LEAVING & RETURNING TO ARUBA WHEN ON VACATION

Foreign staff employees went to Aruba with a two year contract.  After the first year they received two week local leave.  The Company did not pay for them to leave the island.  Most of them remained on the island, however some managed side trips. SEE LAKE TANKER TRIP.
At the end of the contract, two years, the foreign staff employees received three months leave and the Company paid for them and their families to return to their point of origin.  As each contract to work at Lago was for two years their contracts were renewed at this time.  When they returned the Company paid to have their car shipped to Aruba via Esso tanker and in later years on the Grace Line.
In the early years the only way to get to Aruba was on a tanker.  Later plane service was started by KLM between Aruba and the US and still later the Grace Line began to serve Aruba.  In later years the trips to the US on the tankers declined and the employees and their families either flew or took the Grace Line to and from Aruba when they returned to the United States.
This is a view of a tanker in route to the States, note even in a fairly moderate sea the deck is awash, thus the cat walk to go from aft to mid-ship.
Below is a photo of the Esso Bayonne, running empty, as well as a dinner menu from a tanker trip on the Esso Bolivar.
To get an idea of how many families traveled to and from the US on tankers see the INS & OUTS SECTION of the Pan Aruban found on Steve Kiebler's  Scrapbook.

Many foreign staff employees chose to fly to and from Aruba which the Company also paid for in connection with your three month furlough.  The trip on a DC-6 to Miami took about 6 hours with stops in Kingston, Jamaica and Havana, Cuba.

CLICK ON NEXT PHOTO OF KLM PLANE TO GO TO KLM BROCHURE
THE PHOTO ABOVE SHOWS A DC-6 PARKED IN FRONT OF THE "NEW" AIRPORT TERMINAL, THE PHOTO BELOW SHOWS THE "OLD" TERMINAL AS WELL AS A DC-3 WHICH OFFERED DAILY SERVICE BETWEEN ARUBA AND CURACAO
The photo below is from the Aruba Esso News and shows Aruba's first terminal building.

Many families made the trip to or from Aruba on the Grace Line.  This was long before Caribbean cruises became as popular as they are now.
And of course the Grace Line always made sure you had a good time on your trip.  The following invitation was submitted by Dick Faunce, he said he was pretty sure it was from a trip in September of 1954, on the Santa Rosa, to New York. 
The following Passenger List from the Grace Line was submitted by Stan Norcom.
This is the menu for the final farewell dinner on the Grace Line's Santa Sofia.  Submitted by Bill Moyer.
TO SEE OTHER PASSENGER LISTS CLICK HERE

And if you went to Miami you stayed at the Columbus Hotel, complements of Standard Oil.  The photo on the right shows the Columbus before the restaurant, Top O' The Columbus, was added.

Or if you went to New York you stayed at the Hotel Abbey at 51st Street at Seventh Avenue

EARLY DAYS OF TANKER TRAVEL TO ARUBA
This story from Vic Lopez.

Mom said in those early days of tanker travel, she had to sign on as a seaman on the U.S. Mail & Passenger M/V Canadolite, registered out of Montreal, Canada. Somehow, her discharge papers, given to her upon disembarkation, have survived all these years.  M/V Canadolite was an Imperial Oil tanker.  During World War II she was a lynch-pin in the supply of crude oil for Canadian refineries, in particular the ones in Montreal.  In 1941 the ship was captured by the Germans.

You’ll hopefully enlarge the image on screen and see the comments at the bottom, particularly the one that says “see Jimmy.”  Can anybody top that tale (a more elaborate version hopefully will appear in Don Gray’s next U-156 newsletter)?

TED GIBBONS REMEMBERS HIS VACATION
RETURN TO LAGO COLONY DIRECTORY

RETURN TO THE SCRAPBOOK PAGE