Capt. Willem Bakker. Photo taken from a publication of 1893 which listed various North Atlantic captains. (b)

Willem Bakker was born on 07 Feb. 1859 in Nieuwendiep on the island of Texel in the north of the Netherlands.

Many details about his private life and time before Holland America  have not been discovered yet. But it is known that he started sailing in the coastal trade at the age of 12  and made it to first mate on the sailing ships by the time he was 19. According to an article in a Dutch newspaper, the sailing ships he served on where the “Baltimore”, Maria Adolphone, Sundevall, “Aart en cornelia”, Telanek, Soderbarum, Borga, Charlotte and Soderhammn. All sailing ships in the class of schooners, fregates or Barques.

When he was 22 he transfered to  the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN) or “The Netherland Line”, sailing from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies.  (a) He had to start again as 4th. officer as he went from sail to steam but then climbed up quickly to first officer.

ED: Sofar I have not been able to find any private information about Captain Bakker and his family but he was married and there were children and grand childern. IF ANYBODY WHO READS THIS HAS ANY INFORMATION OR PHOTOS PLEASE CONTACT ME ON Captalbert1@aol.com.

As promotion to captain was very slow with the SMN he joined Holland America in 1888 as Chief Officer on the ss Leerdam (I).  Shortly after, in the same year, he was promoted to Captain of the ss Edam (II).

The ss Edam (II) of 1882. There are no known photos of this ship, only ships models and paintings. The ship had a speed of 10 knots and could carry 50 passengers in first class and 434 in 3rd. or emigrant class)(b)

Within Holland America he was nicknamed  Red Bakker (Roode Bakker in Dutch) to keep him apart from his captain -colleague Geert Bakker. (Black Bakker)

On12 July 1900 he completed his 100th. North Atlantic voyage for the company.  In the same year he was the recipient of the “first ever” gold medal issued by the Royal Netherlands Meteorogical Society for keeping excellent weather observation logs and reports.

In 1902 he received the bronze medal for well presented compass journals.

The last ship Captain Bakker was in command of was the ss Statendam (I) built in 1898 and this ship was basically considerd to be the first ship that was good enough for Holland America to compete with the  British and German companies.

The ss Statendam (I) as seen on a contemporary postcard from before 1905 (b)

After resigning from Holland America he is appointed on 15 November 1904  as the first harbour master of the newly constructed fishery port of Scheveningen. (A fishermen’s village attached to  the city of The Hague). It brought him a yearly salary of Dutch fl. 2500,–  which would have been somewhat less then he would have made as HAL Captain as the captains in those days also received a bonus on the cargo profit. (ED: As his career was going well at sea, I assume that he went shore side for family reasons)

The new fishery port of Scheveningen, as  seen here on a postcard from 1905. Please note the large number of fishing boats docked.

His duties included setting up an administrative system for the new port, arranging a tugboat service to assist the fishing fleet and to make the port operational ready for receiving fishing boats. Those boats had until that time beached themselves at high water, to make discharging possible at low water. He remains in this function for 20 years.  Besides being harbour master he also acts for 23 years as an examiner for the testing of sea going officers during exams for their next rank certificate.

From 1906 to 1931 he was a member and later chairman of the local chapter of the Lifesaving society NZHRM.

On 01 july 1920 he is appointed as extraordinary member of the Dutch Board of Inquiry for Shipping (Raad voor de Scheepvaart). he remains in this function until 23 December 1933 when he resigns.

Captain Bakker passed away om 16 July 1937 and was buried at the cemetery “Oud Eik en Duinen”.

Other decorations bestowed upon him:

  1. Knight (other sources say officer) in the order of Orange-Nassau.
  2. The golden “De Ruyter” medal.
  3. The golden medal of the Dutch lifesaving society NZHRM.

Sailing List: (c)

Date:                    Function:                            Ship:                                    Wages and/or remarks.

07 May 1888       Chief Officer              Leerdam                             fl 100,–

02 Aug. 1888      Dismissed

06 Aug. 1888      Act. Captain                   Edam                                   200,–

01 Nov. 1888      Captain                               Edam                                   200,–

01 Jan. 1890       Captain                               Werkendam                    200,–

02 Oct. 1896       Temporary dismissed and put on standby. (assigned to Amsterdam)

09 Oct. 1896       Left with the ss Columbus from Southampton to New York to take command of the Amsterdam there

16 Oct. 1896       Captain                               Amsterdam                    200,–

08 Aug. 1899      Temporary dismissed and put on standby

02 Oct. 1899       Captain                               Maasdam                           200,–

30 Jun. 1901       Temporary dismissed and put on standby

06 Aug. 1901      Captain                               Maasdam                           200,–

15 Oct. 1901       Captain                               Potsdam                             200,–

17 Nov. 1901      Captain                               Maasdam                           200,–

03 Apr. 1902       Captain                               Statendam                         200,–

16 Nov. 1904      Honorably Dismissed

Sources:

(a) Information via E.H Kruidhof.

(b) Photos Captains Albert photo collection

(c) Stamboeken in the HAL archives as kept by the Municipal Archives of the City of Rotterdam.

Last updated: 20 Jan. 2025