SIMON BOLIVAR passenger-cargo vessel 1927

[aukepalmhof]

In the Dutch magazine Thema 1995/2 page 10, I read that the vessel on this stamp was the SIMON BOLIVAR. On my request to the Dutch Post museum at s’Gravenhage they told me that in the “Nederlandsche Maandblad voor Philatelie” of 1928 page 159 the vessel was identified as the SIMON BOLIVAR.

When you compare the vessel on the stamp with a photo of the vessel it looks the same. At that time the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoombootmaatschappij (KNSM) had only one passenger vessel with two funnels, also the funnels on the stamp are black with white bands, the funnel of KNSM.
The SIMON BOLIVAR was used in a liner service between the Netherlands and Curacao, Barbados, Trinidad, Guianas, Puerto Cabello, Santa Marta, Puerto Colombia, Antigua, Jamaica and Christobal (the Colon Line.)

The SIMON BOLIVAR named after the South American freedom fighter Simon Bolivar was ordered in the fall of 1926 by the KNSM from the Rotterdamse Droogdok Mij. She was the first two stacker of the KNSM. The contract price was 2.140.000 Dutch guilders.

Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard No 138.
15 December 1926 launched as the SIMON BOLIVAR.
Tonnage 7.906 gross, (later 8.309 gross), 4.760 net, 8.650 dwt., dim. 438.6 x 59.2 x 27.9ft. (draught). Between pp 426.6ft.
Powered by one 4 cyl. quadruple expansion stem engine, 4.800 hp, speed 14.5 knots.
Passenger accommodation 152 first, 54 second and 32 third class.
1932 Altered to 131, 52 and 42 passengers.
Call sign PSDN, later PHMS.
March 1927 completed.

Sailed on her last voyage from Rotterdam on 17 Nov. 1939 on her way to Curacao under command of Capt. H.Voorspuy, loaded with whisky, silk and personal effects, 265 passengers of which more than 30 children below the age of 12, and 132 crew.
On the morning of the next day around 10.30 one mile south of SUNK lightship in position 51 49 3 N and 01 41E she struck two mines laid the day before by the German destroyers, BERNDT VON AMIM, WILHELM HEIDKAMP and HERMAN KUNNE.

When the first magnetic mine exploded the captain on the bridge and some other crew members were killed instantly, many passengers and crew were wounded by flying glass and steam from broken pipes. The explosion was so strong that the masts were blown down. The radio room was damaged and no SOS could be sent. Slowly SIMON BOLIVAR sank away, stern first.

When the second mine exploded about ten minutes later, wounding more people and damaging some lifeboats it got very difficult for the people to get off the ship, which now began to sink rapidly. British navy vessels rescued most people, but 84 people lost their life.

At that time the Netherlands were neutral, and protests of the Dutch Government to the Governments of Germany and Great Britain were refused. Both countries put the blame of the disaster on the other party.

SIMON BOLIVAR was the eighteen merchant vessel that was lost in the Second World War. The wreck completely destroyed, is now in position 51 49N and 01 36E and does not prove an obstacle to shipping nowadays.

From the Battle of the East Coast by J.P.Foynes comes the following story on the loss of the vessel.

On 18 November the 8.309 ton Dutch passenger liner SIMON BOLIVAR, of the Royal Netherlands Steamship Company, was bound from Rotterdam to Tilbury, and thence was to go to the West Indies. When at 12.30 she was approaching Longsand Head, twenty-five miles off Harwich, she was rocked by a severe underwater explosion. She lay stopped and wirelessed? for assistance, but within fifteen minutes there was a second blast immediately beneath the bridge. The hull was torn open and the liner went down amid escaping steam and oil with the loss of 130? Lives, including Captain Voorspuy, though the sea was sufficiently shallow for her funnels and masts to remain clear of the water.

A destroyer, a trawler and captain Bonser’s train ferry from Harwich brought 140 survivors, mostly women and children, to Parkeston Quay, while others were placed on board passing London-bound ships. The Walton and Clacton lifeboats put out and circled well into the night in a effort to find more survivors. Harwich Civil Defence group, led by C.M.F.Bernard, set up a clearing station for the wounded in Parkeston Railway Hotel. Local newspapermen arrived and were amazed to see survivors coated in black oil sitting amid the gleaming silver cutlery and white tablecloths of the hotel dinning room. The wounded were taken to Shotley Naval Hospital and the Essex County Hospital in Colchester. The most pathetic sight were the children some of whom had lost their parents either temporarily or permanently, and who screamed hysterically or clung, dazed to their rescuers. A story went the rounds that one child has been put with a black woman on the assumption that she was the mother, but on being scrubbed was found to be white. Civil Defence workers cleaned up the victims and provided them with tea and new clothes. While this humanitarian work was in progress the air raid sirens sounded and everyone had to take shelter underground.

Curacao 1928 6c/35c sg112/22, scott?. 1929 6c on 7½c sg126, scott?

Sources: Schepen van de KNSM. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea During the age of Steam. Lloyds War Losses. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Koopvaardij in de Tweede Wereldoorlog by K.W.I.Bezemer.
Sea Breezes June 2002 page 234.