####maria many seamen jumped ship and started lives in oz or kiwi ....in the 40s and 50s it was very common ..a few on this site jumped ship or to use our term for it we skinned out .....i myself did this in 58 as a young man due to falling for a fine young oz girl......sadly her father did not want her with a merchant seaman and sent her overnite to queensland that was many thousand miles from wallaroo where i had jumped from .....i was caught on my way to adelaide after being on the run as an illegal emigrant and put before the locall magistrate ..who informed me he had jumped a sailing vessel in 1926 and had done ok in oz as he was now a magistrate ......he told me oz needed strong young men sadly i was sentenced to 28 days hard labour but with the proviso that if i kept my nose clean i could get a ozzie passport and become oz .....i i worked here and there for a while up the river murray and learned what oz was really about ....but the sea kept calling and i went back to wallaroo and hoped to see my love that was not to be but i did get a ship back to strangely enough to my own hometown south shields on an old banger but suited me.....whoops i get carried away ...but my message is there are many who jumped in oz and started a new life in the warm southern climes.....perhaps that could be your answer ..or sadly in the deaths of someone of that age group ....life is very strange .....i have been married to a lovely person for 58 years this year we have lived and truly prospered our family is a gracious thing to us ......i hope your quest goes well it is a star to follow .....just never give up ......best wishes in your quest cappy