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„Op een gestemde viool kan íedereen vals spelen" (Bob Phaf)
Bob
TZIGANE - ACTA
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A story provided by Tom Boelen who sailed part of the same voyage, but whom I don't remember to have met, although he assisted in the Neptune Pool Bar!
It is derived from http://www.ssmaritime.com/jvostories.htm#_Schedule, courtesy Reuben Goossens.
The picture at the beginning of this blog stems from the same site.
Here it is :
The night the JVO almost went down
We departed Fremantle at 6 pm, the two hours later we ended up in a horrific storm with 15 to 20 meter waves. Portholes were smashed in the aft restaurant on B Deck resulting with almost 1.5 meter of water in the dinning room. Tables and chairs were floating around. Up on Lounge deck a huge wave crashed into the Verandah/Cinema Lounge and most chairs and tables were washed overboard. You can imagine the utter panic that set in amongst the passengers. The JVO pitched and swerved so severely, it came to a point, were she could have gone down. Fearing the worst most passengers wore their life jackets, as we were afraid that it was to be our last voyage. Tragically, the ships pianist, Mr. J A van Diepenbeek, was attempting to tie down the piano, when the piano violently smashed into him, killing him instantly. He was 55 years old. All over the ship there were badly wounded passengers, and it amazes me to this day, that none was actually washed overboard, as even furniture, high up on the upper decks were swept overboard by the massive waves that engulfed the ship. The truth is, in all my years at sea I have never experienced anything like it again. I am grateful to the seamanship of Captain Peter A. de Groote, for it was though his experience JVO escaped a catastrophe. We arrived in Melbourne approximately 24 hours late. Over thirty wounded passengers were taken off the ship and transported to local hospitals for attention. Sadly, later we heard that one lady had been so badly hurt that she passed away whilst still in hospital. Most passengers, including my mother did not wish to go on to Sydney on the JVO, and many disembarked.