Aboard an Illawarra and South Coast Steam Navigation Company vessel

What was it like travelling aboard an Illawarra and South Coast Steam Navigation Company’s vessel?

The ‘Merimbula’ was the company’s largest, most luxurious steamer. Bertha Keating was a Bermagui schoolgirl who attended St George Girls’ School in the early 1920s. She provided this description of journeys on the Merimbula:

“The minute I stepped aboard the Merimbula my stomach turned somersaults.

Whether it was the motion of the boat, the smell of the cargo, (it also carried cattle and pigs – in a separate section of course), or whether it was just psychological I really don’t know, but I was never guilty of having a meal on the Merimbula, apart from an early morning cup of tea and a hard dry biscuit, but believe me, my ‘strawberry box’ worked overtime. (‘Strawberry box’ was the ship’s equivalent of today’s air sick bag.)

The trip from Sydney to Bermagui usually took about sixteen hours – a very long sixteen hours when one is a bad sailor. One of the roughest trips (in more ways than one) that I experienced was the last trip before one Christmas vacation. I was late making my booking, only to find that all the berths had been booked. However, we were told that if we turned up on the day we could take ‘pot luck’.

The ‘Merimbula’ was licensed to carry ninety-two passengers. That trip she carries one hundred and ninety. The sea was very rough, as was the accommodation. I bedded down on a dining-room table, hanging on to the edge of the table all night in case I rolled off on to the passengers who were bedded down on the floor. I was never asked to pay for that trip, so it had its compensations.

Sam Sinclair, waiting at the wharf to drive us home was always a welcome sight. His car, I think, was the only one in Bermagui at the time.”

The ‘Merimbula’ ran aground on Beecroft Head, north of Jervis Bay in 1928. The Illawarra and South Coast Steam Navigation Company then decided to discontinue its passenger service to become a freight-only carrier.