aboard

               Hr Ms Zeven Provinciën












   Spring 1969 I got a transfer to the cruiser Hr Ms de Zeven Provinciën after two and a half year service on Hr Ms Limburg. I went with mixed feelings because large vessels or a naval base was not my kind of thing. I was lucky, and got a job as yeoman in the action room. On Dutch cruisers the action room was apart from the ops room. Here took every thing place concerning air defence and aircraft direction. Also radar equipment like the VI (vertical indicator) I had no practical experience with was in that room. In the action room was a large air defence plot at the wall and at the other side two more of smaller size. In the other corner stood the artillery radar. The Hr Ms Zeven Provinciën was of the light cruiser class like her sister ship Hr Ms De Ruyter. This cruiser was re-build at the aft completely for the Terrier installation.

The Terrier is an American rocket in use in the American navy from 1956 till 1970 as it was replaced by the Standard missile. The Terrier was a medium range surface to air missile. At the end of the 1950 decade the Royal Netherlands navy received a Terrier installation for Hr Ms Zeven Provinciën. In the movie "Kies Zee " made by the Royal Netherlands navy operations with the Terrier are filmed in American waters. Never experienced a Terrier launch in that time. Apparently they were very expensive....-:). Of course drills enough with the Terrier for which the navy chartered a Learjet to practice aiming etc.

With this cruiser we made trips to: Casablanca - Lisbon - Gibraltar - Portsmouth - Inver Gorden - Cadiz en Bordeaux. Leaving Bordeaux an announcement came in from the squadron commander in which he expressed his disapproval on the number of crew that was punished for their misconduct in town......-:)




- state visit Heinemann -

   End of November 1969 we headed for Amsterdam to take part in the state visit of the West German president G.Heinemann. We berthed opposite the Shell office at the north bank near the centre of the city. The German president was expected to arrive Amsterdam by train at central station and would be welcomed by our queen. This was on a Saturday and I was on watch too. We had to prepare fire hoses over the ship for demonstrations were expected too. Our contribution in the whole thing was to fire gun salutes the moment Heinemann arrived at central station. Just started to fire them a telephone rang that I picked up and a voice called and urged us to stop firing for the windows in the roof of central station started to tremble in their runways. The officer of the watch ignored the request and ordered to continue with the salutes.




- meteo at naval air base Valkenburg -

End 1969 I was transferred to the naval air base Valkenburg for a more extensive course in meteorology. The course was given by meteorologists from the naval air base and was very interesting and helpful.

   First thing in the course was to draw the reports of many weather stations from all over the world on a map. This had to be done in two colours, red and blue, so we combined two ballpoints together with tape...-:). After that we learned to interpret the readings and to analyse what was going on in the atmosphere and draw from the records. Then to fix 24 hour synoptic weather reports. For the practical part of the course we did watch in the meteo observation room. We had little to do with the air base itself and were off for the weekends. Two colleagues I still remember from that time are John Kenting en Peter Aarnautsen (houtje). Many people had a nick name in the navy!


- a failure -

To gather information from the atmosphere like pressure, temperature etc. we practised in releasing a weather balloon. The readings came in Morse code by a radio receiver given in figures from 0 to 9 and had to be written down. This is not my kind of thing. I understood the Morse code figures but could not keep up with the speed. In that time computers were not in use that could have easily done this job for us. In spring 1970 the course was finished and our little class of five people was send out to the fleet. I was hoping for a destroyer but it went different. Three of us were transferred to the cruiser Hr Ms Zeven Provinciën for staff squadron 5 department meteo and I was among them, so back to that ship again. The Hr Ms Zeven Provinciën was provided with a meteo cabin with every thing needed inside. This would be our job for the time being. Staff squadron 5 was aboard the Zeven Provinciën under command of rear admiral B. Veldkamp. Main job was the gathering of meteorological information during 24 hours a day. Even when the ship was in harbour the work had to be continued, so little time to go ashore. A lot of information we obtained from Offenbach and Bracknell by facsimile. If you knew the right frequencies you could also receive press photographs. We went to Norway and Scotland with the squadron. July 1970 I got a message that I was transferred to Hr Ms Groningen, a destroyer that was still in dock in Den Helder.



Below are two pictures of the Hr Ms Zeven Provincien. Below at the left before her rebuilding and at the right as she was lately. The rebuilding had damaged her beautiful line.

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