On 9 April 1958, the MS “Kerkedyk” left Rotterdam on her maiden voyage to New York.
Henk van Hemmen was aboard as an assistant engineer.
A few days into the voyage a strange vibe started on the ship, and a while later an announcement was made to the crew that their vessel would divert to meet up with another Holland America Line ship, the SS “Arendsdyk”.
The Arendsdyk had suffered a main propulsion failure and needed a tow.
The crew started making preparations, bringing out the tow wire and the line throwing apparatus and rigging messenger lines.
Fortunately, the weather was favorable when the two vessels met 1,300 miles from New York.
A towing connection was made and the Kerkedyk started to tow.
Henk van Hemmen (on the left) had concerns, and told the Chief Engineer that he was worried about the thrust bearing overheating. The Chief dismissed Henk’s concerns and instead focused on exhaust gas temperatures.
On his off-watch Henk found a conveniently sized packing crate and positioned himself on it near the thrust bearing with a thermometer. Sure enough, the bearing started to heat up. Fortunately, with a little easing, the temperature did not reach a critical stage.
The event had resulted in radio chatter and soon a SMIT salvage station tug showed up.
Henk described them as furious that they had missed out on a juicy salvage tow and they verbally and physically harassed the Holland America Line ships.
The tow line broke (or possibly was broken by the Smit tug), but was respliced and the vessels arrived in New York on May 5, 1958.
It was a proper salvage for which the underwriters paid an award and the Kerkedyk’s crew received their shares.
The junior officer salvage award was sufficiently large for Henk to pass on a voyage, and to study and sit for his license upgrade exam.
The photos of the event were saved by Henk, but Henk’s passing made the details of the voyage fuzzy. The internet has conflicting accounts, where some accounts indicate the Kerkedyk towed the Arendsdyk back to Rotterdam. The truth lies in the logbooks that have been preserved in the Holland America Line archives in the Netherlands, but it will not change the seamanship and joy to provide assistance to a sister ship in need.
