Last Sunday afternoon Constantinos Emmanuelle launched his second book in the Tales of Cyprus series – ‘The Corsica’ – at a packed Saint John’s College Auditorium in Preston. This new book documents the journey of the migrant ship named ‘The Corsica’ and its only voyage from Cyprus to Australia in 1951.

Constantinos was introduced by his very supportive partner Dr Christina Pavlides, who said: “Costas’ fascination with his Cypriot heritage is both deep rooted and central to his personality. He is a true patriot and totally in awe of his cultural roots. I am extremely proud of the work he has done to chronical our amazing Cypriot Community”.

“The Tales of Cyprus journey has been a pleasure for me. I have met and experienced the hospitality of so many wonderful Cypriots over many years and made many new friends”. “I truly believe that our future direction should be guided by the experiences of our elders and Costas’ book is a tribute to that sacred knowledge”, she said.

Costas then went on to recount to the audience details of the voyage over 70 years ago. The Corsica’s passengers were almost all from Cyprus, mainly single young men. The audience included now elderly passengers from that 1951 voyage, their families and descendants; and many people from Melbourne’s Greek-Cypriot community.

He told us The Corsica was built in 1914 as a luxury liner for the King of Prussia. Like many post-war migrant ships, the vessel was renamed and re-purposed several times over its life, including as a troop carrier through the first and second world wars. By 1950 it was worse for wear and on its last legs, so to speak.

Tickets for the voyage were oversubscribed at inflated prices by unscrupulous travel agents who grossly embellished what travel standards passengers could expect on the voyage. Passengers were charged 120 pounds ($7,860 in today’s money!) for a one-way ticket. Most passengers went into debt to fund their trip.

Louis Kyriakou in 1951 and 2018. Photo: Supplied

At sea, the grossly understaffed crew struggled with a poorly maintained vessel and what progressively became extremely challenging living conditions. Their capacity to cater for meals, provide adequate sanitary facilities and navigate a mechanically faulty vessel severely compromised the health and safety of all on board.

Back then the standard travel time by sea from Cyprus to Australia was around four weeks – The Corsica took seven weeks to complete the voyage, including stops along the way for unscheduled repairs.

Costas explains: “The main reason I decided to focus my second Tales of Cyprus book on the Corsica was because it had all the hallmarks of a Greek tragedy. This was a story that had to be told. The Corsica was destined for the scrap metal yard when it was commissioned by Cypriot travel agents in 1951. It’s no surprise that the Corsica kept breaking down as she snaked her way across the ocean towards Australia. Add to their troubles, the passengers had to endure the stench of rotten potatoes and onions from Egypt to Colombo as well as the unsanitary conditions below deck as the small crew struggled to clean the cabins and toilets. To make matters worse, the fresh water tanks were either contaminated or sabotaged along the way and eventually three days before reaching Fremantle, all the fresh water ran out and the passengers (who had money) had to buy mineral water or Coca Cola to drink. Those without money resorted to drinking rainwater and even sea water at times. As many passengers told me, often through tears, this was indeed the ship from hell.”

My partner Julie and I were very fortunate to have met Costas Emmanuelle at the launch of his first book ‘Tales of Cyprus’. My father-in-law – Louis Kyriacou (1933-2019) – migrated to Australia on The Corsica. Constantinos was able to interview Julie’s father a couple of times before he passed three years ago now. Here is an extract of the account of the 1951 voyage of The Corsica Louis gave to Constantinos:

… Louis’ father agreed to borrow the money to pay for his ship-fare to Australia. “My family were quite poor. We had no disposable income to speak of. My father went to the tokoliptes (money lenders) to borrow the money. I think the fare for the Corsica was around 130 pounds. That was a lot of money back then. I didn’t even have half a grossi (penny) to my name. I remember how I would hide in the corner of the kafenion (coffee house) because I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t even afford to buy a coffee.”

There were five other young men, who left Komi Kebir with Louis to travel to Australia.

According to Louis, the Corsica was overcrowded with around 1,200 passengers, all of whom were Cypriot men aged between eighteen and twenty-three. He recalls that the journey took sixty-five days (nine weeks) before they reached Port Melbourne. “There were only young Cypriot men on the Corsica,” he tells me confidently. “I don’t remember seeing other nationalities or any women. (There was a) delay of four days in Limassol, (before) the ship finally departed. I believe the delay was caused because they were loading the potatoes onto the ship which were stored down below. Most nights, my friends and I slept on the deck of the ship because of that stench from below. You couldn’t sleep near the potatoes. It was that bad. Those potatoes began to rot, because the Corsica took so bloody long to reach Ceylon. They were dumped in the ocean near the Port of Colombo.”

According to Louis, the Corsica was forced to stop at Djibouti to refuel. “It was funny. Every time the Corsica stopped at a port, all the passengers would rush to one side to have a look at the town. This caused the ship to lean over. The captain would shout at us to go to the other side but no one ever listened. At Fremantle we disembarked because we wanted to buy fruit. No one could speak English so we had to point at the fruit so the shop keepers could understand us.”

When asked about the food and service on the ship, Louis laughs loudly and says. “What service? There was no service. My friends and I became so agitated and angry at the lack of proper service that we started to throw the cutlery, plates, chairs and even the beds overboard. We really wrecked the place. I remember that the plates were made of metal, like the ones the soldiers used during the war. Our destruction occurred mostly at night, when the crew couldn’t see us.

I remember we became angry when they wouldn’t give us enough food to eat.

Some of us would sneak onto the lifeboats to eat the tins of food that were stored there. That’s what we ate. Other times we would go into the kitchen and fry potatoes to eat. We had brought oil with us from Cyprus and the kitchen staff allowed us to fry the potatoes in their kitchen. Anyone who brought food with them from their village ate it all on the ship. For breakfast, I remember eating boiled eggs with bread and olives.”

When the Corsica finally docked at Station Pier in Port Melbourne, Louis was greeted by a friend named Pantelis Solomou. “Pantelis had arrived a year earlier and managed to buy his own house in South Melbourne. All us new migrants split up at the port and went in different directions. At times, we would all meet up again at the Democritos Club, or the Orpheas Club or the Limassol Club or the Cyprus Cafe on Russell Street. In those days, we would rent rooms at various houses around the city. I paid around ten shillings a week to rent a room which I shared with six other migrants,” (from pages 214-217).

The author and his wife Christina Pavlides. Photo: Supplied

By the way, that Cyprus Cafe on Russell Street that Louis mentions above belonged to my paternal grandfather – Paraskevas Pagonis – who migrated from Cyprus a generation earlier, in the late 1920s. Louis went back to Cyprus to marry in 1955 and returned to Australia in 1956, with my partner Julie born at sea en route.

Costas says what he found truly extraordinary and unbelievable about the Corsica story is just how gutsy and robust that generation of Cypriots really were. “I mean, think about it; they leave the security and comfort of their family and village to travel to the other side of the world on a hunch that they might be able to find work and make enough money to pay of their debts and set up a better life. Nearly all Cypriot migrants who travelled on the Corsica, did not speak English, nor did they have more than a few shillings in their pockets when they arrived in Australia after seven gruelling weeks at sea.”

“They all paid around 120 pounds for a one-way passage which in those days was equivalent to their annual earnings (or nearly $8000 in today’s money). That’s astonishing. Apart from the staggering expense to travel on one of the worst of migrant ships at the time, all Cypriot passengers had to borrow the money (with great interest) or sell property to be able to afford the passage. When compared to say the British or Maltese post-war migrants who mostly only paid 10 pounds to travel to Australia it’s a wonder any Cypriots managed to keep their wits and sanity intact,” says Costa.

Costas reflected that in the seventy years since the Corsica made her one and only trip from Cyprus to Australia back in 1952, with the largest group of Cypriots to ever leave the island at one time, no-one has recorded or documented the living memories of the passengers who travelled on this dilapidated ship until now. “For me, this was always a race against time as the few surviving passengers were now aged in their late 80s or 90s. I was fortunate, thanks mainly to social media, to be able to find and interview over forty surviving passengers for my book. For many, this was the first time that anyone had asked them to recall their amazing story of migration.”

“Had I not had the foresight to publish this book now, most of the migrant stories would be lost for ever. I guess, this is my proudest achievement with Tales of Cyprus. To be able to record and preserve these eye-witness accounts for posterity so that future generations can appreciate the sacrifices made by this most extraordinary group of Cypriots”, he says.

Like everyone in the audience at the book’s launch last Sunday, Darebin Mayor Cr Lina Messina was deeply moved by the presentation. Sitting next to me in the audience, she remarked: “We all stand on the shoulders of that generation of migrants”.

A full house at The Corsica book launch. Photo: Supplied

I can highly recommend this handsome well-crafted volume – truly a labour of love. I was going to conclude this article by advising readers how to go about purchasing the book, but as we go to print, Costas tells me he has almost sold out; so there is really no point as he expects to be sold-out by the time this appears. Have you ever heard of a self-published author selling out within a couple of days of launching? To quote Costas again: ‘Crazy stuff!’.

To learn more about the Tales of Cyprus and Corsica books, and Costas’ related projects, go to www.talesofcyprus.com.