The Mauritania's Lifeboat and Penelope's Father

While we were working on ANJA in the boatyard, we noticed a fellow "George" working very hard on his wooden boat. We learned that it was one of the original Lifeboats on the Mauritania. Indeed, it is very likely that it is the onbly one left. The Mauritania was launched as a fast, luxury liner in 1938 but as soon as the war started, it was comandeered and converted into a Troopship in Sydney Australia! So, the boat next to us had been to Australia. Indeed, it went many places as the Mauritania did over 543,000km just during the war. Not only that, this lifeboat has never been in the water!

 The Mauritania's Life Boat

The coincidences increased when Penny remembered that her father had travelled on the Mauritania towards the end of the war in Europe.

Penny's father John Cunliffe served as a Navigator in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War 11. He joined in April 1941 and in September left for Edmonton Canada for  training with the British Empire Air Training scheme. From there he was stationed in Dorval, near Montreal with RAF Transport Command, ferrying planes built in the North America to Britain. Of course, he had then to return to North America for the next delivery and that meant running the gauntlet of the German Navy in the Atlantic. On one such trip, in July 1942,  he travelled on the Queen Mary and as he was an officer, was placed in charge of one of the machine guns on the boat deck. On another trip on the Empress of Scotland in January 1943 he was in charge of Submarine and Aircraft lookouts.

John was fortunate to be crew on a delivery flight from the USA to Australia in September 1942. He revisited his young wife Julie, last seen a year before, and to meet his baby daughter Annette, born in May 1942.  

In February 1944 John was posted in England to  575 Squadron stationed at Broadwell near Oxford. From here he took part in D Day and the subsequent months of flying into Europe, particularly Northern France and Belgium. On D day and in the weeks following he made many trips across the Channel, towing gliders and also dropping parachutists and supplies, ferrying back the wounded. For one brief period in late September 1944 he was stationed in Brussels, before returning to England in October to be repatriated to Australia.

On his final trip from England home to Australia, John travelled on the Mauritania, departing from Liverpool on November 2nd 1944 and arriving about November 7th in New York. He then had a substantial wait until travelling by train from New York to San Francisco starting   on December 2nd, boarding the Lurline at San Francisco (reached by train from New York) on December 13th, arriving in Brisbane on January 16th. Had he been able to get an earlier boat he would perhaps have been home in time to spend Christmas for the first time with his wife and his 2 1/2  year old daughter Annette Penny's older sister).

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave