Nieuw Amsterdam
In 1969, when I was 11 years old, I traveled with my family on the ocean liner SS Nieuw Amsterdam from New York to Rotterdam. In this Blog, I will share some personal stories of this voyage, and give some background information on this remarkable ship. The color pictures are scans of my Dad’s Kodachrome slides; the black and white pictures are my own.
As I have mentioned in a few earlier Blogs, that year we drove cross-country from Santa Barbara to New York. Instead of flying home to Amsterdam, my parents had decided to go by ship. Needless to say, this was a very exciting ending to a year of living in the United States.
Our family ticket for the eastbound crossing
The voyage took 9 days, which is illustrated in this 30-second selection from my parents’ 8 mm films.
My dad took this picture of us looking at these 2 majestic ships: the Nieuw Amsterdam and the Queen Elisabeth 2. The QE2 had just arrived in New York, after making its official maiden voyage from Southampton on May 2, 1969.
The ships of the Holland America Line normally used Pier 40 on the Hudson River. It is pictured on the brochure on the right. Pier 40 is now part of the large multipurpose Hudson River Park.
But as the next 2 pictures show, our ship was now docked at Pier 90 of the Italian Line. I have not been able to find out why a different pier was used but it was the reason we were right next to the QE2, which always used Pier 92. The picture below shows my brother looking out over New York just before the ship left the port. Notice the Art Deco design on the façade of Pier 90.
My mother and me looking at the New York skyline. Notice the Kodak Instamatic camera around my neck.
The Statue of Liberty and the Staten Island Ferry. These pictures remind me of the gorgeous photograph taken by the Hungarian-Dutch photographer Eva Besnyö of the Nieuw Amsterdam arriving in New York on its maiden trip in 1938.
Eva Besnyö, New York, maidentrip s.s. Nieuw Amsterdam Holland-Amerikalijn, 1938. Maria Austria Instituut (Amsterdam)/The Family of Migrants, https://www.fenix.nl/en/
The Nieuw Amsterdam arriving in New York, a postcard from 1958
Life on board this enormous ship was very exciting for 3 young children. We were always running around, trying to get lost. The Art Deco interior was famous, but it looks like none of us had an eye for this, as there are no pictures of the décor. This may also be partly explained by the fact that many of the ornaments were in First Class sections of the ship. We did use the swimming pool, however, and visited the auditorium, where we saw the movie “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” almost every day. This “Cinemascope Theater”, located near the stern, must not be confused with the hypermodern airconditioned Main Theater, at the bow of the ship. That theater was for First Class passengers only! The most amazing of the old documents of this trip is perhaps a booklet listing the names of all the passengers, First Class as well as Tourist Class. There were clearly no privacy laws in place at the time.
In the Tourist Class dining room
All passengers on deck for a drill
The Nieuw Amsterdam was built in 1937 and our transatlantic crossing in 1969 was one of the last such journeys. Between 1971-1974 she was used as a cruise ship and then demolished in Taiwan. Wikipedia has a nice article describing the storied history of the ship, including its use to transport troops during the Second World War.
On the high seas
After 9 days at sea we arrived in Rotterdam, June 29, 1969. Home of the Holland America Line (H.A.L.) was the Wilhelmina Pier in Rotterdam. The building with the green brass domes was their administration headquarters. It is now the Hotel New York. The letters NASM on the pier stood for Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart-Maatschappij, or Netherlands-America Steamship Company, the original name of the H.A.L.
We were greeted by my grandparents and an uncle and his family.
The terminal building and the warehouse behind it are still there, but if you’re not on a big ship it is impossible to photograph them from the same angle as the pictures above. The far-right end part of the terminal building is now covered in a glass façade. The building behind it, which housed H.A.L. workshops and warehouses, has an oval-shaped addition on its roof now. For many years the Netherlands Photo Museum was located in this building.
The Terminal Building and Wilhelmina Pier have famously been photographed by Dutch photographers Cas Oorthuys, Eva Besnyö and others. I juxtapose some of these photographs with recent pictures I took there myself.
Departure hall Holland America Line, Cas Oorthuys, 1956, Nederlands Fotomuseum and Fenix.nl. This hall is now an event venue (Photo: https://www.rotterdamballooncompany.com/).
The Nieuw Amsterdam docked in Rotterdam, 1969. The H.A.L. headquarters can be seen on the right, behind the bow of the ship. Wikipedia.
The Wilhelmina Pier with the Nieuw Amsterdam by Frits J. Rotgans, 1956. Nederlands Fotomuseum, https://nederlandsfotomuseum.nl/en/
It is really nice that today this pier maintains its original use as a terminal. Instead of the ocean liners of yesteryear it is now regularly occupied by floating hotels known as cruise ships. One of them is the MS Rotterdam, pictured here.
Lost Luggage Depot, a sculpture by the Canadian photographer Jeff Wall. I have always admired the large back-lit photographs of Wall, but did not realize that he also made large sculptures. This monument refers to history of people emigrating from this spot. It has been at the tip of the Wilhelmina Pier since 2001. See this site for more details.