960 for a voyage to Australia and New Zealand, after which she returned to her regular service, until 1963, when she made a number of voyages from Bremerhaven to New York. She was also chartered by Chapman College for study cruising visiting a variety of countries. After the charter had completed, she returned to Amsterdam, and under the banner of Holland America Line, she departed in March 1964 for Australia and New Zealand. Having made a number of Australasian voyages she returned to her Atlantic services. Then, on July 18 1965, and engine room fire disabled her some 500 miles from St John. She was towed there for repairs, after which she returned to service. Departing York on February 10, 1966, Seven Seas undertook her final voyage to Australia, this time as an American floating university. She arrived in Sydney on March 8, where she remained two days, then, via Fremantle and the Middle East, she returned to New York.
She was withdrawn from service in September 1966, and was sold to a Dutch company, Verolme Shipyards for the use as a floating hostel for overseas workers in Rotterdam, where she remained for the next ten years. She was sold to be broken up in April 1977. On May 4, she departed Rotterdam under tow arriving the next day at the van Heyghen Freres yard in Belgium.
http://www.polishhistoricalsociety.org.au/history.htm
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