CAPE TOWN
(February 1948 - August 1949)
The “Oranjefontein” arrived in Table Bay very early in
the morning of the 17th February, 1948 and anchored off
The main mountain, with a flat tableau hence the name
Table, is 1500 meters high and flanked by two lower hills:
The town stretches from the mountain to the port
although in those days there was an open foreshore area of about 2 km.. This has now been built up, of course. We came alongside
close to the main entrance/exit of the port. A small army of important looking
officials of the Immigration and Customs department boarded but only after the
ship was cleared by a man of the Port Health department,
popularly know as “rat catcher” who had to give health clearance. His job was
to collect some papers signed by the Captain and Doctor to say there was no
black fever, cholera or other diseases on board. How would they know?
There was no welcoming committee from the Holland
Africa Line but a boarding clerk said “hallo” and told us that the boss, Mr.
Henstra, was expecting us at
I was 19, my temporary colleague Aad de Goederen a few
years older and we had no local friends or relations whatsoever. Our first
priority was of course accommodation. Henstra and Co had done nothing.
Then after watching procedures on board and on the
quay I bumped into a Dutch gentleman , named de Jong,
meeting family. After telling him our predicament, de Jong said he knew a Mrs.
Plantinga who was looking for boarders as she had recently lost her husband.
That is, to earn some money, not playmates.
And so Aad and I got a large room in a nice old
Mrs. Plantinga was actually German. She had two
adopted sons of 5 and 6. Elmer and Wilmur. An old African woman, Emma, did the
cooking and general cleaning. Board and lodging was £ 10 per month, one third
of our stipend. (You could not really call it a salary) We shared a large room
with our own bath/toilet. Excellent !
I
remember when Karel de Vries came out with wife and very young children. As
many readers of T.N.T will know, he later on went to
The Holland Africa Line Agency,
In between, smaller R.I.L./KPM passengers
ships and freighters with accommodation for 12 passengers also called and there
were Dutch Government Emigrant ships which brought 800 settlers each call
returning with about 400 passengers. They were converted (fast) Victory ships:
Waterman, Grote Beer and Zuiderkruis.
RIL ships also carried Japanese emigrants going to
South Africans were all keen to go to Europe or cruise
to
Just for the records:
Staff in
Manager: S. H. Henstra and after a year, Dr. Ru van Marle
Asst. Manager: V. Meyer
Pass. Manager: J. de Nes (ex
purser Klipfontein during war)
Passage assistants: Ietske Aikema & Yvonne Enslin
Bookkeeper: Bram van Strijp
Claims dept.: Buning
NLL: P. Meeth, delegated from S.M.N. Later became director H.W.A.L.
R.I.L: Salemink, ex K.N.L.M (Koninklijke Nederlandse
Luchtmacht) in Indonesia.
Most
of these people were permanent local staff but others were expatriate staff
which could be transferred anywhere in
Expatriate
staff were worked harder than the locals. The imported
Dutch did not get paid any overtime. We were so busy that there was no chance
to get local leave either.
As
I explained earlier I was not particularly impressed by the boss Siebe Henstra.
He took no notice of me and seemed to be unconcerned about the long hours I was
making. It was therefore a great relief when Dr. Ru
van Marle took over. I remember clearly that shortly
thereafter, he walked into the office at 8 o’clock in the evening probably
because he had forgotten his pipe.. Anyhow when he saw
me sitting there typing letters, he came up to me, found out what I was doing
and gave me some tips how to do the work quicker and more efficiently. He was
interested in his staff and that remained so for the rest of his career including
the time he was Managing Director in
During the odd free Sunday, Aad and I walked from our
house to the top of
As a priority for me after arrival, were
some special request from my parents. First of all, my sister Sylvia,
then 13 years old, urgently needed a new bathing costume. Swimming was her main
hobby! So I went across from the office to Garlick’s,
a well-known warehouse and bought her an American swimsuit make:
One forgets that just after the war many things were
scarce. My youngest brother Tonny , then 6, had only one dream: a toy fire engine with bells
and ladders. So that was No 2 on my list
and the two items were duly dispatched on one of our ships to the good
people of the mailing room who arranged to telephone my parents so that Pa
Jansen could collect them at “het Afrika Huis“, Spui, Amsterdam. My mother
told me afterwards that Tonny went to sleep with the
engine so tight in his arms that the ladders were imprinted in his cheeks the
next morning.
Apart
from walks up
Henstra
arranged for me (told me ) to take part in a play or sketch as they say in
Holland at an evening organised by the Netherlands Club which was a very
popular watering place. (Too expensive for me). The
daughter of the Dutch Consul General: Marijke Levelt was my partner and we did some Dutch Boerendans. . Nice girl and fun for me to partake in the
concert/show. However I did not have the time or money to take her out and the
daughter of the Dutch Consul-General was a bit above the standing of a mere
passage clerk.
I
then met another Dutch girl, Maud Visser, whose
father was the boss of the Hollandse Aannemings Mij who were building
the
During
the second month in the
He
stormed down the fairly steep Higgo road towards
town. I expected him back in ten minutes or so but after an hour, still no sign
of him. Then a bit later: there he was, pushing the bike and his smart trousers
torn at the bottom. Apparently he had to stop at a traffic light when the
engine stopped. He tried to kick-start it into life but it did not want to
cooperate. In the process his foot slipped a couple of time from the starting
lever and caught the bottom of his pants! He never borrowed the bike again!
Anyhow,
it did not last long and shortly after Aad’s mishap with
it, the clutch gave in and I did not have the money for repairs. Also because I
had to pay Aad’s loan back because he was leaving for
So,
Aad left. We were good mates but not real intimate friends because of the
difference in our age and background. During the ensuing years we did meet at
company meetings when we used to enjoy talking and laugh about our pleasant
time in the
When
Mr Plantinga moved house in October 1948 I came along at first. But after she
got a boyfriend, there was no room for me in her new house in Rondebosch so I looked for another room
Very
soon thereafter I got a large room with private facilities with an elderly
lady, Mrs Villet, (80 or so) in Wijnberg
about 20 km from the City. Good commuter train ‘tho. Her late husband had been
a dominee in the Dutch Reformed Church and she
proudly showed me her Staten Bijbel which was in High
Dutch, not Afrikaans! She was a wonderful old lady and we got on very well. She
had never had a son and I was the missing link albeit for a short while only.
When
Jan van Riebeeck established a Dutch outpost in
I
bought my self a bicycle to go to the Wijnberg
station. A dream from my young years was realised:
Mrs
Villet had an old motorcar,
P.S.
Apartheid Some
people asked me how it was to live in an “apartheid” country after the
“freedom” of
Well,
the fact of the matter is that when I landed in the Cape in February 1948,
there was hardly any separation of the races in
Soon
after I arrived there were general elections. 1948. I remember it well. I saw
Jan Smuts at a political meeting in Muizenburg, a
So,
for this young Dutchman Cape Town was not so different. In fact I shall always
remember and have good memories of this beautiful city no doubt visited by many
of the ex seafarers reading this.
Anton Jansen
Wyoming, July, 2009.