Post
by aukepalmhof » Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:17 pm
Mr. D. van Nieuwenhuijzen is right, she is not the GEBROEDERS LUDEN when you look carefully at the stamp, the name is much shorter on the bow and only one word.
In all the sources I have she is given as the SUZANNA.
A few years back I downloaded a page from the net, which did give more info on the SUZANNA, have tried to find back the URL but can not find it.
Below is given what was on this site.
On 30 October 1968 at the famous shipyard Gebr. Niestern of Delfzijl the lifeboat Suzanna was launched. The boat was built for the Dutch lifeboat institution K.N.Z.H.R.M. (merged with the K.Z.H.M.R.S. into the Royal Dutch Lifeboat Institution or KNRM). The boat was put into service on 14 December 1968 at the lifeboat station of Den Helder. She was the fifth and last boat of the famous 'Carlot'-class. The Carlot had come into service as the first of this lifeboat class in 1960. The 'Suzanna' was replaced by the new 34 knots 'rigid inflatable' 'Dorus Rijkers' on 20 September 1997. The Suzanna then was added to the replacement fleet of the KNRM. In 1997 she was sold to the Icelandic lifeboat institution. From 20 December 1997 to 30 March 1998 she was stationed in Scheveningen, from where she answered five calls and where her hull was painted at the local yard. She then returned to Den Helder for the last preparations for the 1200 miles trip to her new station at the northeast coast of Iceland. On 16 April she departed with an Icelandic crew of four and two Dutch lifeboat skippers.
Rescue just in time.
The 'Suzanna' was built of steel with an aluminum superstructure. Her dimensions were 20.47 x 4.15 metres with a draught of 1.30 metres and a gross tonnage of 53 tons. Two Kromhout main engines of 140 HP each were each driving a five bladed fixed propeller in tunnels to avoid damage in shallow waters and enabling a maximum speed of 10.6 knots. During her thirty years at the lifeboat station of Den Helder she proved to be an extremely seaworthy and reliable vessel.
A beautiful rescue action was executed on 30 April 1982. At half past eight in the evening the Coastguard Station Kijkduin received a Mayday from the Danish fishing vessel RI 464 'Tistlarna', saying the vessel had struck a sand bank and was now in sinking condition. The lifeboat 'Suzanna' departed from Den Helder as soon as possible, with her flat 'Cornelius Zwaan' (to be used in extremely shallow waters) in tow. Soon the hard southwesterly wind and rough see forced the crew to let go the tow rope and the flat to sail under her own power. Still the exact position of the 'Tistlarna' was not known, as her crew of four all gave up different positions. But they asked now for immediate help as their vessel was rapidly sinking. Then the Coastguard saw a blip on the radar screen close to the WG9 buoy in the Westgat channel to Den Helder. The lifeboats made full speed and arrived at the scene, just to see the Danish cutter submerge. The English crew of four was lying around in the ice cold water. They were picked up soon and transported to Den Helder.
The Tragedy of the 'Activ'.
An extremely heavy trip was made on 1 February 1983, when during a force 12 gale the Danish schooner 'Activ' came into trouble. After leaving the Westgat channel to sea the 'Suzanna' was struck by heavy ground swells and thrown at her beam ends twice. The mercury switches stopped the engines both times, implying a gradient of over 100% must have been reached. The trip convinced the crew the boats would not capsize too easily (In fact no self-righting water replacement vessel of the Dutch ever did).The trip was cancelled when a Dutch navy vessel had arrived on the scene and sent the message the schooner was gone and there were no survivors. Only a body was picked up by a helicopter. Because of the extremely rough sea the 'Suzanna' still had to stay at sea and she could return to Den Helder only 27 hours after she had been called out
'Briz'
Another heavy trip followed on 25 January 1990 when a Russian tug lost her tow during a southwesterly force 12 storm. The tow was the Russian factory ship 'Briz' with a crew of 56 and was helplessly drifting north of the Dutch Wadden Isles. Because of the extreme weather conditions and darkness Dutch Navy helicopters could not help. Both the 'Suzanna' and the 'Carlot' departed from Den Helder and Terschelling. The 'Carlot' arrived first after a heavy battle against a cruel sea. In six runs she succeeded to take over five Russians, but suffered such damage that the attempts had to be stopped. The 'Carlot' then returned home. The now also arrived 'Suzanna' kept standing by until helicopters succeeded in rescuing the remaining crew members of the 'Briz'. After twenty hours the 'Suzanna' also returned safely in her home port Den Helder.
Polluted fuel oil.
After having been replaced by the 'Dorus Rijkers' the Suzanna was used as a replacement boat for some time. Then she was sold to Iceland. The Scheveningen coxswain was pleased to see the Suzanna being stationed at Scheveningen in advance. He had been ordered to sail the Suzanna to Iceland with a colleague of Den Helder and four Icelandic crew members. On 20 September 1997 the Scheveningen lifeboat crew went to Burghsluis (Noordland) to pick up the Suzanna. There she had acted as replacement for the fast lifeboat Graaf van Bylandt. Before the Scheveningen crew departed they were told one of the Suzanna's engines had twice stopped during the last trip. The Scheveningen mechanic then refused to sail without inspecting the fuel system first. The fuel oil filters showed to be polluted very seriously as a matter of neglected maintenance. Possibly the fuel was polluted by water in the fuel oil tanks. After the filters being replaced the Suzanna sailed for Scheveningen. There she replaced Koningin Juliana for three months. After the replacement of defect batteries by new ones and cleaning of the cooling system the Koningin Juliana had shown to be a very good and dry sea boat with excellent maneuverability and no fuel oil problems at all.
Full speed ahead for the mole head.
During her stay at Scheveningen the Suzanna answered five calls in which four lives were rescued. A search action for a missing surfer almost ended in a drama for the Suzanna and her Scheveningen crew. On Tuesday 20 January at about twelve the crew of the lifeboat station was alarmed for a surfer in trouble north of the harbour. The Suzanna and the beach rescue truck left the station within 10 minutes. Leaving the outer harbour the Suzanna passed three heavy breakers. Then she started searching in the heavy surf offering her beam to the heavy swell. Again and again the big waves hit her at her port beam and more than once she was almost pushed at her beam end. Luckily no fuel oil problems occurred now. Meanwhile the beach crew asked people about the surfer. Some even went to the hotel room from where the mentioning of the surfer originated. It showed to be another of the many false alarms. But as people gathered at the beach more and more people saw surfers in trouble in each and every direction. The Netherlands Coastguard had also alarmed a helicopter, but no surfer was found. Then the action was cancelled and the Suzanna steered for the port. There were no breakers at the port entrance anymore, but still a heavy swell was running. The lifeboat had to steer for the entrance with this swell coming in from behind. Considering these circumstances the lifeboat was sailing too speedily. The remark ' Aren't we going a bit too fast?' by the mechanic was ignored. What was feared, happened: a large wave built up behind the boat, lifted up her stern and with great speed the boat started to surf from this sloop, burying her bow into the sea and so breaking her bow speed. The boat would not listen to her rudder anymore and with great speed headed for the heavy blocks of concrete of the southern mole head. With the engines full astern and great luck the boat was stopped just before she collided with hard concrete. With her engines still full astern the boat succeeded in reaching open sea again. There the drogue was set and slowly the run for the harbour entrance was made again. Now the Suzanna succeeded in entering the port safely.
Again fuel oil problems.
Monday 30 March 1998 the Scheveningen crew sailed the Suzanna back to her old home port Den Helder. There the lifeboat should be prepared for her 1200 miles long trip to Iceland. On Thursday 16 April 1998 the Suzanna left her home port Den Helder for the last time, waved goodbye by a large crowd and accompanied to sea by her predecessor lifeboat Prins Hendrik and follower Dorus Rijkers. The next day the two Dutch skippers were kept busy with an unpleasant occupation: replacing fuel oil filters for again polluted oil. On Saturday at arrival in Scottish Stonehaven the first fuel oil tank was pumped dry and cleaned as good as possible. Afterwards again 2400 litres of fuel oil were loaded and the next day another 1000 litres in Wick. On Monday the lifeboat arrived in Torshavn on the Faeröer. Just after arrival in port one engine stopped. With a lot of smoke the Suzanna succeeded to reach the quay with one engine still working. Now the fuel problems were taken care of in the most rigorous manner. All fuel oil tanks were pumped dry and cleaned thoroughly. The complete fuel oil system was controlled and cleaned and the sixteen spray nozzles were cleaned by a local engineering company. Nine of the nozzle had to be replaced: they had to be sent by air plane from Holland. As the considerable amount of fuel oil filters had been used during the trip to Torshavn, a new supply had to be flown in from Denmark. Tuesday at four the Suzanna could continue her trip to Iceland. After half an hour one spray nozzle had to be replaced, but since the fuel oil did not give any problems anymore. On Thursday 23 April 1998 at three o'clock the Suzanna arrived at her new lifeboat station Raufarhöfn, where she was welcomed by a large and happy crowd. The Suzanna was the third vessel to be sold by the KNRM to the Icelandic lifeboat institution. Before the Gebroeders Luden and Bernard van Leer, also Carlot-class lifeboats, had made the trip to Iceland.
2004 Still at Raufarhöfn under the name GUNNBJORG.
Bert Scheijgrond,
Scheveningen, Holland, 8 December 2001
