From Russia to Australia by freighter: Finland

The backstory

The application

The interview

The permanent residency visa

The departure

(from my diary)

8 November 1992

Departure. Left after 5 pm. Arrived in Kotka at night.

Shortly after the departure from St. Petersburg the first mate gathered all passengers in the ship’s saloon for an introduction. There were not many of us.

A middle-aged woman whose name was Maria traveled to Australia on a tourist visa. She was going back to Russia in 3 months on a different freighter. A young man called Mikhail was immigrating and sailing one way like us. He got permanent residence in Australia because his sister lived there. All four of us were to disembark in Melbourne.

Besides the genuine passengers, there were two women onboard who technically were passengers too, but their names appeared on the muster rolls as crew. They were wives of crew members. The ship’s safety boats had the maximum capacity of 50 seats which meant that the total number of people on the ship should never exceed 50. The crew size was 44 plus 4 passengers. That left 2 seats unoccupied and in this case crew members were allowed to take their spouses with them. This was the usual practice and the predominantly male crew had a roster of wives who waited to go on the coming trips.

The first mate explained the rules. We were welcome to move freely about the ship and use all her facilities as long as that did not interfere with the crew jobs. We got four meals a day ‒ breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner ‒ and their cost was included in our tickets. No extra food was available for purchase. If anyone got hungry between the meals or missed a scheduled meal time then he or she could only wait until the next meal. There was a small shop onboard that sold everyday goods like toothpaste and combs, but nothing else. We could possibly go shopping when the ship stopped at ports. In order to go on shore, we needed permission from the captain who kept our passports. It was a working Russian ship with the Soviet era regulations.

We were invited to have our first meal. All passengers ate with the officers on the upper deck, but we were seated at a separate table. Everyone had an assigned place; the dishes were served by a mess stewardess. White starched tablecloths were spotless; the settings looked more like in a good restaurant rather than on a cargo ship. I heard later from the crew that years ago they ate off monogrammed dinnerware of the Tsar’s Navy that eventually got stolen and replaced with something less valuable. If an officer walked in during a meal, he greeted the entire company. Leaving the dining area, officers wished bon appétit to those who were still eating. When the captain entered or left the room, everyone in it stood up. Such etiquette was new to me, but I liked it.

The Academic Gorbunov’s first port of call was Kotka, Finland. The ship docked there at night while we slept. It was only several hours after our departure from Russia. We hardly had time to settle down on the ship when we found ourselves in a foreign country, first ever in our lives.

9 November 1992

In Kotka. Could not go on shore. Zhenya reads “Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)” by Jerome K. Jerome’s and laughs. I read Chaplin’s “My Autobiography”.

In the morning my son Zhenya and I went outside on the deck. We were curious to know how Finland looked like, but all we saw around were neat stacks of shipping containers that could be anywhere in the world. The first mate came over and asked us to return to the cabin. A Finnish customs officer with a dog was checking the ship for drugs. They turned into our cabin. The small black dog quickly ran around the room sniffing everything. The stone-faced officer did not look at us; he was doing his job. The dog found no drugs and they left.

Maria wanted to go on shore. Of course, we wanted that too, but how? The captain had our passports. My English was so rudimentary that I needed someone to accompany us, never mind that I passed the English interview at the Australian consulate. That happened purely by chance. Maria said nothing and disappeared. It was her second sea voyage to Australia. She did exactly the same trip one year ago. Being a seasoned traveler, she was comfortable on the ship. I could not make myself to go to the captain and to speak with him. He probably was awfully busy at port. We hung around on the main deck with no particular purpose. From there I noticed Maria with a few crew members leaving the ship and heading away from her. So Maria got her passport and permission to go. I cursed my timidity and wished that Maria had been a little more helpful. ‘I have learned the lesson and will not miss the next opportunity,’ I promised myself. We put on overcoats anyway and walked among the containers until we got bored. Back in the cabin both of us chose a good book; we had plenty of them in our baggage and buried ourselves in reading.

The ship took in more cargo. Maria returned in the afternoon disappointed. Their party went to several shops. Maria found Finland too expensive and did not buy anything. I could hardly sympathize with her since I stayed on board. Shopping in Finland was the last thing on my mind. My desire was to see a bit of the country, to compare it with my native Russia. Maria had seen the outside world before. For her, this trip abroad was a chance to bring back home what was not available in Russia which in 1992 was almost everything. Russian stores at that time were virtually empty.

The entire first full day of our voyage was rather upsetting. The unfriendly Finnish customs officer, then my hesitation that cost us a visit to Kotka. I felt awkward like a fish out of water. The familiar surroundings in which I spent 36 years of my life were left behind, once and forever. I took the plunge and got permanent residence in the remote country of which I knew very little.  There was no remorse or sadness that I parted with family, friends and once treasured belongings. Something deep inside was telling me that it was the right decision to immigrate.  I looked forward to what lay ahead, to our future that was vague and uncertain. My past experience was not going to help us to survive there. I needed to pull myself together and to adjust to the new environment. Thankfully, there was time for that. Our voyage was going to be long. The first day onboard was just the beginning of it.

10 November 1992

Played table tennis. Left Kotka at 8 pm. Ship rolling. Zhenya spent most of the day at the computer.

Cranes loaded more containers on the decks during the day. My son and I decided to have a good look at the ship that was going to be our home for several weeks. The crew went about their jobs and nobody paid attention to us. We started to explore the ship from the bottom. A narrow metal ladder led into the holds.  We descended to the lowest level. The Academic Gorbunov was huge. I did not realize how small the visible part of the ship was compared to what was below the waterline. The vast hold was empty; our steps echoed as we walked through it. We were like pygmies swallowed by a leviathan. It felt eerie; without exchanging a word we turned back to the ladder and climbed to the upper levels where sunshine and people were.

The lower decks were sailors’ quarters. Some doors were open and we could see the inside of their cabins, rather small, with two bunks against the same wall, one above the other. Showers were in a separate room. The sailors’ dining area looked much simpler than the officers’ mess. The crew ate at square tables covered with checkered vinyl while the officers were served on starched linen tablecloths at one long table. We walked past a laundry with commercial washing machines and some technical equipment.

Above the waterline, there were a small gym, a tennis court, a library and, to my son’s delight, a PC in a tiny compartment that probably was used as a storage closet before it was turned into a computer room. The fourth mate was in charge of the PC. He hardly used the computer himself and was only too happy to entrust it to my son. At eleven, Zhenya already knew how to write code and could be at the computer all day long. He helped the fourth mate to do his tasks and of course played games.

Maria brought ping pong rackets and balls and we went to play tennis. She was a better player than me and kept winning easily.

At 8 pm the Academic Gorbunov left Kotka. There was no TV onboard. After dinner, we read in our cabin. The ship moved away from the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the waves started to roll her and we felt queasy.

Germany