Traveling in 1961 from Hawaii to Kenya and then back to Seattle was relatively easy!

[bsteadman]

It was relatively easy traveling in 1961 via ocean liner from Honolulu, Hawaii to Kenya and then back to the USA, first via airline to Vancouver, Canada and then via ground transportation to Seattle, Washington!

{A} - Speculation concerning Ann Dunham’s possible sea voyage from Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, to Mombasa, Kenya in the Spring of 1961.

Honolulu to Mombasa, Kenya

It seems probable that Ann, 18 years old and about 4 or 5 months pregnant, traveled via one of the passenger ship itineraries indicated on the timetable linked below. I believe it is likely that she traveled alone.

Worldwide 1962 Ocean Liner Sailing Schedules -- British India Line

http://www.lastoceanliners.com/cgi/l...ne=BIL&route=0

For example, assuming the sailing schedule was similar in 1961, she could have taken the voyage: -- Line 42, Around the World, Westbound via the Orient & South Africa,1962. On the leg from Hawaii to Kenya, it utilized the American President Lines, Messageries Maritimes, and the British India Line.

Alternatively, she could possibly have taken either of the following two voyages:

• Line 62, Leave Honolulu: April 1st, Arrive Mombasa: May 25th
• Line 101, Leave Honolulu: June 7th, Arrive Mombasa: July 25th (not likely, IMO)

Travel Details, Line 42, as One Possible Itinerary:

Depart from Honolulu, USA, March 7, with stops at Yokohama, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Colombo, Bombay, Seychelles, and arrive at Mombasa, Kenya, April 25.

Thus, the minimum total trip time from Honolulu to Mombasa was slightly over 7 weeks. However, I presume passengers could arrange to make extended tourist stops at cities along the route, board the next ship traveling the same route and belonging to the same shipping line which stopped at that city, and then continue the journey. It probably would have been especially easy to arrange extended stopovers along the way in either Yokohama or Bombay, since these stops involved changes in shipping lines. We don't know how long it actually took Ann to travel via ocean liner from Hawaii to Kenya.

American President’s Line:

http://www.lastoceanliners.com/cgi/lolline.pl?APL

Video: S.S. Lurline - Matson Liner sailing from Honolulu - from whiteships.com

Uploaded 3/26/2009 by ‘TheWhiteShips’

"A home movie of the SS Lurline on Boat Day in Honolulu. Taken in the early 1960s, this scene was a regular occurrence in Honolulu during the golden era of steamship travel (1927-1978). Each week, Matson's grand white passenger ships arrived from California or the South Seas, and later continued on their voyage across the Pacific...."

http://youtu.be/qsUOQWGgVWc

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{B} - Speculation regarding the possible airline flight by Ann Dunham with her new baby boy, BHO-II, in mid to late August 1961 from Embakasi Airport, Nairobi, Kenya to Vancouver, Canada, via London Airport (North Side). This was likely followed by a short trip to Seattle, Washington via ground transportation.

There are credible but unconfirmed reports that a Christian Missionary may have accompanied Ann and BHO-II on the airline flight from Nairobi to Vancouver.

Image of the BOAC World air routes, published April 24, 1960:

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...60/ba60-13.jpg

(1)- Nairobi, Kenya to London

Based on the April 24, 1960 BOAC schedule (Section: Britain – East & Central Africa) linked below, it is possible, for example, that Ann and BHO-II, after his birth at the Coast Province General Hospital in Mombasa, could have taken BOAC Flight BA116 (Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) on a 'de Havilland Comet 4 Jet Aircraft', which departed Nairobi at 3:35 (GMT+3), made stops only in Khartoum and Rome, and arrived in London at 14.15 (GMT+1). The total flight time for this option was just slightly under 13 hours. A breakfast and a main meal were served on the flight. Comet 4 Flight BA122 (Wednesday), another possibility, had the same flight time of slightly under 13 hours.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...60/ba60-12.jpg

Video: An East African Comet 4 Aircraft Lands at Embakasi Airport in 1963:

Uploaded 3/24/2009 by 'rafflesnh'

http://youtu.be/zlB-OPwsmzc

Video: BOAC Cabin Crew VC10 Advertisement 1960s/70s

Uploaded 3/12/2010 by 'koksy'

The ad shown in the video linked below was probably produced in about 1964 when the new BOAC VC10 aircraft was first introduced into the fleet serving Kenya and other locations in Africa. Ann and BHO-II would not have traveled in this aircraft but I think the film does give a good picture of the high level of customer service provided by the BOAC flight crews in the 1960’s. Note the stewardess handling the baby bottle at about the 0.10 mark and then interacting with the new mother and her child at about the 0.32 mark.

http://youtu.be/Wqm0_pNXsMs

The page linked below shows historical images of the Nairobi Embakasi Airport:

http://www.mccrow.org.uk/EastAfrica/...20Airports.htm

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(2) - London to Vancouver, Canada

Based on the April 24, 1960 BOAC schedule (Section: Europe - Britain - Ireland - Canada - USA) linked below, it is possible, for example, that Ann and BHO-II took Trans Canada Flight TC541 (Wednesday) in August 1961 on a Lockheed ‘Super Constellation’ which departed London (North Side) at 17.00 (GMT +1), made stops in Glasgow, Scotland, Winnipeg, Canada, and arrived in Vancouver at 7.40 (GMT -7) on Thursday morning. Thus, the total flight time for the trip was just slightly under 23 hours.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...60/ba60-02.jpg

Video: Lockheed L-1049 Breitling Super Constellation Sion Airshow HD:

Uploaded 9/24/2011 by 'valoutnet'

http://youtu.be/vqd7AYJAIEE

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(3) - Vancouver to Seattle

(3) - Ann and BHO-II then traveled the approximate 141 miles via ground transportation from Vancouver to Seattle, Washington, where Ann started night school extension courses at the University of Washington for the Fall 1961 Semester. -- (http://www.wnd.com/2009/09/107889/)

Updated: 9/2/2012

[bsteadman]

Newborn Babies ARE allowed to fly on major airlines, when accompanied by a responsible adult!

According to the information given at the following ‘British Airways’ link, under the caption, “Making a booking for your infant or child” – it simply states:

“Infants: 0 – 23 months ...You must always have a ticket for your infant’s journey.”

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...n/public/en_us

British Airways (BA) was created in 1974, when the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways Corporation (BEA) were combined.

I have not been able to locate any information specific to BOAC or any other airline regarding travel restrictions on newborn babies in the 1960s. I assume there were NO RESTRICTIONS on BOAC then, just as there are none today on BA. This makes sense and I can’t think of any reason why newborn children should not be allowed to fly, when accompanied by a responsible adult.

There are now, of course, as I am sure there also were back in the 1960s, restrictions on women flying during the advanced stages of PREGNANCY for obvious reasons.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...n/public/en_gb

Pregnancy - Current British Airways Restrictions

"For uncomplicated single pregnancies, we restrict travel beyond the end of the 36th week, and for twins, triplets etc., beyond the end of the 32nd week. After your pregnancy has entered its 28th week, we ask that you carry with you a letter from your doctor or midwife, stating the pregnancy is uncomplicated and confirming the expected date of delivery. In this letter, your doctor should state that you are in good health, that they are happy for you to fly, and that (in their opinion) there is no reason why you cannot fly."

[bsteadman1]

It only took about 36 hours for Frank Sinatra to fly from Kenya to Hollywood, California in 1952 while in the process of filming the movie 'Mogambo'

Note that the referenced year is 1952, nine years prior to the birth of Obama on August 4, 1961 in Mombasa, Kenya.

Click on the following link to view a screen shot image:

http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/...atoUSA1952.png

‘Donald’s Encyclopedia of Popular Music’

'All or Nothing at All– A Life of Frank Sinatra
Chapter 5, Maggio, Oscar and Nelson’

http://www.donaldclarkemusicbox.com/...detail.php?c=6

Excerpt:

Sinatra’s last recording date at Columbia Records (no connection with Columbia Pictures) was in September 1952; he was over $100,000 in debt for taxes, and somebody joked that the government would either put him in jail or recognize him as a foreign power. Columbia Records may have lent him the money to pay his taxes, because when he left there he was over $100,000 in debt to them. At the beginning of November, his career at rock bottom, he flew with Ava to Kenya, where shooting for Mogambo was to begin. They celebrated their first wedding anniversary on the Stratocruiser; he gave her a flashy diamond ring, and sent her the bill. (Later she cracked, ‘It was quite an occasion for me. I had been married twice but never for a whole year.’)

The film set, in the Kenyan bush, was hot and dusty, and Ava did not get along at first with director John Ford. When the British governor of Kenya and his wife visited the set, Ford asked Ava what she saw in her ‘one-hundred-and-twenty-pound runt’ of a husband, and she replied, ‘Well, there’s only ten pounds of Frank but there’s one hundred and ten pounds of cock.’ Ford was aghast, but the governor and his wife roared with laughter, and that was the beginning of Ford’s respect for Ava, reinforced by her professionalism as an actress. But she did not feel well (it turned out she was pregnant), and Sinatra was bored and restless.

Sinatra went back to New York for a club date. His reviews were good, but a reporter who talked to him found him ‘a restless unhappy man in his middle thirties who wants very much to re-establish himself and who wants to be an actor, not just a singer playing himself.’ Back in Africa he finally received a telegram offering him a screen test for the part of Maggio. He jumped on the first plane to Hollywood (Ava paid for all the plane rides, too) and Adler was astonished to see him 36 hours after sending the telegram. When the test was arranged, Adler handed him a script, but he had read the part so many times he didn’t need it. It was the last test of the day and Adler wasn’t going to bother to attend, but then he got a call from the director, Fred Zinneman: ‘You’d better come down here. You’ll see something unbelievable.’ Zinneman had already filmed the test, and made Sinatra do another take without any film in the camera; this time even Adler was impressed. But Cohn was out of town, and anyway they were also testing Eli Wallach, a first-rate Broadway actor who had never made a film. Sinatra flew to Africa yet again, knowing the he’d done a good test but worried that he’d lose the part to Wallach, and Ava and Clark Gable did their best to cheer him up.

(bold, color and underline emphasis added in the above three paragraphs)

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The video linked below presents a good view of British aviation capabilities in 1952, at the time Sinatra was traveling back and forth to Kenya.

Included are some great shots of the 'Stratocruiser' mentioned in the above discussed article.

The footage in the video was filmed about 9 years prior to what I believe was Ann Dunham’s flight from Nairobi, Kenya via London to Vancouver, Canada in mid to late August 1961, after giving birth to BHO-II at the CPGH in Mombasa.

Video: Stratocruiser & Douglas DC-4-”Into The Blue”-1952

Uploaded on Feb 22, 2009 by mcdonnell220

View the video at:

http://youtu.be/dTf_RKGlqhk

[bsteadman1]

Photos: Mostly from the Fifties and Early Sixties Taken in Kenya

City of Nairobi, Kenya:

http://www.mccrow.org.uk/eastafrica/Kenya/Kenya.htm

Embakasi Airport, Nairobi, Kenya

http://www.mccrow.org.uk/eastafrica/...20Airports.htm

Harbor, Mombasa, Kenya:

http://www.mccrow.org.uk/eastafrica/...%20Mombasa.htm