USS General W. C. Langfitt
From Mombasa to Fremantle
The USS General W. C. Langfitt began life as a transport vessel during WW2, named in honour of US Army General, William Campbell Langfitt. She was decommissioned in 1946 and her role transferred to that of Army Transport Service.
In 1949, the General Langfitt left Bremerhaven with the first group of European immigrants, arriving in Buenos Aires on 25 March 1949.
826 Displaced persons arrived in Melbourne on 17 June 1949, via Naples, with subsequent trips arriving in Melbourne on 22 September 1949 and 14 January 1950.
The final group of 1,118 displaced persons arrived in Fremantle on 18 February 1950. These persons were of Polish descent, voyaging from Mobasa, Kenya. They were subsequently referred to as the General Langfitt Group.
The General Langfitt was scrapped in 1983.
The General Langfitt Story
"Thus, in late January 1950, within five months of their first intimation that Australia might offer them refuge, over 1000 Poles who had seen out the war from their remarkable, protected settlements in India and Africa were transported to Mombasa, where they boarded the USAT General W. C. Langfitt which was to take them to their adopted homeland. Conditions aboard the General Langfitt were hot and cramped. It was, according to Jerzy Mazak, 'a troop carrier, 11500 tons, a long, tall, squeaky ship'. The journey took fourteen days, one week of which was through high storms. A few people who worked in the IRO office on board were able to secure cabins for elderly parents, but the vast majority of people slept in the 'big halls' allocated to males and females which contained around 140 bunks, stacked in layers of six. Many of the youngsters were employed in the kitchens and dining rooms, or as cleaners of the toilet blocks, understandably the least popular of tasks, especially when bouts of seasickness swept through the passengers"
You can read more about the journey of the Polish migrants, including their voyage, in the book The General Langfitt Story, by Maryon Allbrook and Helen Cattalini.
