Zakje voor zeeziekte

"Zakje voor zeeziekte" (sack for seasick)

The Groote Beer:

pronounced "bare".... boy this English language is complicated. Wait that is Dutch!!

My last post was about coming to America and seeing the Statue of Liberty so this is a continuation ........ so get comfortable, grab a soda and sit down to read or come back later when you have time to read for a little while.
I hope as we all celebrated the 4th of July that you maybe had some time to reflect on our country of America. I am thankful to be living here and I pray every day that our leaders don't make a mess of it.
This past week Bryan asked me more about my family's voyage on the Groote Beer in 1953. He asked me about details that I didn't have concrete answers to. Remember I was 6 years old at the time. I have some memories especially about the beginning and the end of the trip. I guess I may have been sick too much during the middle of the voyage across the ocean. I remember the boat evacuation drill and being separated from the rest of the family briefly. I was so happy to find my Mama! I remember the playroom where Mom took Kurt a little toddler we were bringing to America to play with all the toys. He was an orphan and we were bringing him to America to live with a family that was adopting him. I remember the seasick sacks, the dining room, the metal stairs, our quarters, throwing up over the boat edge. (I almost pucked on a man on the lower deck with my yuck! I guess that is why they wanted us to use sacks.) I remember the statue of Liberty and more….

Well, I went on "ancentry.com" and signed up for a 14 day free trial. To utilize my precious time on this family history site I looked up passenger lists. After looking in different files and area of this site I found the passenger lists for the Groote Beer, I finally found out the date of our departure from Rotterdam which was on October 20 1953 and I found the passenger list. I looked page after page and finally there we were. Page #9. I copied the 26 pages of the document of passenger and crew lists. I even found extra pages about some of the crew.

(After I found all that I wanted, I unsubscribed from the site, as it was going to be a $299 service, and I got what I wanted, free! ... in three days)

What interested me was to see how much luggage we brought with us.... NOT MUCH!!!

I also found a website of someone in Australia who immigrated there on the same ship. He had gathered a collection of letters, emails, photographs from others who have taken that immigration plunge. This has fascinated me and as I search more my curiosity has grown. I want to create a small memorabilia book for my family but I will share a little bit here today.

Picture of people looking anxiously from the decks.
Don't lean over too far!

I also decided to ask my brothers about their memories of the immigration voyage as they remembered it, so I asked them to make comments and maybe answer these questions....
Would you write anything you remember of the passage, what you boys did, what we did as a family, how you felt. And in the end I would like to have your feelings about how you felt when we saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time. How you felt in NY. Did this immigration make a difference in your life and our family? What you feel about the whole thing and add any other thing you can think of.
Thanks
Love, Eva

Memory --- I remember Mom saying a few years ago that she paid for a different Ocean Liner than what we got and when we were boarding this substitute Liner we were not placed in accomodations that was equivalent of the price she paid to come here. But Mom and Dad were so set on coming that they took what they got and made the best of it. They felt discriminated against but, America was the goal not the sleeping arrangements! Now you may understand a little better about Uli's joke about the "rowing." But Mom did say, It really didn't matter after all about the rooms and bunks because we were so sea sick that no matter what the accomodations were, we would probably still have been pucking.

The big dining Hall. The food was delicious until we could eat no more........"sakje voor zeeziekte" (Memory)I remember someone saying a family style dinner prayer. I don't remember if that was for the whole boat or just our family or table.

Picture of berth.. yah, we slept on bunk beds!

The List of our baggage.....to "move" to America
4 sc Suitcases right?
2 tr Trunks-right?
1 bag (How big? and what was in it?)
4 boxes (How Big?)

1 cs (What is a cs?) ANy of you travelers have an idea?

That sure isn't much to immigrate with. Did we ship anything before or is this all!!!??????
Mike said that was all we took to immigrate with!

Uli’s Email (check out the title!) (My oldest brother) Here s what he wrote me today.....
"Gone With the Wind"

"Sorry but my memory is a big blank of those years. I just do not remember very much of the Sea Sickness Voyage except that I drank real Black tea for the first time in my life' cause they thought that might help. Ice cream was a no=no but sour herring was good. I was more excited prior to those fateful days, cause we were going to travel on one of those BIG Ocean Liners however that did not come to be instead we were going first class 6 people to each Oar and had to follow the beat of the Drummer. Little sisters etc were furnished a Ping-Pong Paddle and had to hang over the side and paddle. Lost a lot of little ones that way…We actually went to Canada and most of the passengers got off there and then it seems like that early the next morning we saw the statue of Liberty.What stuck more in my mind was the riding in the back of the bus reading Comic Books. Actually just looking at pictures couldn't read English.And then the strangest thing happened we got escorted out of a toilet at a bus stop cause we were not Black and we had to use the White only one.What was wrong with this country? Didn't they just get all upset 'cause the Germans persecuted an ethnic group of People and here they are doing the same. Love you Sis ...Sweet Uli"

(FYI = We traveled by bus from NY to Arizona. The Mississippi was a mighty river!)


Uli's thoughts were so funny to me. I hope you got the jokes. Especially since he must have known Mom had paid for a larger ship. (Maybe we wouldn't have been as sick?!?!?! But we did hit open ocean and I think there was a storm. So who knows?)

Mike wrote back that he will email or work on it latter as he is at this time ready to embark on an adventure in Russia with his wife Natlajia.

Here are just a few pictures to share.....................most of them I took off the internet site of the person who immigrated Australia on the Grote Beer. I hope they don't mind that I share them again. They are already somewhere else on the internet.

Another view of the dinning hallA sitting room or lounge to read or visit with other guests

On the Deck (not our family) The deck... Memory - - I remember playing on the deck!

The Groote Beer

Another edition from the Musiclady....... Isn't Family History fascinating! Don't be afraid to leave a comment....