Once inside the main entrance door, there is a large waiting area and on display is the Bell of the ss Rotterdam V. It is I think the biggest bell that has ever graced a Holland America ship as it weighs over 300 pounds. How it got there is a nice story as well. Yours truly was assigned as Chief Officer on the Rotterdam V when it was going out of service after having been sold to Premier Cruises.
Rotterdam bell in the Foyer
So apart from doing my CO’s job, my interest was directly peaked into the direction of the artefacts on board. It is not unusual that a new company throws everything out that does not fit in their corporate style and also does so because it does not have any affinity with the history of the ship. Still the New Owners wanted to keep everything so in principle everything would have to stay, but our legal counsel said that everything that had the name Rotterdam on it would remain property of HAL. Well that gave me some options. Because the ships name was Rotterdam but also the ships registration was Rotterdam.
The ship was going out of service on 30 September 1997 a deadline that had to be adhered to as the new Rotterdam (VI) was coming into service on October 1st. You cannot have two Rotterdam’s in one company at the same time, it is too confusing. It was already confusing enough during the new build period, as we on board were getting mail meant for the Rotterdam under construction and the construction team in Italy was receiving things meant for us in Alaska.
The final cruise was a Trans Canal cruise which had been booked solidly with Rotterdam aficionados more than a year before. Everybody who was anybody on the regular world cruises, had to be on board, to say goodbye to the “Grand Dame of the Seas”, as the ship had been nicknamed for quite a few years already. I was a bit wary about all these particular guests coming on board as it could be expected that they would bring screwdrivers with them to “procure” a final souvenir. We had during the final voyage extra security on patrol, just in case of. However they all found out that every valuable decoration had been very strongly attached to the ship. A mere screw driver was not enough……. and luckily nobody had thought about bringing a hammer.
Bow of the ship with the bell in the center
Just to be on the safe side I made arrangements to have everything off the bulkheads that was screw driver accessible before the last cruise started. In the end we only lost a Japanese Samurai helmet and whether that was a guest or a crewmember, we will never know. The First Port Call plaques hanging in the ship, and some of them were very nice, we auctioned off to the guests and we raised about $ 12000 for the Old Sailors Home in Holland. The plan was to buy a billiard for it but I never saw the result as a few years later, the sailors home was closed. Nowadays retired sailors prefer to live in regular Retirement Homes.
Anyway I had to ensure that all that could go off was saved before the last cruise started. There was still quite a bit of stuff that carried the name Rotterdam, such as the builder’s plates, Chinese vases, the bust of Queen Juliana who baptized the ship, etc. etc.
And also the Bell. Nicely cast into the bell was the name SS Rotterdam. So it was ours. The carpenter made a beautiful box and the bell was duly landed in Norfolk dry dock. Solas requires that each ship carries a bell on the bow to give danger and fog signals. It also describes that the minimum size of the bell mouth should at least be 300 millimeters in diameter. Otherwise there would be ship owners who would hang a Christmas ornament on the bow, just to save money. The diameter of the Rotterdam bell is 1000 millimeter or one meter. So when the replacement bell was installed, it looked a bit poorly and the new owner was not very happy. But we conformed with Solas and to the contract and I had saved the bell.
And now it stands here in the entrance of the office building as a reminder of one of the greatest ships the company had ever built.
The greatest HAL Ship ever ???
June 12, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Enjoyed reading the stories about the anchor and the bell at head office, great to be reading your blogs again 🙂
June 12, 2014 at 9:32 pm
I certainly think she was the greatest Ship, I do not like these modern ‘Monsters’ why do we need balconies and so many activities ie: water skiing, mountain climbing etc: I guess I am old fashioned! Thank you for yet another enjoyable account,
Robina
June 13, 2014 at 11:59 am
I think one of the reasons you are good documentarian of HAL history is because you were a part of much of it (and you relate the information well) – nothing like hearing about things from someone who was there!
June 13, 2014 at 8:16 pm
Love your stories! So happy to have you blogging again.
June 14, 2014 at 3:32 pm
I was on that final cruise of the beloved ss Rotterdam, and will always be glad of it.
I have often wondered, what happened to that beautiful Oriental vase, very large, that stood between the two doors as you entered the Smoking Room?
My understanding is that it was purchased by a guest on a World Cruise, but she wasn’t able to transport it home. “ss Rotterdam” was painted on the inside rim.
If you can solve this mystery for me, I will be eternally grateful.
Thanks.
June 17, 2014 at 11:20 am
Good morning,
thank you for reading my blog. There were actually two vases, the 2nd one was hidden inside the shorex office. Both were transferred to the new ms Rotterdam in october of 1997. I believe they ended up in the middle staircase.
thank you for reading my blog.
Best regards
Capt. albert
June 15, 2014 at 2:38 pm
I loved the magical, mysterious main stair case and the bronze Angels on a wall facing the stairs. Can’t recall which deck they were on. Also loved the little, intimate Tropic Bar. Loved the whole dam ship.
June 27, 2014 at 8:47 am
Dear Captain Albert, thinking of useless anchors I remember that during her worldcruise in 1963 or 1964 the ss Rotterdam, while at anchor in the Bitterlakes, lost one of the anchors.
In those days I sailed on the ss Rotterdam as 4th mate and as far I remember the flukes of that anchor had broken. During the anchorwatch the second mate W. Kroonsberg and I noticed that the ship was suddenly making leeway, casu quo, moving backwards. The captain during this worldcruise was Commodore C.G. Kooiman. So the ss Rotterdam had to stay an extra day in the Bitterlakes until the broken anchor had been replaced by the reserve-anchor. Later on I was told that during the worldcruise, one year earlier, the same problem ad occurred in the same Bitterlake.
Kind regards,
Elbert L.J. Bosma
April 9, 2015 at 4:14 pm
Hey guys, you can visit the Rotterdam in Rotterdam. Its been converted into a hotel and the ship looks like the way it was in the earlier days.
November 28, 2017 at 6:13 pm
Perhaps the Ship’s Bell can be returned back to the ship since she has not been scrapped.