Rooseboom (ship)
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The Rooseboom was a Dutch ship belonging to the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij that was sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean during the Second World War (position 0 ° 38 ′ 29.9 ″ N , 86 ° 35 ′ 10.9 ″ E ). More than 500 people lost their lives in the process.
The ship
The Rooseboom was built in 1926 by Rijkee & Co. in Rotterdam and used by KPM in Southeast Asia.
Sinking
When the Japanese troops arrived at the ports of Padang (Indonesia) , Tandjong Priok , Tjilatjap and Surabaya , numerous Dutch steamers were used to bring refugees to Ceylon or Australia. Many of these refugee transports did not reach their destinations, including the Rooseboom .
The Rooseboom , which was used in peacetime for traffic between the islands and before her last voyage between Oosthaven and Merak , left the already badly damaged port of Tandjong Priok on February 22, 1942 under the command of Captain MCA Boon.
You should Colombo to Bombay go, go but Emma Haven numerous refugees in small boats across the Strait of Malacca from Malaya , then fled Sumatra the course of the Indragiri were followed and finally reaches the west coast to take on board. This happened on February 27th. The exact number of Rooseboom passengers on this voyage is unknown, but a number over 500 is assumed.
On the night of February 28 to March 1, 1942, the Rooseboom was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean, about 600 nautical miles from the island of Sipora , by the Japanese submarine I.59 under the command of Lieutenant Yoshimatsu. All but one of the lifeboats were destroyed or could no longer be launched into the water. The Rooseboom went under within a few minutes. In the last remaining lifeboat, which was actually designed for 40 people, about 80 people were able to save themselves, around 50 other passengers of the Rooseboom initially swam near the lifeboat and kept in contact with it. Initially, the captain and his first engineer were also on board. However, this attacked Boon on the overloaded lifeboat, fatally wounded him and then jumped overboard himself. A group of inmates also planned to increase their chances of survival by killing as many passengers as possible or throwing them overboard. This plan was quickly discovered and the members of this group were removed from the boat.
The boat drifted back in an easterly direction and towards Sumatra and stranded three and a half weeks later on the island of Sipora. At this point there were four people still alive on board; in addition to Sergeant W. Gibson from a Scottish regiment, these were the Chinese spy Doris Lim and two members of the ship's crew.
These four survivors were taken in and cared for by residents of Sipora. A few weeks later, however, Sipora was captured by the Japanese. While Gibson, who was initially interned by these and transported to Japan, later returned to Scotland and wrote a book entitled The Boat about the sinking of the Rooseboom and its rescue, little is known about the further fate of the other three people; Doris Lim may have been executed by the Japanese.
Two other members of the crew were picked up about a week and a half after the sinking of the Rooseboom , with parts of the wreck floating in the sea, by the KPM ship Palopo , which was sailing to Bombay. Until the end of World War II, these two people were believed to be the only survivors of the sinking.
Footnotes
- ↑ www.theshipslist.com: Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij 1888-1967
- ↑ http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/alliesinadversity/seafaring/shipping.asp
- ↑ a b c http://www.kombuispraat.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1849&start=1040
- ↑ The year 1945 sometimes appears in the sources used.
- ^ Royal Packet Navigation Co. of Netherlands East Indies (NEI) ( Memento of February 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?17527 gives an even lower number, but apparently also assumes fewer people on the ship.
- ↑ So Lucas Lindeboom in his book about the downfall, quoted after a copy on [1] .
- ↑ https://sites.google.com/a/mercantilemarine.org/mercantile-marine/War-time-Stories/kom-ships
- ↑ http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?17527