The rainbow never sets

Perth. It was a charming city with it's covered walk-ways and lots of shops, it's quaint 'London Court', it's churches and public buildings, some of which had exotic cacti or palms growing in their gardens. Also the wide sports fields, and the beautiful Kings Park with the view over the city were most magnificent. Here again we found a newly planted gum tree which the Queen had left to commemorate her recent visit to Perth.

In Fremantle a cabin-deck cabin became vacant. I asked the purser whether I could move into it, and as no one else wanted it, he agreed. Why not travel the last week in style? The weather became cold and blustery. We were in the Great Australian Bight, and the wind seemed to blow straight from the South Pole. We were not used to this and felt it quite keenly. It was lovely, though, to watch the great Albatrosses sail with the ship for hours. They would occasionally rest on a quiet spot of the ship.

A couple of Australian passengers had joined the ship in Fremantle and I had my first opportunity of practising my English. Their accent was rather strange, but I would have to get used to that, I thought. Just before Melbourne the Captain invited us all to a farewell cocktail party. He made a very nice speech wishing us well in our new country. As no one else spoke English as well as I, my fellow passengers asked me to reply to his speech. I thanked him for all he had done for us during the voyage, for his good wishes to us, and wished him in return all the best for his and his fellow officers' futures. I was rather apprehensive about my speech, but they must have thought it was all right, as they all clapped when I finished.

On the morning of 13 May we arrived in Melbourne, quite some time after having sailed through the Heads a few hours earlier. After the ship had docked, I came back to my cabin after breakfast. I noticed immediately that my camera had disappeared from the table. I looked through the open window, and saw a couple of wharfies busying themselves with the long handled shuffle board. I ran out immediately, but when I arrived on the deck, no one was there. Then I rushed to the Purser's Office, who was busy with disembarkation procedures, but he listened to me and organised an officer to come to the deck. Of course it was far too late and the thief had disappeared. I went ashore to see if I could do anything at luggage check, but to no avail. My camera was gone. Luckily I had changed a film recently, at least those photos were safe. I reproached myself for leaving the window open, but who would have thought that people could be so cunning to use the long handle of the shuffle board to fish for my camera! Luckily I was insured, and so I asked the purser for a certificate.

After this most unpleasant 'welcome' to Melbourne, I took a taxi to visit Walter Grube, my friend from Berlin, whose address I had in my diary. He was very pleased to see me, and I was pleased to see him, as he was the only person I knew in Australia. He had just bought himself a small house in the Port Melbourne area and was in the process of moving in. He kindly took the time to show me around Melbourne in his car.

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