KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT
voor de
MARINE


ROYAL NETHERLANDS
NAVAL ACADEMY

K I M


[Ben Oostdam's
Autobiography
Years 1950-1952]


1952 Training Cruise on the "van Kinsbergen", to New Guinea, part 5



March 2, 1952: 14:00 passed Ras Alula
16:00 Cape Guardafui -this is near the Horn of Africa,
near Socotra Island and Djibouti;
to our surprise, it got pretty cold around midnight on watch;
we missed our gloves which had been crated with winter clothing
of all 42 of us to be shipped back to Holland.
March 3, 1952: On my first attempt to guess the noon logpool, I won!! But so did two others, unbelievably,
and I lost in the drawing of lots ;o]
Heard stories about two deck-officers planning to resign their commission, one had completed studies for dentist,
another for engineer; they apparently do not see much future in the Dutch Navy...

March 4, 1952: My first sight of flying fish in schools (or squadrons?)
also surprising rainbows in the spray of our bow-wave.
Bosun H. Verblauw asked me to paint his
name on his bosun's chest
(no pun, in Dutch Navy lingo that's the ocean) .
Had a terrible watch in the hot engine-room, the more so since I suffered from sunburn.
But the ocean is beautiful, smooth as a mirror!


BLO fecit 22 X 1998
to continue to next page:
1952 Training Cruise on the "van Kinsbergen"
to New Guinea, part 6: Indian Ocean
Sri Lanka to Singapore