A notice to visitors

As a service to all those who relate to the SS Mayaroma - for whatever reason - I’ve kept the Mayaroma board.

Here you’ll find the following:

Hello sailors! https://www.otoom.net/osmf/index.php?topic=3.0
The original post, including a picture of the yacht Mayaroma in Singapore, photos taken at the Singapore refugee camp in 1980, plus some comments.

40th anniversary reunion https://www.otoom.net/osmf/index.php?topic=182.0
Actually, the reunion was held in 2022 (in Melbourne) because Covid restrictions made 2020 impossible. Includes a group photo and a map showing Mayaroma’s complete voyage with the location of the rescue.

The story continues… https://www.otoom.net/osmf/index.php?topic=181.0
The yacht still exists. A brief history of what happened after Gambia, supplied by the current owner, Dan Pitman. Includes a photo of the yacht, now named Bruadar, plus a couple of videos, all by Dan.

There are many more photos. They can be found on the Facebook Mayaroma group https://www.facebook.com/groups/mayaroma.

A record of an interview on Audio CD is kept at the Vaughan Evans Library (library@sea.museum) in the Australian National Maritime Museum, Level 2, Wharf 7 Maritime Heritage Centre, 58 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009, Australia (that’s in Sydney). Visits to the library are by appointment.

Below are three images of the library access - the building from the outside, once inside the stairs to Level 2, and the entrance to the library on Level 2:

The link to the interview at the Vaughan Evans Library:
https://library.anmm.gov.au/Public/ANMM/Portal/default.aspx?component=AAAAIY&record=e4f16b30-85f5-471f-94ea-c5110a089ca4

On that page under Attachments (bottom, right) there is a link to a summary of that interview for download: Wurzinger Oral History 183.pdf

This forum is closed - too much time is spent on constantly keeping ahead of the latest tricks to leave spam and such.

However, contact can be made in several ways:

1. Mayaroma Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mayaroma

2. Otoom blog: https://otoomblog.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/have-anything-to-say-about-ss-mayaroma.html

3. Otoom website contact page: https://www.otoom.net/contact.htm

Admin.

PS:
On its maiden voyage from Keelung to Hong Kong in 1979 the good ship Mayaroma encountered Typhoon Tip. Turns out this was the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Tip)
Talk about a blue-water christening. Fortunately, the ship and crew came through safely and continued on their voyage to Hong Kong.

PPS:
What is striking about that entire history are the series of astounding coincidences which throughout the years culminated in the current situation.

While some were obviously positive, there were also others on the negative side, mishaps even, yet they all came together just so.

From the delays experienced in Manila before the voyage to Singapore and the storms at sea resulting in arriving at exactly the same point in time and space as the refugee boat in the South China Sea, to the circumstances leading to contact once again being established years later, to the fate of the yacht as she changed ownership so many times and through the owners’ actions ensuring her name being put on the records in the United States making the research into her history at all possible - quite apart from my own life as it went this way and that - all this couldn’t have been better (and quite possibly worse) had it all been planned from the very beginning.

And so, without the collaboration of all those people, this post would not have been possible.