A mine sank the ship in the Irish Sea in 1941, with the loss of 39 of her 42 crew. Her survivors drifted in a life raft for four days, until an RNLI lifeboat rescued them off the coast of Ireland.
Some sources anglicise the ship's name to Beemsterdyk. However, Lloyd's Register always recorded her as Beemsterdijk.
Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Fijenoord built Beemsterdijk as yard number 290. She was the sixth member of the class to be completed. She was yard number 290. She was launched on 29 January 1922 and completed on 15 June.[8]
Her lengths were 416.3ft (126.9m)overall and 400.6ft (122.1m) registered. Her beam was 54.3ft (16.6m) and her depth was 36.6ft (11.2m). Her tonnages were 6,869GRT, 4,241NRT and 9,852DWT.[8] She had six holds, divided by watertight bulkheads.[9] They gave her a capacity for 527,000 cubic feet (14,900m3) of grain, or 478,000 cubic feet (13,500m3) of baled cargo. She also had three berths for first class passengers.[8]
The combined power output of Beemsterdijk's turbines was rated at 648 NHP[10] or 3,000 SHP. They gave her a speed of 12+1⁄2 knots (23km/h).[8]
By 1934 the wireless telegraphcall sign PCZB had supreseded Beemsterdijk's code letters.[12] Also in 1934, her accommodation was increased to carry seven passengers.[8] By 1937 she was equipped with wireless direction finding.[13]
On 3 April 1936, three teenage boys from Kips Bay, Manhattan, stowed away on the NASM transatlanticlinerVeendam, in the mistaken belief that she was going to Brazil. They were discovered the next day, and NASM at first said that the boys would be landed at Plymouth, England, where the US Consul would arrange their return.[14]Veendam's Master made them do three hours' work a day until 6 April, when Veendam met Beemsterdijk in mid-Atlantic.[15]Beemsterdijk was westbound to Hoboken, so the three stowaways were transferred by motor launch from Veendam to the cargo ship.[16]Beemsterdijk landed the boys back at Hoboken on 10 April.[15]
Wartime career
Beemsterdijk was in the Gulf of Mexico when Germany invaded the Netherlands. She left Galveston on 4 May 1940, and was in New Orleans from 4 to 11 May. Her movements for the next few weeks are not clear, but on 27 June she left New Orleans carrying general cargo and sailed via Bermuda, where she joined Convoy BKX 56. This converged with Convoy HX 56 from Kalifax, Nova Scotia, by which she reached Liverpool on 22 or 23 July.[17]
On 22 August 1940 Beemsterdijk left Liverpool with Convoy OB 202, which dispersed at sea. She continued unescorted to New York, where she was in port from 5 to 13 September, and loaded a cargo of steel. She sailed unescorted to Halifax, where she joined Convoy HX 74, by which she reached Liverpool on 2 October.[17]
On 9 November 1940 Beemsterdijk left Liverpool with Convoy OB 241, which dispersed at sea. She continued unescorted to Baltimore, where she was in port from 26 November to 5 December. She sailed unescorted to Halifax, where she joined Convoy HX 95. Before the convoy reached Liverpool, Beemsterdijk detached for the Firth of Clyde, where she arrived on 26 December.[17]
Loss
On 21 January 1941 Beemsterdijk left Glasgow in ballast[9] to bunker at Cardiff. On 24 January she called at Greenock for her compass to be adjusted.[17] However, the ship had new degaussing equipment, which may have interfered with her compass.[18]
On the morning of 26 January she was in St George's Channel off the west coast of Pembrokeshire, at a position that her navigators believed to be about 12 nautical miles (22km) off the Smalls Lighthouse, when she struck an Allied mine that blew a hole in her hull in way of holds 5 and 6 aft. At 11:20 hrs the wireless telegraph (radio) officer transmitted the first SOS signal. The Fourth Engineer stopped her engines, the crew launched her lifeboats, and the entire ship's company abandoned ship in ten minutes.[9]
Beemsterdijk settled in the water, but maintained an even keel and did not sink. About an hour later her Master, Captain Dirk Wijers, reboarded her with the Chief Engineer and the Fourth Engineer. The water level inside the ship was slowly rising. The rest of the crew reboarded the ship to try to save her, and dropped one of her anchors to keep her position. All remained on deck, and all except Captain Wijers kept their lifejackets on.[9] The radio operator, Quirinus Kroeze, transmitted four SOS signals in less than two and a half hours.[19]
At 11:30 hrs on 26 January, the RNLI St Davids Lifeboat Station launched its lifeboat Swn-y-Mor. At 15:15 hrs she reached the position Beemsterdijk had given, and was soon joined by three other vessels, and made contact with one of them, the Royal Navy Fairmile B motor launchML 168. They failed to find Beemsterdijk, and at 15:55 hrs Swn-y-Mor was recalled to St David's.[9]
The Royal Navy base at Milford Haven sent two Dutch tugs: Goliath at 11:50 hrs, and L Smit & Co'sSeine shortly after. At 15:15 hrs they reached the position Beemsterdijk had given, but visibility was poor, and they did not find her. A British naval trawler gave the tugs directions to Beemsterdijk's position, but they still did not find her. The tugs, the Smalls Lighthouse, and the radio station at Land's End maintained radio contact. At 21:30 hrs Beemsterdijk radioed that she would fire a flare rocket. The tugs failed to see it, so the ship fired a second flare. The tugs failed to see the second flare, too. On the morning of 27 January the wind increased to a gale. At 09:00 hrs Seine broke off the search, and at 12:30 hrs Goliath did likewise and returned to Milford Haven.[9]
The Saint-class tugCaroline Moller (formerly HMS St Mabyn) and three launches were sent from Falmouth, Cornwall. Then all encountered poor visibility and also failed to find Beemsterdijk.[9]
As the wind increased on the morning of 27 January, the bulkhead between Beemsterdijk's holds 5 and 6 collapsed under the weight of water at about 09:30 hrs. Captain Wijers immediately ordered the crew back into the lifeboats. Before the men reached the boats, the ship rapidly listed to starboard and sank stern first, sinking the lifeboats with her. The crew was thrown into the water.[9]
Rescue
The Fourth Engineer, steward, boatswain's boy and a galley boy found and boarded a life raft that had floated free from the ship. The raft had no food, drinking water, oars, or emergency signalling equipment. At times it drifted close to being dashed on rocks, so the men removed two boards from the deck, which they used to paddle to safety. On 28 January all four men were washed overboard, but managed to reboard the raft. On 29 January the galley boy, Cornelis Lenaerst, was washed overboard again, and lost.[9]
The raft had drifted west, and was now off the south coast of Ireland. On 30 January, Irish Coast Guards at Look Out Post 17 on Brownstown Head in County Waterford sighted the raft and alerted the RNLI station at Dunmore East.[18] The lifeboat Annie Blanche Smith was launched at 10:20 hrs. 15 minutes later it reached the raft, which by then was in Coolum Cove, within 300 yards (270m) of rocks. The three survivors were weakened by cold, wet, hunger, and lack of water for four days. The bow-man of the lifeboat jumped onto the raft, at great personal risk, to help them to board the lifeboat.[9][18]
At 13:30 hrs Annie Blanche Smith arrived back at Dunmore East. A local hotel accommodated the three men, and a doctor from Waterford and members of the Irish Red Cross Society looked after them. About 19 February were moved to Waterford. The Missions to Seamen accommodated Fourth Engineer Willem van't Hoff and boatswain's boy Stanley Gillard. Steward Petrus Schrage was admitted to Waterford Infirmary for treatment to his foot.[9]
Of the 39 men lost, four bodies washed ashore in Pembrokeshire. Third Officer Willem Reijers, assistant engineer Paulus Tanis, and oiler Jan Witte were later reburied in the Dutch war graves section of Mill Hill Cemetery in North London.[20][21][22]Purser Willem van der Hoeven remains buried at St Davids in Pembrokeshire.[9]
Holland America Line (HAL) is a US-owned cruise line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States.
Tango Maru (丹後丸) was a cargo motor ship that was built in Germany in 1926 and sunk off the coast of Bali in 1944. She was launched as Rendsburg for the Deutsch-Australische Dampfschiffs-Gesellschaft (DADG), which in 1926 merged with Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG).
SS Dwinsk was a transatlantic ocean liner that was launched in Ireland in 1897 as Rotterdam, renamed C. F. Tietgen in 1906, and renamed Dwinsk in 1913. A U-boat sank her in 1918, with the loss of 23 lives. The ship was built for Holland America Line, but was successively owned by Scandinavian America Line and Russian American Line, and after the Russian Revolution she was managed by Cunard Line.
USS Maartensdijk was a cargo steamship that was laid down in England in 1902 as Egyptiana, but launched as Rapallo. She served in the United States Navy as USS Maartensdijk from 1918 until 1919, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID-2497.
SS 's Jacob was a passenger steamship that was launched in the Netherlands in 1907 and sunk by enemy action off New Guinea in 1943. She spent most of her career with Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij, based in the Dutch East Indies.
SS Zaanland was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1900 for Dutch owners, and sunk in a collision in 1918. She was built for the Zuid-Amerika Lijn, which in 1908 became Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd. The US Government requisitioned her in March 1918 as USS Zaanland, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID–2746. She was sunk in a collision less than two months later.
USS Rondo (ID-2488) was a Dutch cargo steamship that was built for Stoomvaart Mattschappij Nederland in 1914. She served in the United States Navy from March 1918 until June 1919. She was scrapped in 1933.
USS Oosterdijk was a Holland America Line cargo steamship that was built in 1913 and sank as a result of a collision in 1918. She served in the United States Navy, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID–2586, from March 1918 until her loss that July. Some sources anglicise her name as Oosterdyk, but Lloyd's Register registered her with the Dutch spelling Oosterdijk.
USS Beukelsdijk was a Dutch-owned turret deck ship that was built in England in 1903 as Grängesberg. She was renamed Beukelsdijk in 1916 when she changed owners. In 1918 she was requisitioned as USS Beukelsdijk, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID–3135. She returned to civilian service in 1919, and was wrecked in the Norwegian Sea in 1923.
SS Binnendijk was a Holland America Line (NASM) cargo steamship. She was one of NASM's "B" class ships: the company's first cargo ships to be powered by steam turbines. Binnendijk was built in South Holland in 1921, and sunk by a mine in the English Channel in 1939. She was the first ship that NASM lost in the Second World War. Her wreck off the coast of Dorset, England is now a wreck diving site, nicknamed "The Benny".
SS Maasdam was a Dutch turbine steamship that was launched in 1920 and sunk in 1941. She was the third Holland America Line ship to be named after the village of Maasdam in South Holland.
SS Van Heemskerk was a passenger steamship that was launched in the Netherlands in 1909 and sunk by enemy action off New Guinea in 1943. She spent most of her career with Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij, based in the Dutch East Indies.
SS Ajax was a cargo steamship that was built in Germany in 1923 as Elbe. In 1927 she was renamed twice, first to Ceuta and then to Ajax.
SS Veendam was a Dutch-owned transatlantic liner, launched in Scotland in 1922 and scrapped in the United States in 1953. She was part of the first generation of turbine-powered steamships in the Holland America Line fleet. Veendam and her sister ship Volendam were NASM's largest turbine steamships until the flagship Statendam was completed in 1929.
SS Blitar was a Dutch cargo steamship that was launched in Rotterdam in 1922 and sunk in the Battle of the Atlantic in 1943. She is notable for having fought off three u-boats in succession for nearly ten hours before U-632 finally managed to sink her. 26 of Blitar's complement were killed.
Royal Rotterdam Lloyd was a Dutch shipping line that was established in Rotterdam in 1883 as Rotterdamsche Lloyd (RL). It became "Royal Rotterdam Lloyd" in 1947. RL mainly operated scheduled passenger and mail services between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies. Its independent existence ended in 1970, when KRL merged with four other Dutch shipping companies to form the Nederlandsche Scheepvaart Unie (NSU). In 1977 NSU became Nedlloyd.
SS Blommersdijk was a Dutch-owned turret deck ship that was built in England in 1907 as Blötberg. In January 1916 Holland America Line (NASM) bought her and renamed her Blommersdijk.
MV Zaandam was a Dutch cargo liner. She was one of a pair of motor ships built for Holland America Line in 1938. In 1942 a U-boat sank her, causing the deaths of 135 of her passengers and crew. 164 people survived, including three who drifted on a life raft for 83 days before being rescued.
SS Westerdijk was a Holland America Line cargo steamship that was completed in 1913 and scrapped in 1933. She served in the United States Navy, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID–2514, from March 1918 until September 1919. Some sources anglicise her name as Westerdyk, but Lloyd's Register registered her with the Dutch spelling Westerdijk.
SS Van Waerwijck was a passenger steamship that was launched in the Netherlands in 1909 and sunk in the Strait of Malacca in 1944. She spent most of her career with Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij, based in the Dutch East Indies.
References
↑ "Burgerdyk – ID 1175". Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2023.
↑ "Blijdendyk – ID 1002". Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2023.
↑ "Blommersdyk – ID 1011". Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2023.
↑ "Bilderdyk – ID 972". Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2023.
↑ "Binnendyk – ID 981". Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2023.
↑ "Boschdyk – ID 1067". Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2023.
↑ "Breedyk – ID 1113". Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank (in Dutch). Retrieved 30 June 2023.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.II.–Steamers and Motorships of 300 Tons Gross and Over. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1937 – via Southampton City Council.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Netherlands
