Nollius Hajonides van der Meulen (1862-1907) drowned

The “SS Berlin” was a steel ship of 1775 tons, build for use on the ferry service from Harwich to Hook of Holland. On Thursday 21 February 1907, around 5 o’clock, a huge wave struck the ship, causing her to become impaled on the tip of the granite breakwater at the entrance to the New Waterway, west of Rotterdam. A Dutch lifeboat attempted to offer aid, but the rough seas rendered it impossible to approach the stricken vessel. Around 6 o’clock the ship broke in two, drowning the majority of the passengers. Later, 16 survivors were rescued, while 128 people had drowned.

Nederlandsche Staatscourant, 5-3-1907

One notable passenger who drowned was a King’s messenger, Mr. Herbert, travelling with diplomatic bags. Another victim was Hendrik Spijker of the Spyker car company. The main subject of this blog post, Nollius Hajonides van der Meulen, was also killed in this disaster.

Leeuwarder Courant, 25-2-1907

Nollius Hajonides van der Meulen was born on 7 July 1862 in Leeuwarden as eldest son of Pieter Hajonides van der Meulen (1835-1875) and Anna Gorter (1838-1918).
As an Adult, Nollius Hajonides traded in flax. At the age of 32, on 27 June 1895 in Menaldumadeel, Nollius Hajonides van der Meulen married 25-year-old Clasiena Cornelia Alma. She was born on 11 April 1871 as daughter of Margrieta Maas (1842-1916) and Hermanus Alma (1839-1915).

Brigg and Bastin sisters

Two sisters, Olga (15) and Irene (8½) Bastin, died in a war accident on 13 October 1944 in Heerlen, The Netherlands. They were buried on the seventeenth. 

Veritas, 17-1-1944

The father of Olga and Irene is Johannes Franciscus Hubertus (“Jean”) Bastin. He was born on 9 September 1896 in Mheer, Limburg, The Netherlands, as illegitimate son of Gertrudis Bastin (1871-1943). His birth was registered by Elisabeth Schreurs (1849-1925), Gertrudis' mother.
Olga and Irene's mothers are Jean's subsequent wives, the sisters Hubertine Elise Marianne Brigg (1893-1930) and Elise Hubertina Joanna Brigg (1901-1949). They are the two surviving daughters of Bernardus Brigg (1862-1922) and his wife Maria Joanna Hubertina (“Marie”) Duchateau (1865-1965). Marie and Bernardus and married on 26 January 1893 in Amsterdam. Although Marie Duchateau died at the age of 100, her daughter Hubertina died at the early age of 36, while the other, Elise, died at the age of 48.

Limburger Koerier, 20-5-1930

After the deaths of his daughters Olga Jeanne Augusta Gertrude and Irene Maria Elise Ernestine in 1944, Jean had 4 remaining children: Yvon (by his first wife), Roger, Cyrille and Gaston.

Sources: WieWasWie.nl, Delpher.nl, AlleLimburgers.nl, Rijckheyt.nl, Archieven.nl, Archief.Amsterdam.

In 1870 Jan Kits Nieuwenkamp drowned off the Irish coast

On her twelfth Atlantic crossing, the British cargo-passenger steamship “Cambria” departed New York on October 8, 1870, under the command of Captain John Carnighan, carrying a general cargo, a crew of 74, and 105 passengers. Two of those passengers were 59-year-old widower Jan Kits Nieuwenkamp, and his 23-year-old daughter Lobetta Johanna.

Algemeen Handelsblad, 13-11-1870

On October 19, around 11:00 pm, the steamship “Cambria” was sailing in heavy seas when it struck Tor Beg Rock, half a mile north-west of Inishtrahull Island. The vessel immediately commenced to fill with water, thus it became at once evident that a large hole bad been made in the ship. Lifeboats were launched, but the only survivor was a passenger named John M'Gartland. Four lifeboats were found empty at the Giant's Causeway, while the stern of the ship drifted ashore at Islay, Scotland.

Opregte Haarlemsche Courant, 26-10-1870

The drowning of Jan Kits Nieuwenkamp and his daughter wasn't the only disaster that struck his family in the year 1870. On January 21, 1870, in Zutphen, his youngest son Jan junior had died “after a short but intense suffering” at the age of 16. By the end of 1870, only 6 of Jan's 14 children were still alive.

Algemeen Dagblad van Nederland, 31-1-1870

The sad short life of Ludovicus Willemsen (1860-1884)

Ludovicus Willemsen was born on 4 October 1860 in Woensdrecht as son of workman Mathijs Willemsen (27) and his wife Maria Catharina Speek. They both originated in Woensdrecht and were married there on 22 Decermber 1858. Matthijs Willemse died on 24 April 1861 in Woensdrecht, aged just 28.
His mother, Maria Catharina Speek, married secondly in Woensdrecht on 25 November 1863 to another local man, Laurentius de Vreng. After giving birth to a son Petrus de Vreng on 7 September 1864 in Woensdrecht, Maria Catharina died there on the 9th, aged 30. Her baby died on the 19th. On 24 December of the same year her widower was remarried to a Belgian girl.
At the age of 3, Ludovicus Willemsen was an orphan, and the only surviving child of both his parents. 

De Grondwet (newspaper), 8-4-1894

In the summer of 1884 Ludovicus Willemsen and a colleague were working on the railroad from Dordrecht in Holland to Breda in Brabant. On Saturday 5 July 1884 they were bathing just south of Dubbeldam, close to a culvert surrounded by deep water. The other man managed to get out, but Ludovicus (24) drowned.

Sources: Delpher.nl, WieWasWie.nl.

Peter Gerrit Vos & Anneke Nederveen in Colorado, USA

On 12 November, 1892, a total of 28 families with their 116 children and another 31 single persons boarded the steamship "Dubbeldam" in Amsterdam, Holland. Among them were Peter Gerrit Vos and Anneke Nederveen and their 2 children. The couple had been married on 18 December, 1875, in Almkerk, Brabant, The Netherlands.
Anneke Nederveen was born on 11 March, 1838, in Oudenbosch, Brabant. Her parents are Wouter Nederveen (1803-1867) and Maria Hagens. Peter Gerrit Vos was born in Almkerk on 7 April, 1839, as a younger son of Krijn Vos (1799-1866) and Adriaantje Confurius (1797-1875). His paternal grandparents are Bastiaan Vos and Jacoba Nieuwenhuizen. 
In Almkerk Peter Gerrit and Anneke had become the parents of 2 children: Maria Wouterina, born on 13 October, 1876, and Adriaan, born on 22 November, 1878.

The immigrants on board steamship "Dubbeldam" arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey, where they were met by Albertus Zoutman and Cornelis W. Van der Hoogt. They accompanied the newcomers to the San Luis Valley north of Alamosa where they arrived on November 30, 1892. Soon the immigrants discovered that the dazzling prospects described in the brochure were diametrically opposed to the facts.

Middelburgsche Courant, 21-2-1893

On January 31, 1893, 14 families and 6 single men left for Crook with a special train - the fare paid by the Immigration Company. About 10 days later Arnaud J. Van Lummel and Andries Bruintjes, immigrants from the "Empire Farm" near Alamosa, visited their fellow Dutchmen in northeastern Colorado. They found the colonists there in a wretched condition, some of them still living in railroad cars of the Union Pacific, parked on a side track. Several weeks later, the immigrants were "huddled together in two barn-like structures." Soon some of the Dutch children were stricken with diphtheria and scarlet fever.

Jan Bras of IJsselmonde was shipwrecked in 1727 ~ Mariner Monday

“Zeewijk” was one of 4 ships of the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) to have been wrecked close to Australia. This particular ship was built by the Chamber of Zeeland in 1725, and had a length of 145 feet (44 m) and a width of 36 feet (11 m). It left Flushing a year later - on its maiden voyage - to the V.O.C.’s Indies headquarters in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia), but it wouldn't reach its destination.

One of the 341 people on board the “Zeewijk” was Johannes “Jan” Bras. Jan was baptized on 17 February 1704 in IJsselmonde. His parents, Claes Bras and Marijtjen van Mullem, were married on 17 May 17 1699 in Charlois (now part of Rotterdam). Jan had an elder brother Pieter Bras who had joined the Dutch East India Company as a sailor in 1720.

After months of preparation, on 7 November 1726 “Zeewijk” - and the rest of her fleet - left Rammekens near Flushing for the long voyage to Batavia. It was carrying a crew of 208 men, 315834 guilders in silver and some cargo. Its skipper was Jan Steijns in his first command. Jan Bras was recruited as sailor and gunner. 
On 13 November 1726 they were forced to interrupt their journey at the Roads of Downs in Great Britain to wait for fair winds. Finally, 10 days later they were able to sail off again. During this part of the voyage, accidents and illness occurred, resulting in 28 deaths. It was common on V.O.C. ships at the time to lose so many people during the first part of the voyage.
The remainder of the crew, 180 people, most of whom were in (relatively) good health, reached the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa on 26 March 1727. At the Cape 38 sick men were taken ashore and hospitalized, and 7 soldiers were deployed. The crew, diminished further by 3 deaths, was enlarged with the recruitment of 22 men, most of whom had likely recovered from a previous voyage. Fresh water was collected, too. On 21 April 1727 the “Zeewijk” once again set out to sea. Their journey progressed swiftly due to favorable winds. Meanwhile, illness resulted in another 16 deaths.
The V.O.C. required ships to utilize the "Brouwer Route" to cross from the Cape to Batavia, enjoying the prevailing westerly winds by travelling eastwards before finally turning north. Turning north too late - due to a miscalculation in the longitude - was risking being wrecked on the reefs of Western Australia.

In darkness on 9 June 1727 the “Zeewijk” was wrecked on Half-Moon Reef, just off the coast of Western Australia. In the aftermath of the wrecking, the ship lost its masts and flooded a little, but remained largely intact. When the morning dawned, the survivors saw a number of islands in the distance, and realized they might be saved. Most of the men wanted to leave the vessel, but with the hard surf around them, they found no possibility to do so during the first few days. When they made attempts, these often resulted in men drowning - or nearly drowning - and jolly-boats capsizing. It was not until 14 June that the first attempt to reach an island succeeded. Two days later the longboat was launched successfully and more crew members were ferried to an island with fresh water. It is now known as Gun Island.

Henry Jan Beltman was struck by lightning in 1893

Henry Jan Beltman was struck by lightning on July 18, 1893, around 4 p.m. when he was busy driving his employer's horses into the stables. Mr. Beltman (31) had a young wife and 2 little children. He was buried at Edgerton cemetery, section 2, lot 9, grave 8.

De Volksvriend, 27-7-1893

In 1885 Henry Jan Beltman had married Nina Lena Jurgens. She was born on 30 January 1866 in Niedersachsen, Germany, as daughter of Heinrich Jurgens (1833-1898) and Brechtje Poppen Wermerssen (1838-1914). As a widow she married Harm Meyerink (1867-1956) in 1894, and had further issue. Nina Lena died in Platte on 17 May 1938.

Sources: Delpher.nl, FindAGrave.com.

Mariner Monday - Thomas Brullee's Whaling Expeditions

Whaling is the hunting of whales primarily for meat and oil. The species hunted in the Arctic Ocean was the Bowhead Whale, a baleen whale that yielded large quantities of oil and baleen. The whales entered the fjords in the spring following the breakup of the ice. They were spotted by the whalemen from suitable vantage points, and pursued. The whale was harpooned and lanced to death. It was either towed to the stern of the ship, or to the shore at low tide, where men with long knives would cut up the blubber. The blubber was boiled in large copper kettles and cooled in large wooden vessels, after which it was funneled into casks. The stations at first only consisted of tents of sail and crude furnaces, but were soon replaced by more permanent structures of wood and/or brick. 

Encouraged by reports of whales off the coast of Spitsbergen (Svalbard) in 1610, an English whaling expedition was send there the following year. The expedition was a disaster, with both ships sent being lost and the crews returning on another ship. The following year 2 more ships were sent. Other countries followed suit, with Amsterdam and San Sebastian each sending a ship north. The latter ship returned to Spain with a full cargo of oil. Such a fabulous return resulted in 1613 in a fleet of whaleships being sent to Spitsbergen. The English send 7 ships, backed by a monopoly charter granted by King James I. They met with 20 other whaleships, including 3 Dutch ships. 

Early in 1614 the Dutch formed the Noorsche Compagnie (Northern Company), a cartel composed of several independent chambers (each representing a particular port). In 1615 the Dutch arrived with a fleet of 11 ships and 3 men-of-war under Adriaen Block (±1567-1627). They built the 1st permanent structure on Spitsbergen: a wooden hut to store their equipment in. The following year, 1616, the English, with a fleet of 10 ships, occupied all the major harbors, appropriated the Dutch hut, and made a rich haul, while the Dutch, preoccupied with the isle of Jan Mayen, only sent 4 ships to Spitsbergen, which "kept together in odd places... and made a poor voyage". 

In 1619 the Dutch and Danes, who had sent their 1st whaling expedition to Spitsbergen in 1617, firmly settled themselves on Amsterdam Island, a small island on the northwestern tip of Spitsbergen, which came to be called "Smeerenburg". The English did the same in the fjords to the south. 
Beginning in the 1630s, for the Dutch at least, whaling expanded into the open sea. Gradually whaling in the open sea and along the ice floes to the west of Spitsbergen replaced bay whaling. At first the blubber was tried out at the end of the season at Smeerenburg, or elsewhere along the coast, but after mid-century the stations were abandoned entirely in favor of processing the blubber upon the return of the ship to port. The English meanwhile stuck resolutely to bay whaling, and didn't make the transfer to offshore whaling until long after.

One of my ancestors, Thomas Thomasz Brullee, was commander on the ship "D'Zee Egel" in 1687. The ship had trouble with leakage and broken pumps and returned without cargo. In 1712 Thomas was commander on the the ship "'t Dortse Lam" when the ship was attacked in the Arctic Ocean by French pirates who stole the cargo. Thomas is not a typical Dutch name; his ancestors may have originated in Great-Britain. 

Jamestown Colonists Resorted to Cannibalism

Archaeologists have discovered the first physical evidence of cannibalism by desperate English colonists driven by hunger during the Starving Time of 1609-1610 at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the New World. 

There are 5 historical accounts written by or about Jamestown colonists that reference cannibalism, but this is the 1st time it’s been proven. Portions of the butchered skull and shinbone of a 14-year-old girl from England were unearthed by Jamestown archaeologists last year. They found the remains about 0.8 meters down in a 17th century trash deposit in the cellar of a building built in 1608 inside the James Fort site. 

Multiple chop and cut marks are found on the girl’s skull that were made by one or more assailants after she died. Four closely spaced chop marks in her forehead indicated a failed attempt to split her skull open. The close proximity of the unsuccessful blows indicates that she was already dead, or they would have been more haphazard. There were numerous cuts, saw marks, and gouges along her lower jaw made by the tip of a knife to get to the meat, and to remove throat tissue and the tongue. The girl's hair was not removed. 

The girl probably originated from the southern coast of England, based on a comparison of oxygen isotopes in her tooth and oxygen isotopes found in groundwater samples from the area. Although only part of the skull is still intact, researchers were able to produce a facial reconstruction by digitally creating a 3-D skull as is shown to the right. 

The girl may have arrived at Jamestown in August of 1609 on one of six ships from England that had survived a hurricane during their crossing. The new arrivals’ food stores were spoiled or depleted - most of their provisions were lost when the flagship Sea Venture shipwrecked during the storm - and many of them were in poor health. When the 300 new settlers arrived, having suffered from diseases and food shortages at sea, the Jamestown colonists were already starving due to increasing demands for food from nearby Indian tribes, coupled with severe drought conditions. 

By November Indians were laying siege to Jamestown, cutting the colonists off from outside help. At first the settlers ate their horses, then their dogs and cats. Jamestown residents also ate rats, mice, and snakes. Some colonists ate their boots, shoes, and any other leather they could find. Others left the fort to search for roots in the woods, but were killed by the Indians. As the siege continued into the winter the famine increased and "nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible, as to dig up dead corpse out of graves and to eat them, and some have licked up the blood which hath fallen from their weak fellows". How many of the dead were cannibalized is unknown, but the girl   found by archaeologists was not an isolated case, according to historical accounts. 

The colony was saved that spring by the arrival of settlers who had been shipwrecked with the Sea Venture in Bermuda. They had built themselves a new boat and brought in much-needed supplies. They were followed soon after by Lord de la Warr, Jamestown’s first governor, who brought in additional supplies - a year’s worth - and even more colonists. 


Source: Neely, P.: Jamestown Colonists Resorted to Cannibalism, National Geographic. See also: Weebly.com.

1816, "The Year Without a Summer"

Starting on 10-4-1815, a series of explosions of the Tambora vulcano triggered a 'Volcanic Winter' all over the world, ultimately causing the worst famines of the 19th century both in Europe and the USA. It also caused spectacularly coloured sunsets throughout the world, and global temperatures dropped by as much as 0.3°C in 1816.

The Tambora is one of Indonesia’s 130 active volcanoes, still standing at a gigantic 2800 m. on the northern Sumbawa Island. Prior to the enormous 1815 eruption it had shown no signs of volcanic activity for a thousand years.

On 10-4-1815, however, the first of a series of eruptions sent ash 20 miles into the atmosphere, covering the island with ash to a height of 1.5 meters. Five days late, the Tambora erupted violently once again, expelling so much ash that the sun was not seen for several days. The series of explosions continued for 4 months. 

Red-hot stones rained down after the grumbling volcano finally blew, and nearby settlements were completely engulfed in lava. Debris, particles and sulphur components were blown into the higher layers of the atmosphere. All vegetation on the island was destroyed by the noxious ash, and the resulting poisoned rain. Floating islands of pumice 3 miles long were observed before the coast, and even 4 years later these islands still hindered navigation. In all, so much rock and ash was thrown out of the Tambora that the height of the volcano was reduced by 1400 m. An astounding 70,000 people may have died in Indonesia as a result of burning, starvation, or poisonous gasses.