It is with sadness that we report the death of one of our faithful members, Frank Miles. We shall miss his knowledge and immaculate photography. A picture of a liner taken at Vancouver will forever remind us of him.
Photos were mainly taken in the Rozenburg area with some at the Hook. These were the days when there was no Europort and little or no vegetation or industry along the banks of the canal. Work on Europort had started and many dredgers were active on the waterway in preparation.
Some liner and cruise ships of note were the Hanseatic ex Shalom, Randfontein, Nieuw Amsterdam, Statendam, Australis (ex America), and making return to her homeport, Achille Lauro, ex Willem Ruys.
The majority of tankers were of the centre island type, vessels such as the Shell�s Dutch flag Vivipara.
There were still a good number of wartime standard ships trading and one such example was the American-built VC2-S-AP3 Class Victory Ship, Indian Merchant, (ex Lewiston Victory). Also featured were a couple of real old timers, the Gyda C of 1920 and the Nederland of 1914. Also a reminder of old coaster types was Everard�s Chant, Auspicity of 1944.
Roy also showed pictures of unusual ships and some with strange trades such as the small ship with a large funnel that was used to burn hazardous waste in the North Sea, a practice now banned. A now defunct �trade� was carried out by the Dutch weather ship Cumulus, superseded by technology. A stranger to the New Waterway was a Japanese whale factory ship destined for repairs or refurbishment. A further rare picture was of Otto Hahn, one of the only three nuclear powered merchant ships ever built. The NS Otto Hahn was configured to carry passengers and ore and made its first port call in Casablanca in 1970 and continued to operate under nuclear power until 1979.
Regular callers were ships of the Danish East Asiatic Line and Swedish Johnson line and naturally Holland America Line. We thank Roy for showing us a unique collection of photographs from his collection accompanied by a well-researched commentary. We look forward to a further look into Roy�s collection later in the year.