Page 10 - Willem Barentsz

Some readers will have seen the ship pass through the locks in IJmuiden in October or November,
past the old Scheveningen radio building on the lock island. Then a lot would have preceded that.
First, ammunition was loaded for the catchers halfway through the North Sea Canal. This happened at
a mini depot specially built for the WB at a few large mooring bollards. These bollards are still in the
North Sea Canal (2024 L.V.).

Willem Barendsz bollards 2024

The ship's doctor had examined all Dutch crew members and provisions and stores, deck barge after
deck barge full, had been taken on board. Everyone was tense about what the coming trip would
bring. In the mess rooms, the talks of five months ago were continued. Initially, course was set for
Curaçao or Trinidad, where 25,000 tons of oil were bunkered. There was a lot of activity on board.
The slaughter deck, 5 cm thick, had to be nailed to the normal deck, steel wires and rope split, and
chains caressed, in short, everything was taken care of down to the last detail to be ready for the big
undertaking. On deck it looked like the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam in the evening, everyone took their
evening walk there.
After the West Indies, the crossing to Cape Town was made with, of course, the well-known
interruption for the Neptune party. There were always more than a hundred newcomers, who were
smeared with a lot of sludge. When we arrived in Cape Town, there were a few days of high activity.
The catchers had to be supplied. These were moored in the port of Cape Town during the "off
season". The radio installations were checked, and the ships’ officers received their instructions. In
Cape Town, new crew members came on board and the ship's doctor had to inspect about 350 South
Africans. When all that was done, the journey could begin. There was hardly any time to go ashore.
Like a hen with chicks, we went out of the bay and after the catchers were equipped with explosives
offshore, we went 180 degrees ahead.... So, course south. You could soon run into bad weather. I
remember that we had not been away from Cape Town for 24 hours and we ended up in stormy
weather. Meteo Pretoria asked in a telegram if our OBS was correct, because they knew nothing
about that storm. Our meteorological information was particularly valuable to them in those days. In
the years leading up to the meteorological era of satellite, they had to rely mainly on the whalers and
a few fixed stations. For years in a row, when we returned to Cape Town, we were personally handed
over by their representative the price for the ship that had sent most OBS's to Meteo Pretoria. This
contrasts with the appreciation experienced by our own KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological
Institute), a letter about an OBS sent too late!

Seven months of work for 15 months of pay.