Corsica: The Migrant Ship from Hell

My second book for Tales of Cyprus titled ‘The Corsica’ was dedicated to one amazing Cypriot migrant journey that took place on a dilapidated old ship called the Corsica back in December 1951. ‘The ship from hell,’ as some Cypriots describe the ship. Before publishing this book, I was fortunate to find and interview Cypriots who actually travelled on the Corsica. Of the 75 interviews conducted, 37 eye-witness accounts were included in my book. All of the passengers interviewed remembered the stench of rotten potatoes and onions on the ship. Most recalled just how old and slow the ship was. The food on the ship was also recalled with much disgust as was the absence of fresh drinking water before reaching Australia. These early migrants were indeed a tough group of Cypriots. Can you imagine going into debt, just to pay for your ship fare or deciding to leave your family and everything you know, to seek a better life on the other side of the world? Imagine not knowing the language (or the culture) of the new country and arriving penniless with no guarantee of finding accommodation or work.

One might say it was sheer madness or perhaps just blind faith and sheer determination that spurred them on. Of the 784 passengers on the Corsica, 131 were female with half this number already married and either travelling with their husbands or on their way to be reunited with their husbands in Australia. A few married women were travelling with young children and they experienced an even more harrowing and difficult journey. There were 221 passengers listed as farmers on the ship, as well as 51 carpenters, 48 mechanics, 41 masons, 38 housewives, 36 tailors, 35 shoemakers, 32 dressmakers, 25 students, 24 clerks and 17 barbers. Other professions included waiters, cooks, electricians, blacksmiths, miners and bakers.

As mentioned earlier, my book about the Corsica is largely based on eye witness accounts. Thankfully, I also met and interviewed a few passengers who had the foresight to write down their thoughts about their journey. In addition, their notebooks included key dates and times as well as great details about each stop-over. As for the journey itself, this is what I discovered. Sometime in early December, 1951 the Corsica left the Port of Piraeus in Greece and made her way to Cyprus to collect over 700 Cypriot passengers who had been waiting anxiously at the Port of Limassol. The Corsica would carry the largest number of Cypriots to ever leave the island by ship. It arrived to Limassol on the 12th of December, 1951. The Corsica was meant leave Cyprus on the 13th of December, but the ship did not depart until the 17th of December.

Over 700 passengers crowded at the Port of Limassol that morning with their loved ones but were told to find accommodation in the town. Many actually managed to board the vessel but she remained anchored out to sea for four days. No one knew why the ship was not moving or what was causing the delay. It was only later that some passengers discovered that the delay was due to the loading and placement of a large consignment of potatoes and onions in the cargo hold. It was common for migrant ships and ocean liners at that time to carry both passengers and cargo. It was winter in Cyprus and the sacks of vegetables got wet in the rain as they were being loaded. This would cause them to rot in the hold and dissolve into a stinking black sludge later in the journey. At approximately 8pm on Monday the 17th of December, 1951, the Corsica sounded her horn and departed from Limassol bound for Australia. She travelled through choppy seas arriving at Port Said, Egypt at 1.30pm on Wednesday the 19th of December, 1951.

From Port Said the Corsica travelled slowly down the Suez Canal until she reached the port town of Suez (approximately ninety miles away) at 11pm. There, the Corsica is halted until the bridge that connects Egypt to Palestine is raised to allow the ship through. The ship remained at Suez for two days. It departed at 8.30pm on Friday the 21st of December after refuelling and replenishing its fresh water tanks. She made her way along the banks of the Red Sea for the Italian colony of Eritrea in Africa.

The Corsica reached the Port of Massawa, Eritrea around 8pm on the 26th of December, remaining there for two days and two nights before departing at 11.30am on the 28th of December for Djibouti. According to some reports, the locals in Massawa were very poor but nice and friendly and the port town was very clean.

In Massawa, some passengers spoke about buying chickens and baby goats which were slaughtered and prepared by the locals at the port-side markets. The passengers brought their meat onto the ship and a Cypriot from Aradippou cooked the meat in the kitchen using his own pots and pans. After two days and two nights the Corsica arrived at the Port of Djibouti, Ethiopia (French Colony) at 5am (some say it was 7am) on Sunday the 30th of December 1951. It departed at 9pm that same day. Once again, the ship was refuelled. The most outstanding revelation in Djibouti was the discovery of a Greek Orthodox Church (Saints Konstantinos and Eleni). During this stop-over the local Greek priest performed a special service for his grateful congregation of Corsica passengers. After leaving Djibouti, the Corsica slowly zigzagged her way across the Indian Ocean towards Ceylon (British Colony), arriving after nine days at the Port of Colombo on the 8th of January, 1952 at 9am. It was at Colombo that the cargo of rotten potatoes and onions was dumped into the ocean. Apparently, many passengers stayed in hotels in Colombo while the ship’s hull was being cleaned. Many of the passengers enjoyed their stay in Colombo, visiting places like the markets, Zoological Garden and the Botanical Park. Once again, the ship was refuelled and her fresh water tanks replenished.

On Sunday 13th of January, 1952 the Corsica departed crossing the equator at approximately 7pm on Tuesday 15th of January, 1952. Thereafter, a celebration between the crew and the passengers took place on the decks of the ship. One passenger recalls how the Captain was dressed as King Neptune and the crew began spraying everyone with champagne (another passenger claimed it was water). Ice-cream was also handed out to all those present. At approximately 7pm on the 26th of January, 1952 the Corsica reached Australia and docked at the Port of Fremantle. The next day at 2am in the morning, the Corsica left Fremantle and made her way across the Great Southern Ocean towards Melbourne, dropping anchor in the bay at Port Melbourne on the 3rd of February at approximately 7pm. The Corsica remained in the bay overnight and the next day on the 4th of February, 1952 she was towed to a berth at Station Pier. At approximately 6pm the passengers were allowed to disembark and made their way through customs and finally into Melbourne. Many had friends and relatives waiting on the pier for them. Melbourne was not meant to be the final stop for the Corsica.

The ship was originally booked to travel to Sydney but because she was in such a dilapidated state, the local authorities arrested the vessel at Port Melbourne and around 300 passengers, who were meant to travel on to Adelaide and Sydney, were sent there by train instead. Here are some of the eye-witness accounts of the journey.

SEVIL HAKKI (ABDURAZAK) “I was only sixteen when I travelled on the Corsica. I was with my brother-in-law Dervish on my way to be reunited with my husband Hakki. I remember the stench from the rotten potatoes. The conditions on-board, especially the toilets were disgusting, I honestly don’t know how we survived it. We had showers once a week using soap that would not lather because of the sea water. It was very difficult.”

LOUIS KYRIACOU “All the waiters were Italian. They couldn’t speak English or Greek and we couldn’t speak Italian. We had to communicate using sign language. I remember the food was all Italian. Every day we ate macaroni. It was boring and we got sick of it. I remember the plates were made of tin. The ship was full of Cypriots. Nearly every single person had to borrow money and get into debt in order to buy passage onto this ship. Strangely, I don’t remember anyone having a ticket. Your name was written on a passenger list and that was it. Nor do I remember any announcements telling us what was happening. No-one had any idea why the ship kept stopping or why it took so long to get to Australia. I remember a lot of us (passengers) slept on the deck of the ship to escape the heat and the stench from the rotting potatoes. We even went into the ship’s kitchen and helped ourselves. We peeled and cooked potatoes to eat.”

STAVROULLA ANTONIOU “This ship was a floating prison for me. I was twenty-four years old and travelling on my own with four children under five. My twin babies were aged only ten months. My husband was already in Melbourne waiting for us. He had no idea when the ship would arrive. There was no way we could communicate with one another. Can you imagine how difficult things were for me on the ship. I couldn’t go anywhere. I was trapped in my cabin for the entire trip. The waves were enormous and the ship was rocking back and forth and up and down. It was horrible. I remember the baby bottles rolling all over the floor. If it wasn’t for a kind Greek lady from Egypt who agreed to do some baby-sitting for me, I would never have stepped out of my cabin to get fresh air. Like I said, this ship became my prison for two months.”

PHILIPPOS IOANNOU “When we saw the sleeping quarters for the men on the ship we were disappointed. They were cramped, crowded and stuffy. There were rows and rows of wire bunk beds. It was like the army. I was with eight friends from my village (Neo Chorio). We decided to move into an empty cabin. The Greek crew tried in vain to kick us out but we stayed put. There was nothing they could do. There were four bunk-beds so one of us had to sleep on the floor.”

NICHOLAS JONIS “I was only seventeen on the Corsica. I was travelling with a few men from my village (Agros). We were told to board the ship on the 12 December (1951) but when we arrived to Limassol with our families there was no Corsica ship. We had no choice but to spend the night in the port. There were thousands of people stranded there. No one knew what was going on or why the ship was delayed. Those who could afford it, found sleeping quarters. The Corsica arrived the next day and I can tell you, it was nothing like we were promised by the travel agency. Even before we left Cyprus, this ship was a disappointment. When we arrived in Colombo, we were told that the ship had to stay for four days in port for repairs and so they can dump the ruined potatoes into the sea and refuel. I remember one poor Cypriot mother and her daughter fell into the water as they were walking down the gangplank. Luckily, some men who could swim jumped into the water and saved them.”

ANDREAS CHARALAMBOU “I remember on New Year’s Day there was a fight on the deck between the Italian and Greek crew members. I think they were fighting because they each wanted the New Year celebrations to follow their own traditions. The fight became very violent. They grabbed all the deck chairs and threw them at each other. Most of the chairs ended up in the Indian Ocean. Even a few Cypriot passengers joined in the fight. When we got up the next morning to go up to the deck, we couldn’t find any chairs to sit on.”

KYRIACOS CONSTANTI “When we reached Djibouti, an Italian policeman at the port warned me and my friends to be careful walking around the town because the locals were wild. We left the ship in groups of ten. One Cypriot man who was with us had his wallet stolen. This man jumped down from a wall and grabbed his wallet and ran off. That wall must have been ten foot high. We all gave chase, caught him and took him to the nearest police station. The police sergeant said, ‘don’t worry I will take care of this man for what he did’. I was thinking to myself, he will surely cop a beating.”

MICHALIS MAVROGENIS “They served us spaghetti every day. Eat it or don’t eat it, it’s up to you. That’s what you got. When they served meat, it was as tough as the leather soles on your shoes. Even if you had good teeth, it was unchewable. You couldn’t eat it. This young man from my village had a portable kerosene stove and we would use it to fry potatoes on the deck. After we ate, a man named Nestoras would play his violin and we would all sing and dance. This is how we entertained ourselves. There was nothing else to do. You couldn’t drink the water from the taps on the ship, it was red in colour and looked disgusting. Some passengers who couldn’t afford to buy drinking water had to drink rain water. A young boy named Andreas Angoura climbed onto the life boats where he knew there would be containers of fresh water stored. He came and told us about the containers on the lifeboats and from that day forward we didn’t have to buy any water. We just rationed the water from the lifeboats amongst us.”

ELPIDA LOIZOU “I remember how the ship was leaning and the ship’s Captain would shout through loud speakers for passengers to move to the other-side so that the ship wouldn’t lean so much. A lot of the passengers’ luggage fell overboard because it was leaning so much. Those poor souls were left with only the clothes on their back, and what little they had in their cabins.”

SAVVAS ANTONIOU “The ship’s accountant told us they were looking for men to work on the ship so I signed up as a waiter. One day we were serving rabbit. For a joke I told the passengers in the dining room, ‘today we have lovely food, it is hedgehog.’ Some laughed, some ate the food, others didn’t eat. People often complained about the food I was serving. What did they expect? Certain passengers were feeling unwell and could not go to the dining room to eat. There were around eight of them confined in their cabins. On the ship, if you wanted to eat, you must come to the dining hall. That’s how it was. I used to sneak food out of the kitchen and deliver it to the cabins of these sick people.”

COSTA LEONIDAS “As soon as the ship took off for Egypt, the captain of the ship asked for qualified tradesmen to work on the ship. I put my hand up and was taken to an area that was absolutely filthy and filled with broken bits of furniture. The stench was very powerful, I couldn’t stay down there for long. I complained to the foreman that I cannot work in such terrible conditions.”

STAVROS SYMEON “One day I asked a crew member named Sotiris, ‘why is the ship going so slow?’ He said to me, ‘if you knew what was happening down below, you would get off this ship at once.’ He told me that the ship has 12 burners and the ship’s mechanics were constantly trying to fix them. They were oil burners but they kept burning themselves out. Out of the twelve burners only six were working. Sotiris also told me that one of the ships propellers was doing thirty revolutions and the other one was doing twenty. That’s why the ship was moving like a snake. One day Sotiris took me below deck to have a look. Boy you wouldn’t believe what I saw. Everything was filthy, covered in grease and dirt. The Italian mechanics down there were completely covered in dirt. One of the mechanics said to me, ‘everything is bad down here. Everything is bad.”

CHRISTOS APEITOS “They ran out of fresh water on the ship. We had to drink Coca Cola. Some passengers drank water from a hose on the deck which was actually sea water and they became quite sick. I made friends with the ship’s captain. He was Greek and disappointed in the sorry state of the ship. Some Cypriots were allowed to use the kitchen facilities on the ship. This way we could cook our own meals. There was no entertainment on the ship. No cinema, no theatre. We would spend our time on deck looking at the ocean or downstairs playing cards or tavli. From what I can remember, there were very few women on the ship. They were travelling to meet up with their husbands or fiancés.”

My book about the Corsica was self-published as a ‘hard cover’ keepsake in 2022 and launched in November that same year. Quite astonishingly, all copies were sold out in less than two months. Thankfully, a soft-cover (paperback) version can be bought online through Amazon, Abebooks and other popular book sellers. Just google ‘Corsica by Constantinos Emmanuelle’ to find it. The images that accompany this post feature some of the posters that I had designed and displayed at my book launch. For a closer look, high quality versions can be found on my website https://www.talesofcyprus.com/resources/. The passenger lists from the Corsica can also be found there. FOOTNOTE:

As a ship, the Corsica has had a long and interesting history dating back to 1914 when she was built in Hamburg as a luxury liner for the King of Prussia. In those days, the passengers sat on period furniture and dined off silver plates in saloons that were fitted with marble. In 1917, the Kaiser’s luxury liner was named ‘Wahehe’ and converted into a troopship and sent into service during the First World War. In 1920, the ship was purchased by the Burns Philp shipping firm where she was renamed ‘Marella’ and operated routes from Australia to Singapore for twenty years. During the Second World War the Marella became a troopship operating mainly in the South Pacific. After the war, she was sold to a Panamanian shipping company, renamed ‘Liguria’ and used to transport pilgrims from America to Europe and the Holy Land. In 1950, the Liguria was commissioned to transport 950 persons from Europe to Australia however she broke down 200 miles from Fremantle with engine failure and had to be towed to port. This was the beginning of the end for this tired old ship. After spending eight months being repaired in Fremantle, she was renamed Corsica and sent to Cyprus to collect 784 passengers bound for Australia. The Corsica left Limassol on the 17th of December, 1951 and arrived at Port Melbourne on the 4th of February, 1952. A month later the Corsica broke down in the Atlantic Ocean on her return trip to Europe.

The tired old ship was eventually towed to a shipyard in Belgium to be broken and dismantled. This was her final resting place.