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The Third Son of a Duke

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It was the golden age of travel, where the opulence of the Titanic filtered down into the ships that went in the opposite direction.

It was also the golden age for migration from England to Australia, with ships leaving from a number of ports, a wave that had started in the mid-1800s.

I discovered which ship my grandmother took from Tilbury to Melbourne, the RMS “Orama”, over 10,000 tons and the latest iteration in the design that saw four of five similar ships before it, run by the Orient Shipping Line, and these ships departed every 14 days.

First class, second class, and third class, which sounds so much better than steerage.  The second-class ticket cost 40 pounds, which could be regarded as a small fortune back then, when wages were about 80 pounds a year.

My grandmother had a little inheritance money, and having cousins living in Australia, I am sure her intention was to simply visit them for a while and then go back home.

Of course, there was just one problem.

World War One was brewing in Europe. 

Perhaps if she thought it might all blow up, she could have stayed at home. But I think there was another reason why she was making such a journey.

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1610 words, for a total of 9620 words.