As the families of the men and women who escaped on the Zeemanshoop sat down for dinner in the Carlton Beach Club on the evening of Tuesday 13 May the newly restored ninety year old Dutch lifeboat Zeemanshoop was entering harbour after successfully completing the voyage from the shipyard at Zaandam to the North Sea at Ijmuiden and along the coast to Scheveningen.

I sat between Baroness Henig and 95 year old Karel Dahmen and as the sun set at 22.00 and darkness fell we discussed whether this was the time when the Zeemanshoop powered by a single cylinder of its Kromhout engine set off for England. Kurt Munzer had told his daughters that it was dark when they left the harbour and Karel Dahmen agreed that they left at dusk.



The following morning when the families and guests climbed the external staircase to the Kantine they could see the restored Zeemanshoop berthed immediately below and close by the lifeboat from Breskens, the Zeemanshoop 2, a RIB built with a bequest from Wim Belinfante, a Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands Ministry of Justice who escaped on the Zeemanshoop with his sister.


Paul de Kievit, Director of the Scheveningen Museum, had organised a small display which included the chart on which the names of the 42 passengers and four crew members were recorded with the time the Zeemanshoop left the harbour. On close examination I could see that Karel Dahmen and Ruth Henig's father were right. The time recorded by a crew member, probably Lou Meijers, was 9 pm (22.00 summer time) - plus or minus - and not 19.40 as I had thought when I looked at a poor quality scan of a printed copy of the chart.

Lis Drew welcomed us and explained how plans were made for the reunion. In his talk Bill Forster explained why an Englishman who spoke no Dutch was interested in the voyage of the Zeemanshoop and the lives of her crew and passengers.  He described how he set about tracing the families and the help he received from people in the Netherlands but with almost a third of the names on the "passenger list" not traced it seemed unlikely that his search would ever end. The rescue of the men and women on the Zeemanshoop was, of course, a minor incident in the context of the fast moving events of May and June 1940 and he used the photographs taken by Lt Peter Kershaw RNVR on HMS Venomous to tell the story of that dramatic period in the history of this elderly Royal Navy destroyer as documented elsewhere on this web site. The son and daughter of Lt Cdr John McBeath RN, the CO of HMS Venomous in 1940, were in the audience. Captain John Rodgaard USN (Ret), lead author of the second edition of A Hard Fought Ship: the Story of HMS Venomous, had come over from his home in Washington, USA.


The two men who were there, 95 year old Karel Dahmen and 92 year old Loet Velmans, gave their own personal  memories of that time. Karel Dahmen lived at Roermond near the border with Germany and described how everything changed after the National Socialists came to power in Germany and he realised that Europe faced a grim future. He recalled the many lives lost when young men attempted to escape by sea to England and the work of the Genootschap Engelandvaarders (Society of England Travelers). Loet Velmans told us of his consternation when having set off on his great adventure with his cousin they were joined by his formidable Mother and her relatives who arrived at the last minute by taxi. On arrival in London they sought the assistance of an influential family friend, the Minister of Water Supply in the exiled Dutch government, and were given a grant to take their son to the Dutch East Indies to resume his interrupted education with the disastrous consequences told in his book, The long Way Back from the River Kwai (Arcade Publishing, 2003).

Henk Grootveld (Left, Amke.nl ©) of the KNRM described the history of the lifeboat station at Scheveningen and the service of the Zeemanshoop while stationed there before the war. Then, quite dramatically, the crew of the present life boat appeared as if by magic standing in a long row behind him, each wearing identical heavy woolen jumpers bearing the letters KNRM on their chests.
 
Jaap Boersma (Right, Amke.nl ©) was still unshaven after yesterday's voyage of the Zeemanshoop along the Dutch coast, powered by the seventy year old two cylinder Kromhout engine and escorted by the Neeltje Jacoba.  His friend, Theo de Boer, was given five years to live in his early forties and asked Jaap's advice on a boat to buy. Jaap recommended a decommissioned Dutch lifeboat and Theo bought the Zeemanshoop. He fitted a six cylinder Volvo Penta diesel engine and high cabin changing its appearance completely and spent his final years on long voyages, sometimes alone and sometimes with his young family. He went as far afield as Gothenburg and when he died in 2009 his ashes were scattered at sea from the Zeemanshoop.

The Zeemanshoop was on the market for several years before Jaap negotiated its purchase by the Neeltje Jacoba 1929 Foundation in February 2015. Jaap had already restored the famous Dutch lifeboat Neeltje Jacoba and now took on the task of restoring the Zeemanshoop and making her the eye-catcher of the lifeboat museum on the Frisian island of Ameland. The Foundation received large grants from local government but despite much of the work being done by unpaid enthusiasts they needed to have a substantial amount of work done at Kramers shipyard at Zaandam in order to bring the Zeemanshoop to Scheveningen on the anniversary of her voyage to England. You can read about the restoring of the Zeemanshoop here.




An informal buffet lunch was served in the Kantine but most of us made a quick dash for the external staircase leading to the pontoon where the Zeemanshoop was berthed with the modern RIB lifeboat from Breskens moored on the opposite side. Karel Dahmen and Loet Velmans were filmed by a television crew as well as facing a battery of cameras belonging to family members. The slow drumbeat of the Kromhout engine rolled out again and quickened as Jaap Boersma took the Zeemanshoop to the point where the original protective moles ended and then returned with Karel Dahmen at the helm just as he was 75 years ago. A further short excursion was made with the deck almost as crowded as it was in 1940.


Ruth Henig was photographed with three generations of her family, the youngest having been let off school on condition they wrote an essay on the voyage of the Zeemanshoop and what it meant to them. "Why I was born in England" occurred to me as a suitable title. And then Loet Velmans, a seventeen year high school student in 1940 but now a 92 year old great grand-father, was photographed with his family.




Baroness Ruth Henig, Member of the House of Lords (Photograph Amke.nl ©)


Baroness Henig spoke about how her parents, Kurt and Freda Munzer, came to be on Scheveningen beach on the fateful evening of 14 May.  They were German Jews who had been forced to leave Germany in the mid 1930s, and they met and then married in Enschede in 1939. By 1940 they were living in The Hague and her mother was four months` pregnant.  When news came of the Nazi invasion of Holland, she became hysterical and begged that they try to escape as soon as possible, hence their attempt on 14 May to find a boat to take them to safety.

On arrival in England, they were separated, imprisoned for three weeks in London on suspicion of being Nazi spies, and then sent to internment camps on the Isle of Man.  They were not reunited for over a year, during which time Baroness Henig`s elder sister Evi was born on the Island. Some time before the birth, her father wrote to Queen Wilhelmina via the exiled Dutch Government in London, telling her that he and his wife had been forced to flee from Holland with only the clothes and possessions they had on them, and, with a baby on the way, had no baby clothes or blankets available.  Within a short time, parcels of clothes arrived on the Isle of Man, including beautiful baby outfits and blankets.  As a result, Evi was the best dressed baby on the Island, and Baroness Henig`s parents never forgot the kindness and generosity of the Dutch Royal family. As a result, when she herself was born, three years later, she was given the middle name Beatrice, after the Dutch princess Beatrix.


Radboud Hack

Radboud is the son of Harry Hack who took on the role of "captain" of the Zeemanshoop. Harry Hack was studying marine engineering and had been an apprentice engineer on a voyage to the Dutch East Indies. He was confident that if he could find a boat he could get it to England even without  a crew but  had not expected the 42 passengers who clambered aboard while he was working on the engine but coped with the situation and deserves most of the credit for the success of the voyage.

Radboud trained as a marine architect and is well qualified to discuss the controversy over whether "to go on or to go back". The sea was calm but if it changed any sudden movement on the part of the passengers to one side or other of the lifeboat would have led to a capsize with the tragic consequences we have seen recently with the "Boat People" in the Mediterranean.

He set the crew and passengers tasks to keep them occupied and prevent them worrying during the long night at sea and when HMS Venomous was sighted the following afternoon he brought her safely alongside so that his passengers could clamber up the scrambling nets.

The story would have had a different ending had they not been sighted by HMS Venomous or if she had ignored their distress signals. If they had spent a second night at sea the likelihood is that even if the weather had remained calm the passengers would have become agitated and any attempt on their part to change position or enter the small cabin would have led to a capsise and the death of all onboard.

Radboud ended his talk by thanking the Royal Navy for their rescue. You can read Radboud's detailed resume of his talk in English and Dutch.



The Mayor began his talk with these words: "Never before was the term ‘lifeboat’ more appropriate. And never before the phrase ‘hijacked’ less so." He mentioned the similarities between Loet Velman's story and that of the Dutch poet Leo Vroman who also escaped from Sheveningen in May 1940 only to become a POW of the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies and died last year in Fort Worth, USA, aged 98. Many of these passengers on the Zeemanshoop came from The Hague, "where the international community holds to account those who violate international law and human rights". He ended by hoping "that 'De Zeemanshoop’ will continue to serve as a reminder for us – and the city of The Hague – that we should never stop working towards peace, safety and justice in our world. Both today and in the future." You can read his full speech here.

Sir Geoffrey Adams, British Ambassador to The Netherlands (Photograph right  Amke.nl ©)

The British Ambassador talked about the enduring values of the human spirit, manifested in the resourcefulness and courage shown by the students and their "passengers" in seizing the opportunity to escape and dealing with the problems faced during the voyage, and how these qualities are needed today to cope with the problems of the modern world.


Danny Verbaan, Dutch journalist and author, talked about Weg! his book on the voyage of the Zeemanshoop which was completed just in time to be launched at the reunion on the anniversary of the voyage. The Scheveningen branch of the KNRM told the German occupiers that the Zeemanshoop had been seized by soldiers, either a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts to avoid trouble or, perhaps, based on a rifle being fired by the sergeant in the Meerchaussen to discourage further people climbing aboard.  He expressed regret that Tinus Rog, the young fisherman who helped start the Kromhout engine was not there today to see the book launch. Tinus Rog lived in Scheveningen but had died in February. He thanked Bill Forster for helping him with research and copies of his book were presented to Karel Dahmen, Loet Velmans and Bill. His publisher was there to sell the book and Danny was kept busy signing copies.

The formal proceedings ended with the presentation of plaques recording the voyage of the Zeemanshoop seventy five years ago. A large plaque which will be placed on the new KNRM boathouse in Scheveningen when opened in 2017. Reduced size plaques were presented to Jaap Boersma for the restored Zeemanshoop, and to Karel Dahmen and Loet Velmans. Finally, a small plaque with the inscription in English was presented  to Lt Chris Chew RN, the CO of HMS Trumpeter, for display aboard the training ship of the Cambridge University Royal Navy Unit, a fitting end to the day since the Zeemanshoop was crewed by Dutch students and Trumpeter brought two students from Cambridge University to Scheveningen for the reunion of the families of the 46 men and women whose lives were saved when they were taken aboard HMS Venomous on the 15 May 1940.





HMS Trumpeter berthed in the inner harbour to make it easier for older visitors to come aboard. They were greeted by her CO, Lt Chris Chew RN, and shown round the ship by Sub Lieutenant Louis Jones RN and the two students from Cambridge University and a student from London University.

It was a wonderful day but there was one disappointment. The CO of HMS Venomous in May 1940 was Lt Cdr John McBeath RN who joined the Royal Navy as a boy sailor and became the Honorary Commodore of the Sea Cadets after his retirement as Rear Admiral and the author of the first edition of A Hard Fought Ship, the book I published on HMS Venomous was Bob Moore, the CO of TS Venomous at Loughborough. Lt Chris Chew RN, the CO of HMS Trumpeter,  invited five Sea Cadets and a member of staff of TS Venomous in Loughborough to join Trumpeter for the short voyage from Harwich to Scheveningen because of this link between the destroyer which rescued the passengers and crew of the Zeemanshoop and the Sea Cadets. Sadly, the Head Office of the Sea Cadet Corp would not give consent, a disappointment for the cadets and for the son and daughter of John McBeath who attended the reunion.