My 92 year old mother Lilian and her late husband Jack (1922 - 88) set sail from Rotterdam on the Groote Beer on Feb. 17, 1954, immigrating to Canada from the Netherlands.
One of my cousins in the Netherlands was poking around on line the other day and found a sight showing the original steamship passenger lists, courtesy of the Rotterdam archives for the passage my Mom and Dad took from Holland to Canada in 1945. I got curious and started looking for images of the ship, the Groote Beer (Great Bear) and was surprised to find a good deal of information about the ship. Wikipedia has the history and the Pier 21 Archives in Halifax have images of some of the passenger lists. There is also a Facebook page where passengers can reminisce and share images.
I printed a few images out and asked my mom what she remembers about the trip. It was late in February 1954 and the North Atlantic was rough. The men and women were separated at night. Her primary recollection is of being sea-sick. She was berthed in a dorm with 3 other women and a small baby. All 4 adults experienced bouts of sickness, paper bags were at hand everywhere. The stewards tried to stay cheerful but some days even the word "food" would start stomachs roiling and mutinous epithets from the passengers. Upon further reflection she said there were also good days when she and Jack strolled the deck under the big roof and watched the sea slip by. Then they would head over to the big dinning hall for a warm meal. "The food was good." "There was dancing every night, with a live band."
To put things into context we need to understand that the Dutch economy was in the basement and there was no work to be had for either of them in 1954. The government encouraged emigration and paid for most of the fare. Being a young women, a teenager during the Nazi occupation, she was understandably not confident with the idea of leaving her familiar Maastricht for parts unknown. Australia seemed "too far away" and so Canada it was. In other reminiscences there was some debate between Canada and the USA. They only had impressions from afar. No internet to look up job markets, cost of living etc. While most of Holland was liberated by Canadians in 1945, Maastricht was liberated by Americans in 1944. Lilian had formed a not altogether positive notion of their character when they rolled in.
Feeling nervous about an uncertain future and missing her mother did not put Lilian in a good place to start so she tends to over-emphasize the negative and forget the positive. "Ship personnel were rude." probably means someone lost patience in what must have been a trying situation. "Someone in Halifax called me a DP and railed against me for taking Canadian jobs." Yea that sounds familiar. I guess some things never change. It's just so sad that these little things blow up in her memory. "Do you have any of those old menus or the passenger list mom?" "No, I want to forget that time.", she said.
They had secured guarantors, a couple from Maastricht who had emigrated earlier to Toronto. They lived with 3 different families in Toronto before striking out for Hamilton in 1956. What always fascinates me are some of the original shipping crates we still have and the contents. Furniture, china and glasses which all survived the trip intact and still hold tea and wine today. The stevedores in Halifax were gentle giants!
Lilian never saw her dad again. He passed away in 1956 but her mother, my Oma and her youngest son Henry travelled to Canada on the Groote Beer's sister ship the Waterman in 1956. My dad's brother and his wife also came to Canada on the Groote Beer in 1956.
