MY FIRST SHIP

In 1951 I finished my 2 years nautical college Abel Tasman in Delfzijl and as I failed trigonometry as applied in celestial navigation by one tenth of a point in my final exam I could not go to sea as a "midshipman ". So I decided to go to sea as an ordinary sailor for one year practical experience.

I became part of a crew of 12 on a coaster named "Arnoudspolder" sailing from Rotterdam to Lisbon, Porto, Antwerp back to Rotterdam, the roundtrip took about 3 weeks, so after 1 year I must have done about 17 roundtrips and consequently 34 times through the gulf of

Biscay. If that does not give you good sea legs nothing else will.

The ship was about 300 brt., had the bridge midships and the captains

quarters and the stern had the crew quarters, pantry, mess room and

engine room. It was a very happy ship, it was hard work but good fun as well.

There were 4 sailors on board including myself, it was the custom that every newcomer had to get his baptism on his first arrival in Lisbon. I did not know that offcourse, so after knockoff time and a cleanup my colleagues and I went ashore and went to different night clubs and they made sure that I had plenty of refreshments,

beer, port, spirits etc. resulting that I was unable to find my own way back on board. They were good enough to look after me and got me back on board in one piece, but it took me till 3pm before I got on top of my hangover. It goes without saying that my working day started as usual but without breakfast and a splitting headache...........

One day we arrived in Antwerp and had to go through the locks before entering the port and the ship was moored inside the lock The deck crew were waiting on deck for another ship to come in , we were all in our early twenties and as usual interested in the opposite sex, there we saw 2 girls on pushbikes coming along and they took our attention, and a few whistles were heard while they parked their bikes against a post and walked towards a shop, then one of my colleagues suddenly jumped up the Warf ran to the bikes and started sniffing the saddles of the bikes ................. it takes all kinds.

On one of our journeys I accidentally broke a Coca Cola glass the property of my mate, he told me that it had to be replaced. He also told me how to go about it. When in Antwerp we all go to a certain shop where we have a drink of Coke that is served in a Coca Cola glass. When we leave the shop I had to put a glass in my pocket, this was not easy because my jeans were very tight and small pockets. I promised that I would do that, so next time in Antwerp I was in for my criminal act.

After knockoff time the 4 of us were on our way to this harbour side café and enjoyed our Coke.

The lads were well known by the lady proprietor and they knew she was a jolly type of person.

So I wanted to stay in the good books with my mates and pinched a Coke glass, put it in my pocket held my hand over the bulge and got out fast..

I was waiting outside for them, when I saw them talking to this lady and suddenly she came storming out, telling me to give the glass back, and offcourse they had the last laugh............

On another occasion the ship was leaving Antwerp and came off the wharf at slow speed and was turning into the right direction towards the locks. My mate and myself were on the foredeck ready to moor the ship in the lock when suddenly we saw the ship heading towards a 20.000 tonne ship moored at a Warf . The distance became smaller and closer and we moved back to a safer distance and observed to what was inevitable. We heard the engine going full astern but still the Arnoudspolder collided at an angle of about 30 degrees with the moored ship and bounced off, our bow was pushed in above the waterline, the 20.000 tonner had a scratch and a slight dent.

Now what had happened ?

On the stern deck of the Arnoudspolder was a steel encasing that contained the steering engine, but this structure was not waterproof. Over time salt water had come in and salt had contaminated the piston rods, this in turn wore away the rubber seals resulting loss of steering. After the engineers had repaired the steering engine, the shipping inspection gave us permission to continue to Rotterdam and have repairs carried out to the bow and a proper waterproof structure was build around the steering engine. We welcomed the opportunity to be in our home port for longer then normal.

Just imaging if this had happened in a bad storm at sea. One can be lucky sometimes.

Talking about storms. I have seen the Gulf of Biscay as flat as a mirror and in roaring storms conditions.

On many occasions we left Rotterdam in bad weather and the Captain decided to shelter in the lee of the Isle of Wight on the roads of Cowes to let a south-westerly storm blow over and then continue into the Gulf.

Once we left Porto and a storm was brewing up, again from the SW. The captain decided on a westerly course to give us plenty of room and distance between us and the lee shore of Portugal. Later the course was made more in a northerly direction, the seas were tremendous, extremely high coming in from the port quarter.

I was at the wheel and the Captain and mate were also in the wheelhouse, when suddenly we heard an enormous bang and the ship shuddered. The Captain ordered the other sailor to go astern and see if everything was ok. He came back and reported that the galley door had stoved in and the cook was knee deep in water swearing his head off.

You have to know that our cook was a very, very good cook, enormously proud of his capabilities and kept his domain in pristine clean condition, to have a sea infiltrate in his pantry and blow out his oil fuelled stove and make a mess like that was unforgivable. Anyhow we all survived this but witnessed via radio communication that a Liberty ship had transmitted an S.O.S. was listing badly and asked for a tug, their position was about 400 miles West of Lands End. The crew and a few passengers were taken of the Flying Enterprise by another rescue ship.

A tug managed to make fast and made way towards England but they did not make it. Recently I had the luck to get hold of the book titled ‘Turmoil “.

This was the name of the tug involved in the attempt to rescue the Flying Enterprise

This book describes in pretty good detail the circumstances and conditions of the ocean in 65 knot force winds , unfortunately the tow parted after 4 days on Jan. 9^th 1952 and Flying Enterprise sank on Jan.10^th 43 miles S.E. Falmouth .

Captain Carlsen and 1^st mate of Turmoil who had jumped onboard Flying Enterprise were saved to tell their tale.

This whole drama started on Dec.26^th 1951 and ended 15 days later.

Now , about our cook, he was quit a character. He had been a cook in a very good hotel and knew his trade inside out.

If we had finished our meal and gave him a compliment that it was beautiful he smiled from ear to ear .

There was a hatch between the pantry and the mess room where the meals were passed through and my mate was sitting right next to that. We had finished our desert, a chocolate custard and everybody was screaming for more, it was so nice.!!!

Sure enough there came some more through the hatch and we all started to pull on the plate to get a bit, so what did my mate do to keep it all for himself.........

he started spitting on it so we lost interest very quickly. Yes it was sometimes a bit rough and tumble, but we had fun.

In retrospect I can honestly say this was the happiest ship I ever sailed on, but to all good things comes an end, so after 12 months I signed off and went back to studies to get my 3rd mates ticket.

Robert Rutten