To Australia, Part 1

I've spent some time combing through the photo album that was kindly sent to me by a blog reader. As best I can tell, it follows the journey of a group of women from England to Australia aboard the RMS Otranto. I would guess the year to be about 1950.

It's hard to tell who our traveler is. There's a luggage tag in the name of "M. Oliver," and the woman at left above appears in many of the photos and is referred to on the back of one as "Mary." She may be the owner of the album, or perhaps a friend or relative.

The Otranto, which was built in Barrow-in-Furness in 1925, had a 32-year career as a passenger liner. It served as a troop transport during World War II. It was eventually scrapped in 1957.

It's possible to roughly trace the route of the ship based on the photos. First it stopped in Italy, near Naples. The women visited Pompeii (above), which I identified by uploading a photo of the distinctive ruins into Google Image Search...

...and they also visited some lush gardens in Sorrento. (Fortunately someone wrote "Sorrento" on the back of this photo.) It must have been chilly. Look at those coats!

From there the ship passed through the Suez Canal. The top photo was taken on the Suez, according to a note on the back, which I suppose is why the women were all wearing Fez-style hats. As blogger Gwynneth pointed out in a comment on yesterday's post, that also explains the Egyptian motif of the album itself -- it was probably purchased en route.

I was amused by the photo above, which I believe was taken in the canal, because Dave and I experienced this same phenomenon on the Nile when we went to Egypt several years ago. Vendors would pull small boats aside our passenger vessel to sell items to the travelers. In the boats above I see produce and what looks like luggage, among other things.

Shipboard shenanigans! These are clearly men in drag. Someone wrote on the back, "Note the beauty looking on!" I'm guessing it was a "beauty contest" and our traveler, or one of her friends, was captured in the background at left, looking over the shoulder of one of the male "beauties."

After passing through the Red Sea, the ship stopped in Aden, a port city on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and a British colony at the time. (It's now part of Yemen.) Our traveler took several photos of the street life. (Again, "Aden" is written on the back of some of the prints, which helped with locations.)

Then it was off to Colombo, in what was then known as Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). To figure out the location I had to put this photo into Google Image Search, which immediately identified that building as the Jami-ul-Alfar Mosque.

Eventually, our travelers arrived in Perth, in Western Australia. There are photos of black swans, a symbol of Western Australia, as well as the building above, Winthrop Hall at the University of Western Australia. (Thanks to Google Image Search once again!) I assume this is an indication that the ship docked in Perth.

From there, our traveler(s) made their way across Australia...and we will continue their journey tomorrow!