The Karlsson's sail on Castle Bianco

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With Reuben Goossens

Maritime Historian

The Sitmar Ships

Our voyage to Canada on …

Sitmar’s Castle Bianco

by Kurt Karlsson

Castel Bianco departs Copenhagen August 31, 1951

My name is Kurt A. Karlsson, I was born in 1942, Copenhagen Denmark. My father was Allan V. Karlsson (1920 2005), and my mother, Kate L. Ludvigsen (1924-1993). We lived an average life as far as I can remember. During the early part of 1951 my parents applied to emigrate, as so many Danish people did at that time. Their wish was to go to the United States. But at that time no immigrants were being accepted there. I think it had something to do with a limit of some sort. There were only two places that we could immigrate to and that was Argentina or Canada. They decided on Canada.

My mother’s passport photo

We lived on the main street of Copenhagen (Vesterbrogade 125) and took a taxi down to the harbour. Our relatives were there to see us off. They brought us gifts and were happy for us.

The Sitmar Liner, Castle Bianca was gigantic (well, in the eyes of a child). And we were very excited about our trip to a new country. We had a lot of luggage. Two large trunks made of cane (basket weave), and many suitcases.

Mother’s passage ticket

Departure Photographs

The Karlsson Family

My Father is on the right and mother is standing second from the left. I am seated on the left wearing a cap

Getting ready to board the Castle Bianco – This is only our hand luggage

Going up the gangplank waving goodbye to our family

Boarding Castel Bianca, which is about to take us to a new home far across the sea.

Mother and I wait for the ship to depart

Once aboard the ship, we waved goodbye to our relatives, they took pictures of us and sent us copies (the ones seen on this page). We out waited on deck for what seemed to be hours. Then we departed. Leaving Denmark on August 31, 1951.

Finally we are pulling away from the wharf. Our adventure has begun!

The sleeping arrangements were as follows. The men were at one end of the ship in a large dormitory, with bunk beds, whilst the women and children were at the other end of the ship, also a large dormitory’s with bunk beds and cots. I remember that my mother had sewn a secret pocket inside my father's undershirt to hide our money.

Living on the ship was very exciting for me. Maybe that was because I was a boy with no worries. There were many children, and we would play all day long and collect soda bottles which we exchanged for chocolate and candy.

The cooks and kitchen staff were Italian and they really nice, they liked the kids. When we were hungry we would knock on the kitchen door, rub our stomachs because we only spoke Danish and they spoke Italian and English, thus, that was the only way to communicate. They would give us pieces of cake, buns and whatever they had extra. For me, that was the best part of the whole trip.

Most days were spent on deck reading, playing games and talking. It was cold, but sunny most days. Everything went well for a while, but the, about half way across the Atlantic we had a terrible storm. It was very bad and we were all very scared. A lot of people got seasick it was not a good time. When it passed all went back to normal.

Then one morning someone was yelling look, look … and there in the distance we saw an iceberg ... amazing. Then a bit later we saw water spouts shooting into the air … whales. Next we saw land. We were told that this was Canada and what we saw was Newfoundland.

Then we arrived in Halifax Harbour and berthed at Pier # 2I. When we disembarked we entered a large hall and we waited on hard wooden benches for quite a while to be processed.

Above & below: Mother’s and Fathers Canadian landing cards

Castel Bianco seen in the early 50’s

(R Goossens Private Collection)

When all documentation was completed we went to Quebec City and then onto our final destination Toronto.

Arriving in Toronto we came to Union Station. We had no place to stay but luckily it was early morning so we had time to look for accommodation. We walked up Yonge Street from Front Street to Carlton Street and then east across to a park called Allan Gardens. It was in this area where other Danish families had settled. My father saw a "Room for Rent," sign at # 9 Homewood Avenue. That became our home (on the third floor overlooking the back yard) for the next 2 years. The room was 15'X 15' that had an icebox, two beds and a shared washroom on the second floor, but we liked it because it was across the street from the park.

Then a new life began in Canada, which has been good.

Photographs (except for Castle Bianca in the early 50’s) were provided by Kurt Karlsson

The Sitmar Liners - INDEX:

The Early Sitmar Liners …

Part One … Castel Bianco & Castel Verde - Built as a Victory VC2-S-AP2 class of freighters.

Castle Bianco - The Karlsson family’s voyage.

Part Two … Castel Felice - ex SS Kenya.

Castel Felice - Cabin Plan & the Robert Brinkhuis story 1965.

Castel Felice - My 1957 voyage to Canada by W. D. Hempel.

Castel Felice - The Williams family sail to Australia in 1957.

Castel Felice - Three articles about a family’s voyage on the Castel Felice and arrival in Australia.

Part Three … Fairsea (1) - Built as a C3 class freighter.

Fairsea – Photo Page.

Fairsea - Deck Plan.

Fairsea – The Strachan family migrates from the UK to Melbourne in December 1957.

Part Four … Fairsky (1) - Built as a C3 class freighter.

Fairsky – Deck Plan.

Fairsky – Piet Mulder sails on SS Fairsky.

Fairsky – Fairsky hits a wreck out of Djakarta – The Pamela Joyce Hansen story.

The last Sitmar Liner and Cruise Ships …

Fairstar - ex Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire – Built as a Bibby Line troop ship.

Fair Princess - ex P&O & Princess, also Sitmar Fairsea (2), Fairland, Cunard Line Carinthia.

China Sea Discovery - ex Fair Princess - broken up.

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Commenced in the passenger Shipping Industry in May 1960

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