Leather Ocean Liner Diary: My Cruise Around The World On The Steamship Empress Of Australia, 1929-1930

TOM SHAW OLDROYD

Publication: Tom Shaw Oldroyd, 1929-1930, N P

First and only edition. 16mo. 6 1/2" X 4 1/4" full leather travel diary, with leather tab closure strap, and titles stamped in gilt on the front cover, green front and rear endpapers, all edges gilt, pencil in pencil loop, folding map. The diary belonged to passenger Tom Shaw Oldroyd of Stanford University in California. P. O. Box 1198, Stateroom 546. "In 1928 Canadian Pacific Lines (CPL) with Trans-Atlantic passenger loadings running quite low during the winter months, thus it was decided they CPL would send the Empress of Australia on an annual four-month Around the World Cruise. She departed on her very first Around World Cruise in December 1928. Upon its maiden cruise, the S.S. Empress had some aesthetic changes made to her hull and livery, the result of the ship looking very much like a tropical style cruise ship. Many passengers having sailed on her cruises would liken her to a grandiose stately luxury yacht. There was no doubt, but her new look did make a big impression on the traveling public. Her next around the world cruise was very quickly booked for the December 1929 to April 1930 voyage. The Empress of Australia was now a First Class, all Luxury Cruise Ship, and she would accommodate no more than 370 privileged guests on her cruises, with all having the complete run of this spacious, beautiful ship." The author of the journal, "Tom Shaw Oldroyd and his wife Ida Shepard Oldroyd both came to California in the 1880's. Tom was born in England in 1853, Ida in Goshen, Indiana, in 1856. They became acquainted through their common interest in shells, and were married in 1895. The two collected extensively in southern California, amassing a large collection and obtaining rare specimens brought in on the nets of fishermen." "In 1914, Ida was recruited by the California Academy of Sciences to classify and pack a portion of the shell collection of Henry Hemphill, in preparation of the collection's transfer to the Academy following Hemphill's death. In 1916 she was hired by Stanford University, which had then acquired the Hemphill collection, to catalog the collection. A year later, Stanford purchased the Oldroyds' private collection and hired both Ida and Tom as curators in the Department of Geology, where they served for the rest of their lives. In the mid 1920s, the Stanford shell collection was the second largest in the world. In 1929-1930, the two traveled around the world. On their return, they engaged in extensive overseas exchanges and acquired several entire collections for the university." The diary starts with facts on sea travel, time differences, ship’s bells, Morse code, sea depths, nautical terms, and more. Color page with uniform regulations, and blank pages for abstract of log. The cruise started on December 2, 1929 in New York City. Almost every page has a pencil diary note including the day’s weather. Monaco, Naples, Athens, Haifa, Christmas in Jerusalem, Cairo, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Bombay, Singapore, Bangkok, Manilla, Hong Kong, Formosa. Very interesting and fully filled out diary of a 1929-30 world cruise onboard the Canadian Pacific ocean liner SS Empress of Australia. RMS Empress of Australia was an ocean liner built in 1913 -1919 by Vulcan AG shipyard in Stettin, Germany for the Hamburg America Line. She was refitted for Canadian Pacific Steamships; and the ship - the third of three CP vessels to be named Empress of China - was renamed yet again in 1922 as Empress of Australia. In 1928 Empress of Australia began to cruise in the off season and to sail on round the world voyages. Extremities lightly rubbed else a fine, internally clean diary.

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