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| HOLLAND AMERICA LINE |
| NOORDAM |
RESCUE AT SEA:
M.S. NOORDAM
OF HOLLAND
AMERICA LINE
By RICHARD H. WAGNER
(Originally published in The 104th
Anniversary Dinner Program, Navy
League of the United States, New York
Council, March 2007)
CLICK HERE FOR PDF VERSION
OF THE ARTICLE
M.S. NOORDAM
OF HOLLAND
AMERICA LINE
By RICHARD H. WAGNER
(Originally published in The 104th
Anniversary Dinner Program, Navy
League of the United States, New York
Council, March 2007)
CLICK HERE FOR PDF VERSION
OF THE ARTICLE
In the pre-dawn light of 7 June 2006,
two sailors began cleaning the aft deck
of the M.S. NOORDAM in preparation
for her port call at Kusadasi, Turkey
later that day. The 85,000-ton ship is
the newest in the Holland America Line
fleet, having premiered in New York the
previous February, and it was routine
practice to make sure that she looked
her best upon entering a port. As the
sailors began to work, they heard what
seemed to be shouting. Looking into the
grey light, they saw something in the
water. Since it appeared to be human,
they immediately called the bridge.
"We got a report that there was a man
overboard so we started the [man
overboard] procedure," recalled Third
Officer Aafke Bergsma who was on the
bridge at the time. The ship launched its
man-overboard buoys so that it could
return to the spot where the man was
sighted. Since the ship was approaching
the pilot station for the port it had
already slowed to 16 knots.
"I came on the bridge a minute or so
later," Captain Hans Matebor
remembered. “The bridge officers had
released a smoke and light signal
attached to a light buoy. They also had
pulled the engines down to stop. I
reversed this decision, as I wanted to sail
back to the location of the smoke. From
where we were at that time from the
bridge, we could not see anyone in the
water, and it would be very difficult to
direct the Man over Board boat. The
Chief Officer came on the bridge right
after me, and still thinking we were
dealing with a MOB, we decided that he
would be part of the boat crew. The
other person would be the assistant duty
officer and the third person, would be
that officer reporting to the bridge next."
Bergsma along with First Officer Mark
Rowden was given the assignment of
launching one of the ship's fast rescue
boats to search for the man in the water.
"Initially, we thought it was one of our
own sailors who had fallen overboard
during washing but as soon as we
arrived on deck to lower a boat, the
guys told us that they saw people in the
water, some of them wearing life
jackets."
"One person on the bridge reported
seeing the person in the water." Captain
Mateboer added. "He was closer than I
anticipated, and we had not come to a
complete stop yet, when he passed on
our port side. To my surprise, I saw
three persons in the water, wearing life
jackets. As this did not add up to a 'Man
over Board' situation, I was still trying to
figure it out when a lookout reported
sighting another person, somewhere on
our starboard side. At that time, I
realized that this situation was developing
into something different. We had not
heard any distress signals, so my initial
thought was that maybe a pleasure boat
had sunk or so. Our fast rescue boat
started picking up people and from their
reports, it quickly became clear that we
were dealing with refugees."
Indeed, the fast rescue boat's search
quickly confirmed that there were
multiple people in the water. Designed
for six people, the boat had soon pulled
18 people from the water. Accordingly,
NOORDAM dispatched two tenders to
aid in the rescue.
Since the deck officers were involved
with launching the boats, Captain
Mateboer enlisted the help of the ship's
hotel officers as lookouts. Christel
Mensink, Guest Relations Manager,
watched the scene from the deck of the
NOORDAM. "The sound that they
were making was almost un-human. I
could hear it for days afterward. It was
an un-human throat sound that they were
trying to throw out. The sound of 'help'
wasn't there anymore. It was just a
sound. There were these heads popping
up and down. Looking with binoculars,
you could see more and more people,
everywhere in the water."
"The big struggle we had was that they
were all spread out. There was like one
here, three there, two there, starboard
side and port side, in front of us, we just
did not know where to start." Mark
Zeller, who was acting Hotel Manager
during the voyage, remembers. "Guests
were coming in saying that they saw
them on port side and starboard side
and they were all trying to help to locate
them."
Meanwhile, NOORDAM sent out a
May-day signal asking for assistance.
Although there was traffic in the area, no
other vessel would stop. "The whole
atmosphere out there, they are so used
to people in the water that if you have a
brown skin they will just call the coast
guard and just let you be there,"
comments Mensink. Approximately, an
hour and a half after the signal was sent a
Greek Navy helicopter arrived but by
then the rescue was over.
The shell doors, used when the ship is
tendering at a cruise port, were opened
and the rescue boats brought the people
that they had found to them. A medical
team, a team with blankets, and hot food
were waiting. Members of the ship's
crew donated dry clothing to replace the
survivors' wet clothing, which was
washed and dried. Because of security
considerations, the survivors were taken
to non-public areas of the ship.
One question of immediate importance
was how many people were out there in
the water. A man who spoke some
English said that there were 20 people in
the group. However, as NOORDAM
had already picked-up 22 survivors, this
information was clearly wrong. Piecing
together information from several of the
survivors, it was finally determined that
there had been 23 people in the group
but that one, a child, had died in the
water during the night. At that point,
NOORDAM discontinued the search.
two sailors began cleaning the aft deck
of the M.S. NOORDAM in preparation
for her port call at Kusadasi, Turkey
later that day. The 85,000-ton ship is
the newest in the Holland America Line
fleet, having premiered in New York the
previous February, and it was routine
practice to make sure that she looked
her best upon entering a port. As the
sailors began to work, they heard what
seemed to be shouting. Looking into the
grey light, they saw something in the
water. Since it appeared to be human,
they immediately called the bridge.
"We got a report that there was a man
overboard so we started the [man
overboard] procedure," recalled Third
Officer Aafke Bergsma who was on the
bridge at the time. The ship launched its
man-overboard buoys so that it could
return to the spot where the man was
sighted. Since the ship was approaching
the pilot station for the port it had
already slowed to 16 knots.
"I came on the bridge a minute or so
later," Captain Hans Matebor
remembered. “The bridge officers had
released a smoke and light signal
attached to a light buoy. They also had
pulled the engines down to stop. I
reversed this decision, as I wanted to sail
back to the location of the smoke. From
where we were at that time from the
bridge, we could not see anyone in the
water, and it would be very difficult to
direct the Man over Board boat. The
Chief Officer came on the bridge right
after me, and still thinking we were
dealing with a MOB, we decided that he
would be part of the boat crew. The
other person would be the assistant duty
officer and the third person, would be
that officer reporting to the bridge next."
Bergsma along with First Officer Mark
Rowden was given the assignment of
launching one of the ship's fast rescue
boats to search for the man in the water.
"Initially, we thought it was one of our
own sailors who had fallen overboard
during washing but as soon as we
arrived on deck to lower a boat, the
guys told us that they saw people in the
water, some of them wearing life
jackets."
"One person on the bridge reported
seeing the person in the water." Captain
Mateboer added. "He was closer than I
anticipated, and we had not come to a
complete stop yet, when he passed on
our port side. To my surprise, I saw
three persons in the water, wearing life
jackets. As this did not add up to a 'Man
over Board' situation, I was still trying to
figure it out when a lookout reported
sighting another person, somewhere on
our starboard side. At that time, I
realized that this situation was developing
into something different. We had not
heard any distress signals, so my initial
thought was that maybe a pleasure boat
had sunk or so. Our fast rescue boat
started picking up people and from their
reports, it quickly became clear that we
were dealing with refugees."
Indeed, the fast rescue boat's search
quickly confirmed that there were
multiple people in the water. Designed
for six people, the boat had soon pulled
18 people from the water. Accordingly,
NOORDAM dispatched two tenders to
aid in the rescue.
Since the deck officers were involved
with launching the boats, Captain
Mateboer enlisted the help of the ship's
hotel officers as lookouts. Christel
Mensink, Guest Relations Manager,
watched the scene from the deck of the
NOORDAM. "The sound that they
were making was almost un-human. I
could hear it for days afterward. It was
an un-human throat sound that they were
trying to throw out. The sound of 'help'
wasn't there anymore. It was just a
sound. There were these heads popping
up and down. Looking with binoculars,
you could see more and more people,
everywhere in the water."
"The big struggle we had was that they
were all spread out. There was like one
here, three there, two there, starboard
side and port side, in front of us, we just
did not know where to start." Mark
Zeller, who was acting Hotel Manager
during the voyage, remembers. "Guests
were coming in saying that they saw
them on port side and starboard side
and they were all trying to help to locate
them."
Meanwhile, NOORDAM sent out a
May-day signal asking for assistance.
Although there was traffic in the area, no
other vessel would stop. "The whole
atmosphere out there, they are so used
to people in the water that if you have a
brown skin they will just call the coast
guard and just let you be there,"
comments Mensink. Approximately, an
hour and a half after the signal was sent a
Greek Navy helicopter arrived but by
then the rescue was over.
The shell doors, used when the ship is
tendering at a cruise port, were opened
and the rescue boats brought the people
that they had found to them. A medical
team, a team with blankets, and hot food
were waiting. Members of the ship's
crew donated dry clothing to replace the
survivors' wet clothing, which was
washed and dried. Because of security
considerations, the survivors were taken
to non-public areas of the ship.
One question of immediate importance
was how many people were out there in
the water. A man who spoke some
English said that there were 20 people in
the group. However, as NOORDAM
had already picked-up 22 survivors, this
information was clearly wrong. Piecing
together information from several of the
survivors, it was finally determined that
there had been 23 people in the group
but that one, a child, had died in the
water during the night. At that point,
NOORDAM discontinued the search.
However, the survivors' story did not
ring true. "We began to talk amongst
ourselves, if a man were onboard for
three days, he would have a beard. I
would be sunburned after three days in
the hot sun and none of them was
sunburned and they were all cleanly
shaved." Mensink explained. In
addition, there was Turkish writing on
the life jackets some of the survivors
were wearing and some had Turkish
coins.
ring true. "We began to talk amongst
ourselves, if a man were onboard for
three days, he would have a beard. I
would be sunburned after three days in
the hot sun and none of them was
sunburned and they were all cleanly
shaved." Mensink explained. In
addition, there was Turkish writing on
the life jackets some of the survivors
were wearing and some had Turkish
coins.
Illegal immigration is clearly not just an
American problem. According to the
United Nations, "over the last decade,
thousands of people including migrants,
asylum seekers, refugees and victims of
human trafficking, have died attempting
to reach Europe by sea." Indeed, UN
Assistant High Commissioner for
Protection Erika Feller has said: "Rarely
a week goes by without some news of
an unseaworthy boat that has sunk with
its passengers on board, dead bodies
being washed ashore on the holiday
beaches of southern Europe, and people
who have paid huge sums of money to
human smugglers whose last concern is
the welfare of their clients."
At first, the survivors were quite grateful
for their rescue. However, "the minute
they found out that we going to Turkey
their whole attitude changed," Zeller
recalls. They became bitter and began
complaining about the cruise ship's food
and making demands. This is because,
under international law, persons rescued
at sea should be disembarked at the next
port of call and that country is required
to admit them.
Yet, when NOORDAM arrived in
Turkey, she found that some Turkish
officials were not eager to have the
refugees back and would not accept
them. Turkey has become a "transit
country" for a large number of people
trying to reach Western Europe, placing
considerable strain on that country's
resources. While the UN notes that:
"Turkey has made considerable efforts
to improve the institutional, legal and
administrative framework and
procedures in the areas of immigration
and asylum," the realities of the situation
make reluctance a natural reaction.
"The Turkish authorities initially were
very understanding and told me that they
would take the refugees," Captain
Mateboer said. "I had to fill in some
paperwork (of course) and then
everything would work out. The
paperwork they needed was on its way,
but never seemed to arrive. By early
afternoon, I figured that they were
keeping me quiet till departure time, at
which, I think they hoped I would leave.
We collected a lot a small pieces of
evidence from the refugees, which did
prove that they originated from Turkey,
such as recent bus tickets, nearly new
Turkish lifejackets, Turkish SIM cards in
a few mobile phones etc. However, the
Turkish government insisted they did not
come from Turkey."
Holland America Line's main office in
Seattle, Washington decided that
NOORDAM would stay in Kusadasi an
extra day while diplomats from The
Netherlands, the United States and
Great Britain escalated the issue within
the Turkish government. This was not an
easy decision for the cruise line to make.
If the ship stayed an extra day in
Turkey, she would not be able to stop at
one of the other ports on her itinerary.
As a result, the line would lose the
revenue it would have made on shore
excursions at that port. Furthermore,
missing a port would anger some of the
1,800 paying passengers which could
jeopardize future cruise sales. However,
if the refugees were not accepted here,
where would they be accepted?
NOORDAM would be left with the
choice of having a permanent community
of refugees on A-deck or making an
unscheduled voyage to the Netherlands,
her country of registry, to offload the
unwanted guests.
Holland America Line prides itself on its
tradition of service to its passengers and
thus it put a priority on keeping its guests
informed. "We sent out several
statements throughout the day both
written and verbal messages from the
captain," noted Zeller. Some guests
were upset that the ship would not be
calling in Malta and a partial refund of
the cruise fare was given. However,
when at the end of the cruise, the officers
and staff gave a presentation reviewing
the entire incident, they received a
standing ovation from the passengers.
On the second day, the Turkish
government agreed to accept the
refugees. "We are very thankful and
appreciative of the Turkish authorities for
allowing these people to disembark for
later repatriation. We recognize the
important commitment the leadership of
Turkey has demonstrated to cruise ship
safety as well as their respect for
international law and their compassion
for people who are less fortunate,"
commented Stein Kruse, President and
CEO of Holland America Line in a
statement issued at the time. The
refugees were led off the ship, some in
tears to be back where they had started.
A bus drove them away.
The NOORDAM does not know what
became of the refugees. Hearsay has it
that they were driven a short distance,
the doors of the bus were opened and
the authorities looked the other way. It
would have been uneconomic to
repatriate them to their countries of
origin. Another report has it that shortly
after the NOORDAM incident, the
bodies of a group of refugees were
found washed ashore on a Turkish
beach. Were they the same people?
No one knows.
Even with all the difficulties
NOORDAM encountered, Captain
Mateboer is vehement that he would do
it again. "The NOORDAM did act. Of
course, we did. There is no way in the
world I would not act. I would not know
how far one has to lower his ethical and
moral standards before you knowingly
let people drown. Only by putting the
ship and all on board in unacceptable
danger would be an excuse not to. Also,
Holland America Line as a company
would never give me another ship if I
would have sailed on. Of course, it will
give a lot of problems and issues, but
very few people can say that they
rescued 22 people. Leaving them in the
water is no option. Vessels do routinely
ignore their legal obligation. There is no
excuse for this."
American problem. According to the
United Nations, "over the last decade,
thousands of people including migrants,
asylum seekers, refugees and victims of
human trafficking, have died attempting
to reach Europe by sea." Indeed, UN
Assistant High Commissioner for
Protection Erika Feller has said: "Rarely
a week goes by without some news of
an unseaworthy boat that has sunk with
its passengers on board, dead bodies
being washed ashore on the holiday
beaches of southern Europe, and people
who have paid huge sums of money to
human smugglers whose last concern is
the welfare of their clients."
At first, the survivors were quite grateful
for their rescue. However, "the minute
they found out that we going to Turkey
their whole attitude changed," Zeller
recalls. They became bitter and began
complaining about the cruise ship's food
and making demands. This is because,
under international law, persons rescued
at sea should be disembarked at the next
port of call and that country is required
to admit them.
Yet, when NOORDAM arrived in
Turkey, she found that some Turkish
officials were not eager to have the
refugees back and would not accept
them. Turkey has become a "transit
country" for a large number of people
trying to reach Western Europe, placing
considerable strain on that country's
resources. While the UN notes that:
"Turkey has made considerable efforts
to improve the institutional, legal and
administrative framework and
procedures in the areas of immigration
and asylum," the realities of the situation
make reluctance a natural reaction.
"The Turkish authorities initially were
very understanding and told me that they
would take the refugees," Captain
Mateboer said. "I had to fill in some
paperwork (of course) and then
everything would work out. The
paperwork they needed was on its way,
but never seemed to arrive. By early
afternoon, I figured that they were
keeping me quiet till departure time, at
which, I think they hoped I would leave.
We collected a lot a small pieces of
evidence from the refugees, which did
prove that they originated from Turkey,
such as recent bus tickets, nearly new
Turkish lifejackets, Turkish SIM cards in
a few mobile phones etc. However, the
Turkish government insisted they did not
come from Turkey."
Holland America Line's main office in
Seattle, Washington decided that
NOORDAM would stay in Kusadasi an
extra day while diplomats from The
Netherlands, the United States and
Great Britain escalated the issue within
the Turkish government. This was not an
easy decision for the cruise line to make.
If the ship stayed an extra day in
Turkey, she would not be able to stop at
one of the other ports on her itinerary.
As a result, the line would lose the
revenue it would have made on shore
excursions at that port. Furthermore,
missing a port would anger some of the
1,800 paying passengers which could
jeopardize future cruise sales. However,
if the refugees were not accepted here,
where would they be accepted?
NOORDAM would be left with the
choice of having a permanent community
of refugees on A-deck or making an
unscheduled voyage to the Netherlands,
her country of registry, to offload the
unwanted guests.
Holland America Line prides itself on its
tradition of service to its passengers and
thus it put a priority on keeping its guests
informed. "We sent out several
statements throughout the day both
written and verbal messages from the
captain," noted Zeller. Some guests
were upset that the ship would not be
calling in Malta and a partial refund of
the cruise fare was given. However,
when at the end of the cruise, the officers
and staff gave a presentation reviewing
the entire incident, they received a
standing ovation from the passengers.
On the second day, the Turkish
government agreed to accept the
refugees. "We are very thankful and
appreciative of the Turkish authorities for
allowing these people to disembark for
later repatriation. We recognize the
important commitment the leadership of
Turkey has demonstrated to cruise ship
safety as well as their respect for
international law and their compassion
for people who are less fortunate,"
commented Stein Kruse, President and
CEO of Holland America Line in a
statement issued at the time. The
refugees were led off the ship, some in
tears to be back where they had started.
A bus drove them away.
The NOORDAM does not know what
became of the refugees. Hearsay has it
that they were driven a short distance,
the doors of the bus were opened and
the authorities looked the other way. It
would have been uneconomic to
repatriate them to their countries of
origin. Another report has it that shortly
after the NOORDAM incident, the
bodies of a group of refugees were
found washed ashore on a Turkish
beach. Were they the same people?
No one knows.
Even with all the difficulties
NOORDAM encountered, Captain
Mateboer is vehement that he would do
it again. "The NOORDAM did act. Of
course, we did. There is no way in the
world I would not act. I would not know
how far one has to lower his ethical and
moral standards before you knowingly
let people drown. Only by putting the
ship and all on board in unacceptable
danger would be an excuse not to. Also,
Holland America Line as a company
would never give me another ship if I
would have sailed on. Of course, it will
give a lot of problems and issues, but
very few people can say that they
rescued 22 people. Leaving them in the
water is no option. Vessels do routinely
ignore their legal obligation. There is no
excuse for this."
Some of the participants in the rescue: Third Officer Aake
Bergsma; Mark D. Zeller, who was Acting Hotel Manager,
and Christel A. Mensink, Guest Relations Manager.
Bergsma; Mark D. Zeller, who was Acting Hotel Manager,
and Christel A. Mensink, Guest Relations Manager.
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