21 May 2017 | News
A copy of the original builders’ plate of “De Schelde” has been mounted on the port low pressure turbine.
The turbines of the ss Rotterdam have been built by Royal “De Schelde” at Flushing, with a license of the Parsons Marine Turbine Company at Wallsend. When the ss Rotterdam was decommissioned in 1997 by Holland America Line many of the builders’ plates on board were removed by the engineers. One of them is Ronald Stolk who preserved the builders’ plate of the port low pressure turbine. Thanks to him we could let reproduce the plate bij Archeo Plan in Delft. One copy of synthetic material has been mounted on the turbine, almost 20 years after the removal of the original. A bronze copy has been placed in one of our showcases on C-deck.
The pictures were made by Jan-Willem Koene.
7 May 2017 | News
Our volunteers are restoring a cutting machine from the former printshop on board. The machine gets a new place near other historical instruments. In the engineroom several builders plates have been cleaned.
19 Mar 2017 | News
Our volunteers Jan Egberts and Jim Luteijn placed an original boilerfront in the engine room. There were 16 of these boilerfronts on the four boilers of the ship. They were replaced when the boilersystem was automatized during the eighties. The fronts were delivered by A. de Jong engineering. From the mid-eighties till 1997 the front decorated the officers bar on Sundeck. The front was donated by Bart Peters, former engineer on the ss Rotterdam.
3 Mar 2017 | News
Today 20 years ago the ss Rotterdam arrived in Hong Kong during her final world cruise. She stayed there until the 5th of March. The ship on the other side of the pier is the ms Oriana (1995) of P&O.
The picture comes from the collection of captain Leo van Lanschot Hubrecht.
15 Feb 2017 | News
Our volunteers have constructed a rail to protect the special glass wall plates in the Queens Lounge. The wall plates have been damaged severely by catering transports. Fortunately our volunteers found some spare plates in one of the holds of the ship, so they could replace the damaged plates. The plates were created by Royal Dutch Furniture Factory H.P. Mutters & Sons, who designed and built the Queens Lounge. Picture by Koos Sanderse
In the Smoking Room the operator has removed the trays on the three cupboards. The first picture below shows the recent situation. The second picture shows the present situation, after restoring the cupboard by the Service Stewards. Our volunteers fitted the glass plates that have been stored during the last years. The original character of the Smoking Room, designed by Carel Wirtz, benefits by this change.
Picture Jan-Willem Koene
Picture koos Sanderse
Our volunteers placed a new clock in de Ambassador Room. The original clock has been removed long ago and its appearance is unkown to us. The present clock fits with the atmosphere of the Ambassador Room that was designed by Han van Tienhoven.
The new clock. Picture Klaas Krijnen
28 Jan 2017 | News
Our volunteers removed the worldmap from the foyer between Smoking Room and Grand Ballroom to the Central Staircase on Upper-Promenadedeck.
A new place for the map was necessary because the foyer between Smoking Room and Grand ballroom has been transformed into a pantry. De map was a gift in 1959 by Observator, a company that delivered nautical instruments for the ship. Picture Klaas Krijnen
