Leisure time 1970s
As a family we never travelled to far away places. But my father was restless and we took plenty of day trips, regardless of the weather.
“Verregende vakantie van de gele regenjasjes”
Slice of life late 1960s
Trip in the desert to picnic feast of Sheikh Nasser, Qatar, Doha, depicting the wives of Shell employees. Photo made by Gusta Haas, probably in 1968.
“Tochtje in de woestijn naar picknick feest van Sjeik Nasser, Qatar, Doha.”
Holiday in Tirol, July 1967 or 1968. Judging by the name “Café Prakticair” printed on this photo it was made by the cafe operators. The man behind the pillar is probably my grandfather.
“Glaasje drinken in Café Prakticair in Tirol, juli 1968.”
My mother on holiday in Yugoslavia by bus. I haven’t geolocated the lighthouse yet. The photo was probably taken on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It was easy to imagine yourself a movie star in those days.
“The captain’s word is law”
Chief officer
Early 1970s. According to his epaulets his rank was first mate at the time.
Berlin 2005
In 2005 I visited Berlin to see my university friend Karijn, who moved to Berlin from Amsterdam a few years earlier. In those years I didn’t own a proper camera and I only made chaotic photo’s, like you would make using a smartphone nowadays. Good times in hindsight. I wasn’t feeling too great in 2005 and I can hardly find any photo’s on my back-up hard drives from that year, or even 2004 and 2006. Lost years.
In the mid-2000s Berlin was economically not well off and rent was dirt cheap. In 2006 the unemployment remained high at 16.5% but the pizzas were huge.
Mijn verrukkelijke zeeprinses mijner dromen
I want what my parents had when they just met. I will not die before I find mine (again).
Whoever made this drawing in, presumably, 1968, must have known the sense of humor of my father.
Mid-80s
I discovered a photo album I wasn’t aware of. It contains photo’s I made when I was about fifteen. The year was 1985. I was very much into the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Heavy metal in the UK provided the working class youth with an alternative to punk music. It was less political than punk and more geared towards escapism. The lyrics of Iron Maiden, for instance, were purely romantic and often referenced 18th century romanticism. The black and white photo above was made in 1986 when we went to see either Dio in concert in Zwolle, or Iron Maiden in Leiden. Metallica I saw in concert in 1988.
I wasn’t working class by any stretch of the imagination but still, it was my kind of music. The other music culture was New Wave. New Wave was big, but at the time I found it rather boring. The energy of metal fitted well with the high levels of testosterone I experienced (suffered would be a better word). It would take another six years before I got close to a girl and metal was the way to let off steam. And cycling. After school I would often cycle as fast as I could on the dusty unpaved country roads, not until I was tired but until sunset.
I did photograph a few hard rock bands in small local venues. I can’t remember the names of those bands. The music wasn’t particularly good, but it was a good antidote to boredom.
School
I went to the VWO (which translates into pre-university education in English) in Aalten. This school was also known as the ‘atheneum’, named after the ancient school founded by Roman Emperor Hadrian. I followed Latin for just one year but this wasn't a required exam subject. Today I would be lost in Ancient Rome.
These years were the most awkward years of my life. Most of my class mates were still being dressed by their parents, I think, and life was excruciating boring. I’m eternally grateful I never have to relive the 1980s again. I am not in the photo below because I took the damn class photo. Presumably there exists a version with me in it on the far left side, made with the 10 second self-timer on my Nikon camera. Al least one of my class mates from ‘85 is dead now. The guy below the black arrow is probably thinking: “for fuck’s sake”.
After school I would listen to the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) for the Armed Forces in Germany on my little radio. The BFBS broadcast BBC news and rehashed British comedy shows like The Goon Show, Just a Minute and Dads Army adapted for radio. The BFBS, unlike Dutch radio, had great music shows: Tony Jasper’s Heavy Metal Show and Rodigan’s Rockers with the best of 80s reggae. I would tape the HM Show on music cassette to play again and again and again. I never ever listened to Dutch radio.
Luckily I also discovered Led Zeppelin around the time, which led me to listening to blues and folk music.
“Been dazed and confused
For so long, it’s not true
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you
Lots a people talkin’,
Few of them know
Soul of a woman was created below”
On television I liked The Young Ones, which capsulated the vibe of the 1980s perfectly. The Chernobyl disaster would occur in 1986 and added a sense of 80s doom, which didn’t bother me much at the time. Neither did the arms race between the West and the Soviet Union. In 1983 U.S. President Ronald Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire" which was a defining moment. The same year more than half a million people protested the placement of 48 Tomahawk cruise missiles in The Netherlands. I was pretty much apolitical and spent most time dreaming of a life beyond secondary school.
We received more German television channels than Dutch channels so a fair amount of time was spent watching the Krimi’s Derrick (1974 - 1998) and Der Alte (with Kriminalhauptkommissar Erwin Köster, 1977–1986) on ZDF. With a murder to solve (almost) each episode both crime series delve into the psychological mindset of post-war West Germany at a time of high unemployment rates.
A Tomahawk cruise missile en route to its target on the Tonapah Test Range in Nevada. April 16, 1983.
Trainspotting
Apart from music the only exciting thing in daily life was the railroad track leading to Arnhem and beyond Arnhem to the bright lights of the big city: Amsterdam. Sometimes I would hang around the track and photograph the trains. The red DE-2 multiple units were built between 1953-1954. In 1985 the trains were over 30 years old and still running the original AEC diesel engines. You could hear these trains leave the station seven kilometers away.
And yes, even my mother would still buy my clothes in 1985. She also probably made this photograph.
China
In the first months of 1952 my father’s ship ss Overijssel arrived in Hong Kong. The backdrop was the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War (1950-1953).
ss Overijssel drawn by my father in his dairy.
My father noted the Dutch destroyer (Dutch: torpedobootjager) Hr. Ms. Van Galen in the harbour. This Dutch destroyer had patrolled the Korean waters for eleven months and had just started the journey back from Sasebo, Japan, on 21 January 1952 via Hong Kong. Just a year earlier China had intervened in the Korean War making it one of the first conflicts of the Cold War.
What my father witnessed in Hong Kong was a large influx of refugees from the mainland China, causing a huge population surge: from 1945 to 1951, the population grew from 600,000 to 2.1 million.
After 1945 the British took over Hong Hong from Japanese occupation, but earlier plans for democratic reform for Hong Kong were dropped in 1952 by the British Cabinet.
Below text is copied from my father’s dairy written in 1952, at the age of 18. I left the interpunction as it is.
Hong Kong harbour, early 1950s.
Toen ik nog klein was, lag mijn China achter de lange muur van Zorgvliet. Dat was de Chinese muur, dacht ik, daar achter moest het Chinese rijk liggen met allerlei mooie porseleinen vaasjes en poppetjes.
Ik had nooit gedacht dat ik nog eens in China terecht zou komen. Wat varen was, wist ik nog niet en van grote schepen had ik helemaal geen verstand. Ik had nog nooit zo’n schip gezien. Toch zat zwerven al in mijn bloed. Ik was vier jaren oud en had toen al interesse voor landkaartjes en sterren. En op school ben ik altijd één van de beste in aardrijkskunde geweest.
En nu liep ik dan in de straten van Hongkong.
De huizen zijn hoog en het is donker. Ik kan niet goed zien of de huizen in goede conditie verkeren.
De winkels zijn allemaal open.
Zij hebben prachtige neon verlichting.
Overal zie je prachtige lichtreclames. China is een land, waar de kunst op hoog niveau staat.
Prachtige linnen kisten met mooie houtsnij figuren kan je daar bewonderen.
Mooi lakwerk en kunstig gemaakt porselein kosten daar heus niet zo duur.
Een hoop koelies komen op mij af, ze hebben een karretjes achter zich en vragen of ze mij naar een dancing mogen brengen.
Ik weiger beleefd of reageer er niet op.
Deze mensen doen hun dienst als trekdier en kunnen behoorlijk hard en lang lopen voor zo’n karretje.
Een troep Chinese kinderen lopen een hele tijd om mij heen.
Zij duwen mij een papiertje in mijn handen, waarop in het Engels staat, dat hun moeder ernstig ziek is en of ik hun iets wilde geven. Of deze geschiedenis waar is, weet ik niet, maar het kan ook bedelaar-rij zijn. En als motief stoppen zij een briefje in je handen om medelijden op te wekken. Het was jammer, dat ik niets bij mij had voor de kinderen.
Het waren hele kleine kinderen, die amper wat zeggen konden en op hun benen konden staan.
Zij sprongen tegen mij op als jonge katten en dreunden steeds maar hetzelfde liedje op, misschien was het Engels of Chinees, ik kon het niet duidelijk verstaan.
Een paar straten verder kom ik een paar Javanen tegen, zij zijn in bonte kleuren gekleed en slaan best een goed figuur in Hongkong.
Ik moest nu even oppassen, anders zou ik weer verdwalen en dat is nog gevaarlijker, dan in Genua.
Ik liep de ene straat in en de andere uit, maar ik moest toch ook nog bedenken, dat ik terug moest.
Aan de overkant van de straat is een bijeenkomst, een Chinese spreker houdt vol vuur zijn betoog.
Ik dorst er niet naar toe te gaan om te luisteren, want het kon wel een communistisch betoog zijn tegen de blanken en als ik als blanke mij er bij zou voegen, zou het verkeerd met mij kunnen aflopen.
Een paar Chinese meisjes lopen langs mij.
Ik kijk hun even na, wat een verschil met het Westen. Hun haar is git zwart en ze dragen één lange grote vlecht. Hun gezichten staan strak en koel en hun ogen glinsteren gemeen. Hun kleren zijn van zijde gemaakt, een rok dragen zij niet, alleen maar een brede zijden broek. Een rok is de mode niet in China, je ziet daar geen enkele vrouw lopen met een rok. Een vrouw van tachtig draagt ook daar een grote zijden broek. In Holland staat zoiets gek.
Het gezicht van een Chinees doet aan een duivel denken. Hun ogen staan schuin en doen aan een kat denken, die zijn prooi bespringt. Hun huidskleur is geel, hun lichaam meestal tenger en mager. Een Chinees heeft een heel andere opvatting, als iemand uit het Westen.
Denk maar aan de oorlog in Korea. Met knuppels in hun handen vallen zij de Amerikanen aan en sneuvelen ze, er staan weer duizenden andere Chinezen voor in de plaats, die zich met ware doodsverachting doodvechten.
Een mensen leven is daar niet in tel. Krijgt een Chinees een ongeluk, niemand helpt hem en laat hem gerust doodbloeden. De Chinees gaat uit van dit standpunt, als iemand wordt gewond, gebeurt dit door het noodlot en niemand kan hulp bieden, want wie kan zich nu tegen het noodlot verzetten.
Daardoor vallen zij bij bosjes in Korea. Het noodlot treft hen dat ze naar Korea moeten gaan om te vechten en daar aan gehoorzamen zij en vechten zich dood. Vrees kennen zij daar niet, maar wel angst, daardoor doen zij daar zulke domme dingen.
Denk maar aan de Japanse vliegers, die met doodsverachting zich op de Geallieerden vliegers storten.
Hoe meer de Westerse beschaving daar komt, des te minder gebeurt dit daar. Dit is het voordeel van een Christelijke beschaving. Al geloven de mensen niet meer in een God, toch profiteren zij van de Christelijke beschaving, die heel anders is, dan de Oosțerse.
De Chinezen zijn koene zeevaarders; met hun kleine houten scheepjes, die hier jonken genoemd worden, varen zij heel de Archipel af. Op zo'n schip vaart een hele Chinese familie met een kat incluis. De vrouwen aan boord moeten zwaar werk verrichten. De Hollandse vrouwen klagen misschien wel, dat zij het zwaar hebben, maar zij zouden eens een keer op een jonk uren lang in de hitte moeten wrikken tot hun polsen lam waren of met hun handen de lading lossen of met storm op zo'n scheepje zitten.
Je kan aan het gezicht van deze vrouwen zien, dat ze zwaar voort moeten. Je ziet geen verschil tussen een mannen- en een vrouwen gelaat. Armoe heerst daar ook op grote schaal. Tientallen bootjes komen bij ons schip bedelen om eten, ze blijven een hele dag bij ons schip liggen, ook hout is welkom.
Handelaren komen hun waren verkopen aan ons schip.
Ik heb daar zo'n Chinees jonkje gekocht en een wandkleed met hertjes.
Een van de jongere matrozen haalde een laffe streek uit. Hij ruilde voor een pak sigaretten een paar beeldjes. Maar toen de Chinees het pak kreeg zat daar geen sigaretten in. De Chinees klom aan boord van ons schip en ging de matroos achterna. Hij gaf het snel terug, anders kon het wel eens anders met hem aflopen. Hij haalde een behoorlijke verschutting en dat voor een Hollander.
’s-Avonds kon je Hongkong prachtig verlicht tegen de bergen zien liggen. De top van een berg stak in de wolken en als je boven op die berg stond, kon je de vliegtuigen beneden je zien vliegen.
Er lagen verscheidene Hollandse schepen van de Java-China-Japan lijn in de haven, ook de Hollandse torpedobootjager "Jan van Galen", lag er.
Het haven leven was daar indrukwekkend.
Het zag daar zwart van de masten en daartussen door zag je de kleine bootjes wrikken. Vrouwen met vruchten komen langs de jonken venten. Als je aan dek staat, doe je daar niets dan kijken naar het levendige gedoe hier. Dan zie je weer een paar Chinese vrouwen ruzie hebben, waar ze elkaar voor uitschelden, is niet mooi meer.
Veel natuurschoon is er niet op dit eiland. Maar van het echte drukke Chinese gedoe krijg je nooit genoeg,
Je staat dan weer bij het eten te kijken, hoe zij met hun stokies de rijst naar binnen werken en waar dat eten uit bestaat. Dan zie je weer een paar Chinese jongens op zijn Chinees vechten.
Toen het schip China verliet, zei de slager tegen mij, bekijk het nog maar goed, want je zal er waarschijnlijk nooit meer terugkomen. Maar of dat wel waar is weet ik niet, want ik hoop maar dat ik het nog eens mag bezoeken, het is nl. een van de landen, waar je nooit genoeg van krijgt.
“Hum Chi Hum Chi
Tae Eul Cheon Sang Wun Gun
Hum Ni Chi Ya Do Re
Hum Ni Ham Ni Sa Pa Ha”
Jeung San Do (증산도)
In 2003 when I was living in Busan I stumbled upon a religious movement called Jeung San Do (The Way of Jeung San). I decided to investigate because I thought this would make an interesting theme for a newspaper article back in The Netherlands. I enrolled in the beginner’s course. Two young women, who spoke English, taught me the doctrine, which consisted of theory and practice, the latter mainly consisting of singing the Tae Eul Ju (mantra).
I made them clear I was a journalist so there would be no misunderstanding. My family-in-law became convinced I wanted to become a cult member, which was completely untrue. I don’t subscribe to anthropocentrism. I made it to the end of the beginners course. The photo below shows my “graduation”.
The doctrine of Jeung San Do is very interesting though. The Way of Jeung-San is a syncretic religion, mixing Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, modern geopolitics, millenarianism and Korean shamanism.
I took my beginner’s course in a local Dojang in Busan. In the shrine were paintings of Kang Jeungsan as Sangjenim and Goh Pan-Lye as Taemonim.
The photo was taken by one of my two teachers. The other teacher is trying to appear taller than she actually is.
The current leader of Jeung San Do. Ahn Gyeong-jeon (b. 1954)
Inside the large International centre of Jeung San Do in Daegu.
Haneullim (하늘님 "Heavenly King"). In Jeung San Do the ancient sky god is also known as Sangjenim.
My original notes are archived in my basement, somewhere. The following information is mainly taken from Wikipedia. Jeung San Do was founded by Ahn Un-san (born in 1922) in 1974 together with his son, Ahn Gyeong-jeon (b. 1954). Gyeong-jeon is the current leader. I met him once at the international center of Jeung San Do in Deagu. Jeung San Do owns a huge building complete with a large theatre room for musical performances and Ahn’s speeches, which last for many hours. Only at 3 pm we were allowed to catch some sleep.
Jeung San Do is a branch of an older movement called Jeungsanism (증산교 Jeungsangyo) founded by Gang Il-sun (1871 - 1909) who was also known as Kang Jeungsan. Jeung San Do recognises Kang as the incarnation and personification of Sangjenim (上帝任, the "governing spirit of the universe").
Goh Pan-Lye ("Head Lady," 1880-1935) was a female disciple of Kang Jeungsan. In Jeung San Do she is revered as Tae-mo-nim, an incarnation of God the mother, thus balancing the male aspect with a female aspect.
Central to the believe is the idea of a four-fold cycle called “cosmic year” containing four cosmic seasons: spring/birth, summer/growth, autumn/harvest, and winter/rest. A cosmic year corespondents to 129.600 of our calendar years. The shift between two seasons is called Gaebyeok. Gae (開) and byuk (闢) both mean "to open." According to Jeungism, humanity is now living near the end of the cosmic summer.
I was taught that Gaebyeok was imminent although only the leader knew of the exact date. In time he would reveal the moment. Having learned the Tae Eul Ju mantra during my beginner’s course I would be able to survive Gaebyeok. The cosmic shift would be very violent and a large proportion of the world population would die. When a global epidemic disease starts ravaging the world together with earthquakes and volcano eruptions I had to sit down and sing the mantra I had been practising for months. I could save other people by stamping them on their forehead with a special red ink and a wooden stamp made from a branch of a cherry tree, which had grown in a northern direction, or southern direction, I cannot remember exactly, which direction.
The current global epidemic is seen as further proof of the shift to the cosmic autumn. Below a screenshot of a YouTube video of the 2021 New Year’s Message by Ahn Gyeong-jeon.
Kang Jeungsan as Sangjenim.
Goh Pan-Lye as Taemonim
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
The teacher inquired softly of the student, “There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?”
The student replied confidently, “In Zen everything is an objectification of the mind. Therefore I would say that the stone is certainly within my mind.”
The teacher smiled. “Your head must be very heavy, if you are carrying a rock like that in your mind.” The two walked the rest of the way in peaceful silence.
I’m quite pleased with our choice for the headstone on my mother’s grave. It’s a beautiful piece of stone. It took almost a year before the grave was finished. Instead of a cover plate I chose for a rectangular edge covering the whole grave. The grave itself becomes a small garden.
I’m conflicted about something as permanent as a grave. My father wanted a reference to the Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata BWV 140 - 6 on the headstone.
Mein Freund ist mein!
Und ich bin sein!
Die Liebe soll nichts scheiden!
My mother probably didn't have much connection with Bach or any Aria for that matter. When she was young she loved Jacques Brel. Her wish was to be buried and return to nature.
Whenever I see a stone I have to think about the zen koan The Stone Mind. “Your head must be very heavy, if you are carrying a rock like that in your mind.” Remembering the dead is for the living.
“Nous étions deux amis et Fanette m’aimait
La plage était déserte et dormait sous juillet
Si elles s’en souviennent les vagues vous diront
Combien pour la Fanette j’ai chanté de chansons
Faut dire
Faut dire qu’elle était belle
Comme une perle d’eau
Faut dire qu’elle était belle
Et je ne suis pas beau”
Ditzum in East Frisia (Germany).
Busan port
In 2003 when I was living in South-Korea Busan harbour was the fourth largest container port in the world. The volume of container trade measured in TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit) would become an indicator of the globalised economy. In 2008, the world total containerised trade was estimated at 137 million TEUs, a 5,4 % increase over the previous year. During the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 consumer confidence nosedived resulting in plummeting consumption of manufactured goods. The global container throughput volumes decreased by between 10% and 15% in 2009. Years later in 2017 Korean shipping company Hanjin was declared bankrupt caused in part by overcapacity in the container ship industry. When Hanjin was declared bankrupt a container with products for the company I am currently working for was floating in the Indian Ocean for months.
The COVID-19 recession in 2020 led to increased import demand for manufactured consumer goods, resulting in a shortage of shipping containers and increased prices. The shortage was caused by an asymmetrical trade with Asia exporting significantly more good than importing.
In 2003 these challenges were a long way off and the Port of Busan continued to grow at a steady pace. A friend who was working in the nautical publishing industry saw a business opportunity. He wanted to establish a photo library of shipping related photographs and since I was living in Busan, I consequently spent some time working in the harbour. There were some hurdles to overcome like obtaining a photo permit, which led to several meetings with the port authority resulting in my wife, my translator, getting into a verbal fight with the men in charge. She stormed off in a taxi and left me behind. In hindsight I can laugh about it. I never got my photo permit.
The photo library never came into fruition either and the photos I took in Busan harbour were never used, expect for a single sale if I remember correctly. Back in 2003 my digital camera was pretty awful compared to later technology.
Kees Andréa
As long as I can remember my mother would paint. Only after she passed I learned that in her twenties she took lessons from the at that time well-know painter Kees Andréa (1914 - 2006) at the Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Free Academy of Visual Art) in The Hague. Andréa was also a member of Pulchri Studio.
Cornelis (Kees) Andréa combined fragments from reality into a surreal reality “in which a hesitation arises between the observable and the imagination”, according to an art critic.
Now I am looking at the paintings of Andréa and wondering if I can learn something about my mother through his work. Can we really know the life of our parents before we were born?
‘De Haan’
Kees Andrea - lithograph - 'Wounded horse'' - 1949
‘De Dreiging’
Kees Andrea (The Hague 1914 - 2006) Spring landscape with rain Signed l.l. Titled and dated 1960 on the stretcher Oil on canvas, 60.3 x 80.5 cm N.B.: The work depicts the view from the studio of Andrea in Loosduinen.
Het monsterboekje (the seaman's book)
Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd
I finally got a chance to study my fathers seaman’s book. Amazingly every ship he sailed during his career has been administered in this little book. Some names are difficult to read, and there are still few gaps, but below is a list of every ship my father sailed between 1951 and late 1972. He started his career with the Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd (1883 - 1970) as a deckhand at the age of 17. After the war many ships were repurposed military American ‘Liberty’ ships. At the end of the war it took only 42 days to built a Liberty ship.
s.s. Overijssel Built in 1946 in the USA and sold in the same year to the Dutch government and transferred to the Rotterdamsche Lloyd.
Date of signing on: 07-11-1951. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
During his years with the Rotterdamsche Lloyd he went to nautical school to obtain his diploma which allowed him to move up from deckhand to an officer.
s.s. Tomini Built as Liberty freighter s.s. George L. Baker. in 1943. Bought in 1950 by the Rotterdamsche Lloyd as s.s. Tomini.
Date of signing on: 21-09-1954. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Kota Baroe. Built in 1929. The Kota Baroe sailed from 1948 onwards to the Dutch East Indies.
Date of signing on: 04-07-1955. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
La Corona / Shell Tankers
During his time with the Rotterdamse Lloyd between 1951 and 1955 my father became bored with the long consignments and he applied for a job at N.V. Petroleum Maatschappij 'La Corona’ (founded in 1912), a subsidiary of the Dutch Shell Company. In 1955 Shell Tankers N.V. was founded.
His rank was third, second and first mate. The second mate (third in command) would to the actual navigation. Third mate is junior to the second mate and basically a qualified deck manager and safety officer. The first mate is the head of the deck department and answers only to the captain. The first mate was also a qualified medical officer but my father took this one step further by taking an internship at two hospitals.
Many of the ships he sailed were so called K-tanker ships or ‘General Purpose Tankers’ with a load capacity of 18.170 ton and a length of 168 meters. Shell named its general purpose tankers with names beginning with a K.
Korenia. Built in 1955. Owner N.V. Petroleum Maatschappij 'La Corona'.
Date of signing on: 05-06-1956. Rank: “4e stuurman”. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
My father was just 21 when he sailed his first ship as an officer.
Kellia. Built in 1953. Steamer with 18.009 tonnes deadweight (the total weight of cargo).
Date of signing on: 14-11-1956. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Taria. Built in 1939. 18.009 tonnes deadweight.
Date of signing on: 03-12-1956. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Singapore, 04-07-1958.
Date of signing on: 04-07-1958. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Singapore, 28-11-1958.
Omala. Built in 1938. In service with the Kriegsmarine Kiel during the war. Badly damaged by a torpedo from HMS TERRAPIN at Listerfjord on 24 March 1944. Repaired after the war and back in service of N.V. Petroleum Maatschappij 'La Corona'.
Date of signing on: 03-03-1959. Rank: third mate.
Kais. Landing craft of the Nederlandsche Nieuw-Guinea Petroleum Maatschappij, Nederlands Nieuw-Guinea.
Date of signing on: 23-06-1959. Rank: first mate.
During his time in Netherlands Nieuw-Guinea my father was 25 years of age. This puts the following anecdote into perspective. He once set off an orange emergency flare among a cargo of white chickens, in effect painting the poor chickens bright orange. The captain wasn’t pleased but nobody was fired.
In 1959 the cabinet Jan de Quay took office in The Netherlands with Joseph Luns as foreign minister. This conservative centre right cabinet consisted of political parties in favour of keeping Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea as a colony. This angered Indonesia and the Indonesian army carried out military actions on Netherlands New Guinea. The conflict escalated and Shell withdrew its personnel from Netherlands New Guinea. My father had to leave and was smuggled back into Indonesia on a Shell Tanker sailing under. British flag. He was picked up by the tanker Saroena mid-sea and pretended to be a British citizen when the Saroena arrived in Indonesia.
Saroena. Year of construction 1939. N.V. Nederlandsch-Indische Tankstoomboot Maatschappij, Batavia, Netherlands East Indies. In 1956 the ship was transferred to "La Corona".
Date of signing on: 12-01-1960. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Singapore.
Gyrotoma. Built in 1950 as a steamship.
Date of signing on: 01-06-1960. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Acila. Year of construction 1958. 170 meters long. The usual 18090 tonnes deadweight. The ship was managed by Shell Tankers NV but owned by Maatschappij tot Financiering van Bedrijfspanden N.V.
Date of signing on: 09-10-1960. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Date of signing on: 09-12-1960. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Date of signing on: 26-01-1961. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
During one of my father’s journeys from Kaap de Goede Hoop to the oil refineries on Curaçao captain KMR (Koninklijke Marine Reserve) A.A. Oepker experienced a psychosis and diverted the ship to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. Apparently the captain thought himself as Napoléon Bonaparte and pointed a gun at my father and forced him off the bridge. The captain was an amateur painter and my father had to pose as Napoleon in the captain’s cabin. The painting Oepker made was a near copy of a painting he made before in 1959, but this time with my father’s face as Napoleon. The original 1959 painting is part of the collection of the Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie. The 1960 or 1961 painting has yet to be found. All I have is the black and white photo copy below.
Possibly because of KMR captain Oepker, some high ranking military marine personnel was awaiting the Acila on Curaçao. The first mate refused to salute the military reception and was slapped in the face.
The Acila at Ango Ango Port located on the East bank of the River Congo, approx 2.5nm downstream from Matadi, to the S of the Chaudron d'Enfer. The port is used for the discharging of petroleum and other dangerous cargoes, also for ships not powerful enough to negotiate the Chaudron d'Enfer.
Kylix.
Date of signing on: 18-01-1962. Rank: third mate.
Date of signing on: 30-05-1962. Rank: third mate.
Zafra. Built in 1960. 40.164 tons deadweight.
Date of signing on: 31-10-1962. Rank: third mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Koratia. Bouwjaar 1954. 18.000 tonnes deadweight. Engine: Steam, turbine with electric motor.
Date of signing on: 29-03-1963. Rank: second mate.
By 1963 my father moved to the harbour village Viken in Skåne County, Sweden. Apparently he had enough of The Netherlands in the early 1960s. He lived there until 1966.
Kenia. Built in 1955.
Date of signing on: 21-09-1963. Rank: second mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Kermia. Built in 1955. K-tanker.
Date of signing on: 15-05-1964. Rank: second mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Date of signing on: 11-09-1964. Rank: second mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Onoba. Built in 1962. With 53.444 tons deadweight the Onoba was much bigger than a K-tanker.
Date of signing on: 24-09-1965. Rank: second mate. Port of signing off: Port Said.
Japan Rose. Not a Shell tanker but a Japanese ship. Year of build 1965. Gross tonnage 41470 tons. MO number 6522115.
Date of signing on: 12-01-1966. Rank: second officer. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Korenia. The second assignment on this K-tanker.
Date of signing on: 20-04-1966. Rank: second mate.
Date of signing on: 22-07-1966. Rank: second mate. Port of signing off: Pembroke, Wales.
Niso. The Niso was one of the largest tankers built at that time (1966) with 121.293 tonnes deadweight. My father had to supervise some of the work at the shipyard of Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Ind. Co., Aioi, Japan where the Niso was built.
Date of signing on: 21-11-1966. Rank: second mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
The Shell N-tankers were built around the time of the D-tankers. Due to the Six Day War between Israel and Egypte, Jordan and Syria the Suez Canal was blocked for shipping. Shell Tankers was forced to transport the oil from the fields in the Middle East around Cape of Good Hope (Kaap de Goede Hoop). It made economical sense to built larger ships for the longer route. The D-tankers had a deadweight of 70.000 ton and a length of 240 metres. The N-tankers were built for a deadweight of 120.000 tons and measured 265 meters.
The (still unnamed) Niso just after launching.
My father sailed the Niso on its maiden voyage. They were lucky they arrived in one piece. For some reason the captain took enormous risks sailing the big ship through waters in which he was not allowed, way too close to land. But the chain of command is: the captain’s word is law.
Philippia. Built in 1959. Flag state: Liberia.
Date of signing on: 15-07-1966. Rank: first mate. Port of signing off: Monrovia.
Acmaea. Built in 1959. My father’s first tanker after his 3 year assignment in Doha, Qatar.
Date of signing on: 25-07-1970. Rank: first mate.
Date of signing on: 04-10-1970. Rank: first mate. Port of signing off: Shell Haven, Thames Estuary (UK).
Capisteria. Built in 1960. Flag state: Liberia.
Date of signing on: 18-02-1971. Rank: first mate. Port of signing off: Rotterdam.
Arca. Completed 1959 as Arca for Shell Tankers Rotterdam.
Date of signing on: 22-09-1971. Rank: first mate. Port of signing off: Bahrein (04-03-1972).
Onoba. Second assignment on this ship.
Date of signing on: 23-05-1972. Rank: first mate. Port of signing off: Kharg Island, Iran (03-10-1972).
Cinulia. Built in 1955. The Cinulia was to be his last ship just before the 1973 oil crisis in October. During a storm in late 1972 he broke his arm when a gulf hit the deck. This ended his career after just 31 years at sea.
Date of signing on: 11-12-1972. Rank: first mate. Port of signing off: Durban, South Africa (16-02-1973).
Second from the left: Cornelis Haas. 14 September 1960
București
1990: A springtime of hope. V for peace. Bucharest near Revolution Square, boy in front of a bullet hole riddled Dacia.
In 1990 Bucharest was very much under construction as part of Ceaușescu’s program of Systematization (Sistematizarea). in the 1980s an area of 8 square kilometres of the historic centre of Bucharest was levelled. At the time of death of Ceaușescu many buildings were still under construction.
Going Down River Road
I feel lucky to have survived River Road, Nairobi, Kenya in the summer of 1991. Homeless kids as dusty and dirty as the street itself, hustlers, whores, drunks and rough bars no sane person would visit. River Road had it all and I dived in with both stupid feet before escaping to the North Eastern Province and its vast emptiness.
Ethiopia
When visiting the North Eastern Province I ended up in Ethiopia where the Ethiopian Civil War of 1974 to 1991 had just ended. Instead of a border post there were heavily armed youngsters who took me away for interrogation as a suspected spy. After hours of arguing, and the intervention of an older Ethiopian man, I was released and invited for Ethiopian coffee. I wonder if the youngsters with machine guns and hand grenades were members of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.
All negatives were lost when the Boeing 747 crashed into my house, so no visuals apart from a scene from Les Éthiopiques by Hugo Pratt.
North Eastern Province, Kenya
The stupidest thing I probably did was walk from Marasabit to one of the gofs (meteoric craters) all by myself unaccompanied. This was before tourism was a thing. In four weeks time I didn’t see another traveller expect a white nun in a Land Rover probably doing some Christian fieldwork. At the time I barely had a travel guide, and most pages I had to tear out to use as toilet paper. Years later I looked up the craters near Marasabit and learned the area was teaming with wildlife including lions. I was warned about elephants so I was frantically looking out for fresh elephant dung. Nobody in the village mentioned lions.
I also visited Wajir, a dusty town in the middle of nowhere mainly inhabited by Somali’s. The arial photo shows how remote Wajir is.
Alex Maisuradze - Own work. CC BY-SA 3.0
Rumanian village
In Timișoara on 15 December 1989 the people openly protested the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu after the government tried to evict Pastor László Tőkés. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the abolishment of the Brezhnev Doctrine by Mikhail Gorbachev Ceaușescu became more and more isolated. Empowered by the protests in Timișoara the revolution smouldered. On 21 December Ceaușescu addressed the nation on television from the balcony of the Central Committee building in Bucharest. The crowd started to chant "Ti-mi-șoa-ra! Ti-mi-șoa-ra!”. 22 December Ceaușescu and his wife fled the city by helicopter. During their escape they were arrested by local police. On 25 December Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu are found guilty of genocide in Timișoara and they were promptly executed.
A few months later in the springtime of 1990 I travelled to Rumania and visited Arad, Timișoara, Bucharest, Târgu Mureș, Sighișoara, and several smaller towns and villages in Transylvania, Crișana and the historical region Banat.
Corto Maltese
“Perdete il vostro tempo…
fuori da questo labirinto non troverete nulla!”
May
London - Amsterdam, 1990s
Република България 1988
My first holiday by myself - 18 years old - was to Bulgaria, the most exotic destination I could think of and afford on my budget. I took a train to the north of Greece and crossed the border to Bulgaria at Kulata/Кулата. Prerequisite for a visa was a reservation for a certain number of nights with a state-approved landlord or hotel. For all other nights a stamp for each night had to be collected on a card.
1988 was the year before the Communist Party was forced to give up its political monopoly in November 1989 and in the parks of the capital Sofia there were anti-government protests. It appears the protests originated in Ruse in November 1987 against the gassing and protecting fundamental human rights.
Qatar 1969 - 1970
So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away..
