Cornelis (born in 1921) came from a lineage of sailors. He dreamed of travelling to distant places. His older brother Jacob (born in 1920) was already at sea. In 1934, Cornelis went to work on a fishing vessel. But he wanted to go into merchant shipping, just like his brother. Once he had the right qualifications in 1939, Cornelis boarded a KNSM freighter. France and England had already declared war on Germany. The Netherlands was neutral. Hitler promised to leave Dutch ships alone. But in the months that followed, one Dutch ship after another was reported lost at sea on the ship's radio. In May 1940, the Netherlands also went to war with Germany. Dutch ships at sea were easy prey. What should they do, set sail or not? The Dutch government gave short shrift to that discussion in June 1940: all Dutch merchant ships outside the Netherlands and their crews became part of the Allied naval forces at sea.

In convoy The oceans were battlefields with danger looming everywhere. Especially in the North Atlantic, German submarines and bombers lurked below and above the water surface searching for their prey. To reach the other side as safely as possible, the ships sailed in convoy, with up to ten ships side by side and in a tight line behind each other. Ammunition and troop ships sailed on the inside, while grain and coal ships formed the outer, most dangerous lines. Because the German submarines attacked from the flanks, the convoys were usually wider than long. Gunboats, corvettes, destroyers and trawlers guarded the sides of the convoy. When a ship was torpedoed, the other ships sailed on. Stopping was forbidden. Drowning people were helplessly lost in the icy waves of the ocean.

Photo In the first months, Cornelis sailed in the Caribbean, where he noticed almost nothing of the war. That changed in early 1941, when he too had to cross the North Atlantic. Cornelis' ship came under fire. Bullets hit the decks. They had to return to the United States to have the ship repaired and wounded treated. After a few weeks, the ship still arrived safe and sound in Liverpool.

In the months that followed, Cornelis made several crossings between New York and Liverpool, always in convoy. The first thing Cornelis did every time after arriving in New York harbour was to see if there was a ship from the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland. That was the shipping company his brother Jacob sailed for. In December 1941, the time finally came. On the quay, they embraced each other. They had not seen each other for three years. They immediately had a photo taken for their families. They stood there in full regalia, as was customary when sailors went ashore: a white shirt with a tie, a Stetson hat and a long, dark double-breasted overcoat. It would be the last time they saw each other.

Japanese internment camp While Cornelis risked his life on the North Atlantic, Jacob's life was uncertain in the Far East. Jacob's ship was bombed during an escape attempt from the Dutch East Indies on the Java Sea in March 1942. Jacob managed to reach the coast of Sumatra with a lifeboat. There, he was imprisoned with the other survivors in a Japanese internment camp. After a few months, in August 1942, he died of exhaustion. His emaciated fellow prisoners buried him somewhere outside the fence on orders from the Japanese. His final resting place is unknown and untraceable.

Cornelis survived the war. In total, he made 25 crossings of the North Atlantic. In February 1946, after seven years, he came home to Katwijk. There, he heard from his mother that Jacob had died. The letter from Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland about Jacob's death was on the mantelpiece. With the photo of the brothers next to it. ←