In September 1952 I went back to Scheveningen Nautical College for a refresher
course and got my Third Mates ticket in April 1953. I remember I was having exams
when flooding took place in Zeeland with the loss of more than 1,000 lives.
Unfortunately 8 years had passed after ww2 and the vacancies created in that
time had by now been filled, so it was pretty difficult to find a job.
Eventually I got myself a place on a 550 tonne ship named Markelo that
transported timber from Scandinavia to London. We left Amsterdam in August 1953
and went through the Kieler Canal, which was
interesting and went on to several Swedish ports to load timber. As the third
Mate I had to go into the holds and push the short timbers between the hull and
dunnage. I was not impressed that's not a job for the
Third Mate but beggars can't be choosers. All in all this was definitely not a
happy ship and after 3 trips we came back to Amsterdam and I did not waste time
to resign on the 23rd of November 1953.
I was lucky the Halcyon Line needed a Third Mate on the ship "Stad Alkmaar". I had never been in a big ship like
that before My cabin under the bridge was very roomy
having a view towards the bow. We departed Amsterdam on 18th December 1953
empty to Narvick to load Iron Ore for England. Narvick is close to the polar circle and therefore not
pretty cold but very, very cold. No matter how much clothing I put on after 4
hours on the bridge 8-12 am and also pm I was frozen to the bone. During watch
there was little to do except to look out for other shipping and it was
expected to be out on the wing and not in the wheelhouse. The sailing through
the fjords was sensational, the rock walls rising steep out of the water
covered in ice and snow. The sun rose at 11 am and set at 2 pm; the loading of
ore only took a couple of days and we were on our way with 10,000 tons of
cargo. Then the fun started, coming out to sea a NW storm was brewing and increased
day after day. The ship was very stiff understandably with all that weight in
the bottom. The seas became towering high and I admired the captain, an old sea
dog who never left the bridge or chart room for days. He managed to manoeuvre
the ship stern to sea and engines slow astern and hold position till things
abated before making headway to our destination. As it turned out I was only
replacing the Third Mate who wanted to be home for Christmas and back in
Rotterdam I was out of a job again.
In January 1954 the KPM advertised for ship's mates to sign up for Indonesia. I
was engaged to a nice girl born in Indonesia and I always had an interest in
that country havingl learned a lot about it's
geography in primary and high school. I had to comfort her that we would get
married after I came back after 3 years. For her it must have been difficult
but I was over the moon that I had a job and was going to Asia. My experience
about the weather in Europe was enough to make a change; it would only be for
the better.
On Easter Saturday '54 I flew out of Amsterdam with two other "fresh " colleagues on a Super Constellation and arrived
in Singapore on Easter Monday. The trip was very luxurious compared to today
where we are packed up like sardines in a 747 Boeing. We were placed in
"Connell House" where we arrived on the 25th April 1954. Here we all
three went our way and never saw each other again. On the 26th April I was
placed on Reyniersz as a Fourth Mate and from here I
really started to learn about practical navigation etc. After all I never had
much chance to get experience. In the time that I served with the KPM nearly 4
years I had been transferred to 23 different ships, this seems unusually high
but let me explain why this happened to everybody. First of all when ships goes
in dock (once a year) only one deck officer stays with the ship all the others
can be better utilized. Secondly there was always a shortage, for instance a
ship is due to leave from Priok but is one deck officer short, another ship arrives
and stays overnight, so whatever rank is required gets a transfer to where the
shortage is. Thirdly we never entered Indonesia on a permanent basis, we always had to be part of a crew of a ship in port
or in dock, even if it was for one day.
The Siberoet was a ship chartered by R.I.L. and I was
lucky to be the Third Mate there from 30/07/54 - 24/11/1954; our journey
started in Singapore to Hong Kong and both cities were far more attractive than
any city in Indonesia. One could shop and visit interesting spots. From Hong
Kong we went further north to Japan and called into Kobe, Nagoya, Osaka and
Yokohama. In Yokohama was a typhoon warning while we were at anchor in the bay,
the barometer hit rock bottom, but we escaped the brunt, the centre passed more
inland. From Japan we returned to Singapore via Hong Kong, and then onto East
Africa. Ports of call were Mombassa, Dar es Salam. I loved to be at sea for more than two weeks no
land in sight, take sun sights and the midday shot for latitude calculations what
a difference in the weather compared with Europe, it was a holiday. We
celebrated the Captain's birthday during this journey; it was a happy ship.
When we arrived back in Singapore the ship had to go in dock so I was
transferred to M/v Baud a new ship- with good accommodation on the sloop deck.
I remember New Year's Eve was celebrated in Madagaskar
at the KPM agent's house and family, he had a couple of good looking daughters,
and all officers were invited. We had an amicable evening with a few drinks and
the" auld lang syne " was sung at
midnight, it was a pleasant break from long days and hard work. Now I would
like to explain to the non-initiated how the KPM organization worked in the mid
fifties when I was there and the way I experienced it. The company had over the
whole archipelago shipping routes and schedules in place to supply their needs
and to take on board their products for export via the ports of Tg.Priok or
Surabaya. A chart of all of the islands of Indonesia shows how big this company
was.
Between 100 and 150 ships between 300 and 4000 tons had to do the job. KPM had
its own dry docks, accommodation for office personal and families of the ship
officers, a hospital, holiday resorts, technical expertise, instrument repairs,
etc.
The shipping routes were designed in such a way that the ships sailed from
sunset to sunrise from A to B and loaded and unloaded from sunrise to sunset.
Most of the Ports of call had neither harbor nor wharf, so we worked from the
roads. Our life boats were bare from interior and were
used to get for instance the bags of copra from the beach to the ship were
towed to the ship by means of a motor sloop. We had our own batjo's
(Makasaren labourers) to stow the cargo. Another form
of cargo was live cattle. The ship looked more like a floating farm. Of course
we had a ships cat on board and fowls (ajam) for meat
for the Indonesian crew.
One journey we went to Den Pasar with the ship called
Waiwerang, the ship was especially constructed for
cattle. It had on both side a gangway so the cattle could walk on and of the
ship with a bit encouragement of the cattle handlers and were stowed in pans on
the tween decks and main deck.
The batjo's did a great job cleaning the decks from
there dropping and urine with the aid of the fire fighting equipment and
feeding the cattle with hay. The cattle were exported to Manila so that was
about a week at sea before we arrived there. Thank heavens our cabins were high
up, under the bridge, because the lower you came the more stench
you had to put up with.
Coming back from Manila we loaded up with copra along the coast of Celebes as
described before and offloaded this at Surabaya. When ever we had Brahma cattle
on board it was always a spectacle when they were offloaded, once you got the
first one going the rest were in a hurry to get off the ship too as they were
very wild beasts they stampeded over the wharf and the wharf labourers got out
of their way in a hurry to save their lives and climbed in desperation on the
down pipes of the warehouses or ran into them.
After twelve months of glob trotting I was getting pretty sick of always work
and I missed my sweetheart terrible. Her name is Sophie and as she was born in
Java and loved the tropics and hated the Dutch weather and lifestyle.
I only had to say once
"Lets get married by proxy and come over"
and she set the formalities in motion.
In December 1955 Sophie arrived by Willem Ruys at KPM expense and we had to
stay an extra year. We got our accommodation in the "Logeergebouw"
in Djakarta and married in the catholic Cathedral of Djakarta. We were lucky
enough that the company granted me 14 days honeymoon in Tjipanjoeng
the holiday resort of the KPM. We celebrated Christmas and New Years Eve there
together with colleagues whose wives were also on the Ruys.
So in January 1956 I was placed as third mate on the Patras,
which was a cleaner ship. End of March I got the appointment of 2nd mate on the
Kampar, the acting captain was an experienced 2nd mate in rank, but doing the
captains job. We were the only two Europeans on board and we had the assistance
of a local as a third mate. I was acting first mate and went on the line from
Priok to Pontianak. Every fifteen days or so we were in
homeport. The job became far more interesting for me, I was in charge of
loading and unloading the ship, granted it was a small ship, but we had a very
good local crew, cargo clerk, and good food. I remember one trip I was placed
on the "General van Geen" a pre WW 2 ship,
(steamship) and a very old ship. I was 2nd mate and had the dogwatch from
midnight to 4am from Priok to Oosthaven, situated on
the south coast of Sumatra. I had to navigate through Strait Sunda, maximum speed 10 knots, taking bearings every 15min,
plenty of lighthouses etc. suddenly the man on the wheel tells me, "Tuan
no more rudder" he had the wheel hard over to port and the ship turned
starboard. Telegraph to stop and called the captain out of his bunk.
First question, "Where are we" so I told him that we had just passed
a narrow strip with coral reefs on both side. Engineers were called out to fix
the problem. The rubber washers in one of the pistons of the steam rudder
engine were worn. After one or two hours drifting we could continue without
further trouble. Sailed past Krakatoa
a very impressive volcano.
Around this time my wife had been in Djakarta just over a year and once had the
pleasure to have her as a passenger on board the Patras,
so she could see first hand what my life was like on board ship.
Mid January 1957 I was placed on a ship in dock at Priok because our first-born
was about to arrive. Of course in the KPM hospital our son was born 1 February
1957 and we were very happy with a healthy baby. We remember with pleasure the
enormous basket of flowers the company sent us to celebrate the arrival, KPM
was very good in this kind of thing, we had the same experience on our wedding
day in Djakarta, the co- operation we received to make things easy was very
much appreciated.
In early 1957 times were becoming very hostile against the Dutch, President
Sukarno was stirring up an anti Dutch sentiment because he wanted Papua New
Guinea included into Indonesia and the Dutch government was not willing to do
so.
Gravity was invented there and then " Sikat Blanda "appeared on Dutch offices and it was obvious
to me that one day all Dutch enterprises would be thrown out, and I asked
myself, what then?
I did not fancy sailing ships in Asia and my wife living in Holland, what she
disliked very much, and me coming home once in x number of years. So we investigated
the possibilities of migrating to Australia once I had served my time. A big
factor was of course as I called it ‘I loved my wife more then the sea”. The
information we received appeared favourable, so we decided to go ahead with
this plan. When the time came near to advise the KPM
of our decision that would be done, but we had still had about 6 months to go.
So the 13 February as I was back on deck and after several ships I was placed
on the Lembeh, a coaster, I was doing the first
mate's job and the captain was also living in the "Logeergebouw",
the run was again to Pontianak up and down, so regularly home.
On this ship I remember three unusual incidents I would like to mention.
One Day we left Tg. Priok and after 1 hour out of port the chief engineer came
up to report an engine failure in the thrust block and we had to stop,
this block was running hot, so we had to drop anchor and wait to the following
morning to be towed back to Priok. There it was discovered that sugar had been
put in the lubrication oil of the block, which is of course not very healthy.
After repairs we departed again 1 or 2 days late.
Another hick up was when we had a diversion and first had to call in at
Semarang and then continue to Pontianak. When we crossed over from
Semarang to Pontianak I had the 12.00 to 16.00 watch and the captain had
his siesta.
I discovered on the horizon a strange movement that I could not work out what it could be.
Getting closer it looked to be a white cloth or flag moving to and fro. I changed
course about 30 degrees to starboard and went straight for it. After 5 minutes
I was certain that some people were in distress, so I woke the captain and
informed him of the situation. We came closer and observed 2 natives on some
flotsam waving frantically their cloth in desperation,
we stopped, took them onboard and left them in Pontianak. Apparently they
had lost their prauw in bad weather according to
their story and that was that.
The last of these incidents was when we were on our way from Pontianak back to
Tg.Priok the engineer came up to the bridge and advised the captain that he was
very much in doubt to have enough fuel to make Priok. We heard over the radio
that a sister ship of ours was on its way from Tg. Priok to a northerly
direction and we would be within reach during the dogwatch, 00.00 - 04.00 hrs.
Unfortunately he had switched off his radio a bit early, so we could not inform
him of our plans. This was to get a 44-gallon drum of diesel from him
transferred to us. So I was Instructed to have a good look out during my watch,
this ship could be recognized by its nav. lights, the mast lights were both
before the green or red light. Sure enough, he became in sight during my watch,
made radio contact, and advised the captain of our predicament and in need of a
44-gallon drum of diesel.
A small rowboat with outboard engine was put over the side, with myself and a sailor on board, motor to the other ship, we
were now both stopped. They lowered the drum into the sea on a sling, (it would
sink our boat) and we towed this back to the Lembeh,
hoisted it back on board and had enough fuel to make Tg.Priok.
What happened? The new engineer who came on board took it for granted what he
was told by his predecessor and never checked his fuel tank with a dipstick,
and this could have happened more then once. Their way of keeping account of
fuel used was by estimate usage per voyage, the estimate being not enough
the time came that we were running dry, and the day of reckoning had arrived.
It takes all kinds.
Now the time had come to advise the Company of my plans to migrate to Australia
and again full co-operation was given.
On the 20st of November 1957 my resignation was accepted and we boarded m/v
Australia owned by Lloyd Triestino and
sailed away as first class passengers to Australia, I can still hear the sigh
of relieve!
Three weeks later Mr Sukarno stopped KPM ships from leaving Indonesian ports
and the Company instructed the ships at sea to head for Singapore.
That was the end of an ERA
Robert Rutten
16 July 2007