With strong winds in the back and following current we made good progress down the coast. To such an extent that I could run on one engine less, or less than normal would have been the case. So what we lost in extra fuel going up, we were now gaining back going south. My chief engineer was a happy camper today. For the guests the following wind has a benefit as well, as it creates a nice gentle breeze of about 10 knots over the deck. We are doing 18 knots and the wind is blowing with us 28 knots. I had asked the quartermasters to count the whales for me that they saw while on lookout and as expected, the number of observations went down the closer we came to Cabo San Lucas. The whales are definitely on the move. While we sailed by Cabo we spotted only two of them. One was breaching but did not repeat its performance, the other flipped a fluke and that was it. I still do not know whether whales like to play in rough water or not, but subjectively I seem to see less of them if we really have high waves. Maybe they can get affected by the motion of the ocean as well.
The only challenge with a following wind is that the smoke is flowing over the ship as it is being pushed forward. That is with regular sailing not a problem but once a day (middle of the night), the engineers start soot blowing. E.G they clean the exhaust pipes of the engines and the boilers from the accumulated soot of the last 24 hours. Regular smoke comes out in small particles and gets quickly dispersed by the wind but soot can come out in bigger lumps when it is “scraped” off the pipe surface by the wind. Those bigger lumps (looking a bit like orange peels but then in black) tend to settle quicker and quite often descend on the decks. Then the next morning the bo’sun has a hard time getting the stuff off and that results in a tantrum against the engineers. So we try to prevent that and that means that the officer of the watch has to discuss with his/her counterpart downstairs what is a good time for soot blowing, so if needed, we can change course and bring the smoke plume under an angle off the ship. Which way the ship then deviates from course depends on how close we are to the shore or if there is traffic or reefs and banks in the vicinity. As we do this run every 14 days, up or down, we pass the same areas at the same time. Thus we can plan for this soot blowing quite well but still we find sometimes soot on the deck resulting in a very unhappy bosun and subsequently chief officer. I wish inventors could come up with an underwater exhaust that would solve all our issues.
On the night of the 14th to 15th 1912 the titanic sank after hitting an iceberg at excessive speed. I do not think that there is a single tv station or newspaper who are not paying attention to this some way or another. I am still fascinated and at the same time a bit repulsed by all the hoola-baloo around it. I have about 75 books on Titanic in my library and those are the ones I could buy cheaply. If I would buy all that was out there, the total would climb to over 300. There is simply not that much to tell about one ship,but it has the attention of the world and thus the books sell.
The Statendam (II) that never was. With 33,000 tons she was 12,000 ton smaller than the Titanic. In comparison the Statendam (V) is 54,000 tons shorter, but higher and wider.
There are two Holland America Line connections to the Titanic. First one of our Directors, Viscount Reuchlin, was dispatched by the company to go on its maiden voyage to spy the ship out. Holland America was planning to order a very large ship at Harland & Wolff in the near future, so it was important to get a feeling for the work quality of the shipyard. Eventually we did order a new ship, the Statendam II, but it never sailed for the company as the war intervened and the British took the ship over as a troop transport. She was torpedoed in 1917 as the Justicia. Viscount Reuchlin perished on the Titanic as one of the three Dutch people on board.
The other connection is that the ss Noordam (I) sent a telegram to the Titanic warning them of ice ahead. That telegram was received but not acted upon and the rest is history. Why am I a little bit repulsed by all this Titanic fever ? Look at the list below. Who remembers these ships and those who were on board ?
1912 Titanic 1496 died
1945 Wilhlem Gustloff approx. 6000 died
1945 Cap Arcona approx. 6000 died
1987 Dona Paz ferry over 4000 died
Why do we not remember the last three…… ?????
As my Grandfather used to say: It is a funny old world.
April 17, 2012 at 12:09 am
Thank you for remembering these ships and those who drowned . Current studies by British Naval Research (among others), Gustloff carried about 10.000 German refugees that night, men, women and children, of which a little over 900 survived in the icy January water. This is by far the most horrendous loss of life at sea, a distinction these poor souls did not envision nor wish to carry. Gustloff had been a cruise ship before, then was requisitioned for troop shipments, and on that night became what 10.000 people hoped to be their rescue from war atrocities taking place on the eastern German front. Since the torpedoing happened in wartime, little mention was made . After the war the Russians blew up the wreck .
April 17, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Captain Albert,
Fantastic blog! Thanks for writing it.
My aunt and I will be joining you and the Statendam crew in Fort Lauderdale on 27April. I hope to have the opportunity to meet you at least once during the 16-days back to San Diego.
As for why people remember the Titanic and not the others, I think that it’s because it’s a good lesson in the bravado and arrogance of man and the cruel lesson learned (once again) that Mother Nature is in control. This was, after all, the unsinkable ship.