Simon Bolivar (ship)
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The Simon Bolivar was a passenger ship put into service in 1927 by the Dutch shipping company Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij , which was used in the transatlantic liner service and carried passengers and cargo from Rotterdam to various ports in the Caribbean Sea . On November 18, 1939, the Simon Bolivar sank in the North Sea after running into a German minefield off Harwich . 84 people were killed.
The ship
The steamship Simon Bolivar was built in 1926 at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij NV (RDM) shipyard in Rotterdam for the Dutch shipping company Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (KNSM) based in Rotterdam, which was founded in 1856. The steamer was launched on December 15, 1926 and was handed over to the owners on March 5, 1927. For the maiden voyage that ran Simon Bolivar in Amsterdam from March 27, 1927th She was the shipping company's first ship to have two funnels. The construction costs were under the contract to's then monetary value at 2.14 million Dutch guilders .
The shipping company, known in English-speaking countries as the Royal Netherland Steamship Company, focused on passenger traffic from Europe to the West Indies , Central America and the north and west coast of South America . The Simon Bolivar called at Curaçao , Barbados , Trinidad , Santa Marta , Antigua and Jamaica , among others .
The steamer was 133.65 meters long, 18.03 meters wide and had a draft of 8.4 meters. The four-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engines developed 4800 indexed PSi . The ship, whose maximum cruising speed was 14.5 knots, was named after the South American freedom fighter Simón Bolívar (1783-1830). The load capacity was 8650 DWT (“deadweight tonnage”).
The cabins were initially designed for 152 first-class, 54 second-class and 32 third-class passengers, but were converted in 1932 to accommodate 131 first-class, 54 second-class and 42 third-class passengers. As a result of the renovations, the volume increased from originally 7906 GRT to 8309 GRT. The callsign was also changed from PSDN to PHMS.
Downfall
On Friday, November 17, 1939 at 10 p.m., the Simon Bolivar left Amsterdam under the command of 51-year-old Captain Hendrik Voorspuy for a transatlantic crossing to Curaçao. There were 132 crew members and 265 passengers on board, including 34 children under the age of twelve. The route the ship was supposed to take was considered safe and mine-free. The following day, the Simon Bolivar passed the Essex coast en route to the Thames Estuary to reach Tilbury , the first stop on the voyage. The day before, the German destroyers Hermann Künne , Bernd von Arnim and Wilhelm Heidkamp had laid an extensive carpet of mines in that area.
While the ocean liner was heading for Long Sand Head , it ran straight into the minefield around 12:30 p.m. on November 18 about 25 nautical miles from the port city of Harwich . The explosion on the starboard side was so enormous that the masts overturned. Splinters of glass, parts of broken steam pipes and other debris flew over the deck, killing many people. Captain Voorspuy was also fatally injured.
The Simon Bolivar began to sink stern first. By the flip side created considerable difficulties lifeboats to leave the water. The ship's radio room was badly damaged by the explosion, so that an emergency call could not be made. Ten to 15 minutes after the first detonation, a second detonation took place on the port side below the navigating bridge , which damaged even more lifeboats and killed even more passengers. The steamer sank, stern first, within a very short time, a mile south of the Sunk lightship amid escaping steam and oil.
84 passengers and crew members lost their lives as a result of the accident (according to other sources, the death toll was 102 or up to 130). The destroyer HMS Greyhound , a trawler and a ferry brought about 140 rescued people ashore in Harwich, where they were accommodated at the Parkeston Railway Hotel. The injured were transported to Colchester , where they were treated in hospitals. Members of the Harwich civil protection group helped to clean the passengers, some of which were completely oil-smeared, and to calm them down. Other survivors were brought to London by passing ships . Further survivors were searched well into the night, but no one was found.
The Simon Bolivar was the first neutral merchant ship to be lost in the North Sea during World War II and the 18th total loss of a merchant ship during World War II. The Netherlands, which was still independent at the time, protested against the sinking.
Others
The wreck of the Simon Bolivar lies in shallow waters at the position 51 ° 49 ′ N , 1 ° 41 ′ E. and is almost destroyed. After the sinking, the tips of the chimneys still protruded from the water for some time, but today the wreck is no longer a danger to shipping.
Among the survivors, the 18-year-old Dutch Jew Flory Van Beek and her German fiancé, also a Jew, who after the war were the United States settled and in California the synagogue Temple Isaiah founded. In 1998 Van Beek published her memoir Flory: Survival in the Valley of Death , which also addresses the sinking of Simon Bolivar . In 2008 the book was published in a revised version with the title Flory: A Miraculous Story of Survival .
Flory Van Beek keeps a large splinter of glass from a porthole that was driven into the neck by one of the explosions and almost hit her carotid artery.
Captain Hendrik Voorspuy (born September 13, 1888, † November 18, 1939) was honored along with other war dead with a memorial in his hometown of Bloemendaal .
Web links
- Overview of key data and the last voyage of the Simon Bolivar (English and Dutch)
- The steamship Simon Bolivar (illustrated) (Dutch)
- Detailed information about the ship and its last ride (English)
- The Simon Bolivar in a list of ship losses in World War II (PDF file )
- Mention of the Simon Bolivar in a list of wrecks in British waters (almost at the bottom )
- Technical data of the Simon Bolivar in the wreck database wrecksite.eu (with picture) (English)
- Technical and historical information on a website about the RDM shipyard