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59 years in shipping |
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| 1949 | 1957 | 1969 | 2000 | 2004 | 2005 |
T H E L I F E O F A S E A C A P T A I N
This is his original seaman book issued in 1949.
(Antonius Hendrikus Seesink)
Due to
the young age his father (H.J. Seesink) had to sign the authorization for him to go to sea.
(See form on the right)
August 17, 1949
This
was the date that the old man of the sea signed up for his first ship, the s. s.
Nieuw Amsterdam, which was in these years the flagship of the Holland America
Line. She was one of the many passenger ships competing in the then glorious
Trans-Atlantic trade between Europe and North America. She carried about 1,200
passengers and 800 in the crew.
(Click to
enlarge)
But being young he wanted to see more than just a few ports and soon decided to
look elsewhere.
However since the Dutch merchant marine had lost so many ships during the war it
was not easy to get employment.
It took 52 resumes and 4 months of waiting
before he got himself a ship.
And if it had not been on a New Year's eve he might have waited another 4
months.
The other reason was that the vessel was time-chartered for a liner cargo voyage
to the KNSM and on liner vessels they employed an apprentice mate which was not
the case on vessels carrying bulk cargoes.
In
the early morning hours on New Years Day he left from the Lekhaven in Rotterdam
to the West Indies on the s. s. Winsum. Now, that was a change!! This ship was
built in 1921 and was a far cry from the Nieuw Amsterdam. But for a young
bachelor she had something very attractive:
She was a tramper, made long ocean voyages and could be sent to just about any
place on the globe! After 7 months and 2 liner voyages to the Caribbean and West
Africa the management had forgotten all about the apprentice mate on board who
was now enjoying the bulk voyages to Norway and the Mediterranean.
(Click to enlarge)
But after almost a year they caught up with him when the port captain in
Rotterdam heard the Chief officer yell: "Cadet, come over here.......".
We could
see the eyebrows of the port captain raise when he said: "You got an apprentice
on this bucket??" Well, that signaled the end of that relationship. The Chief
officer said later that he regretted ever calling me. He wanted me to stay..
So he was immediately transferred to the s. s. Trompenberg, a liberty ship,
which was employed in a liner service to the U.S.A. in a joined venture with
Isbrandtsen Line. It was operating under the name of "Independent Gulf Line".
When he joined the vessel in Rotterdam the s. s. Flying Enterprise under command
of Kurt Carlsen was docked in front of the vessel.
She left two days earlier but
sank a few days later off the Irish coast in a heavy storm.
On her way to the States the s. s. Trompenberg had to stand-by near her in the
same storm until she was given permission to continue her voyage.
This was his first experience watching a ship and crew in distress on the high
seas.
In the almost 20 years to follow he served for the same company through the
various ranks and studied for his licenses between.
He passed the exams for his
masters license Unlimited Tonnage in 1961.
In these days obtaining a master license was not always made easy because the
government examination board who issued the licenses kept strict control on the
supply and demand. They did not like the idea of unemployed captains and
officers.
If the fleet needed more officers the pressure of the exams would weaken but as
soon as the gap was filled they would tighten up the requirements.
Until 1958 he sailed on a variety of freighters but was then transferred to the
tankers.
His company had built two new tankers and appointed him as a 2nd. officer on one
of them.
During the 1959/1960/1961 whaling seasons he joined the expeditions in the
Antarctic where the tanker was a supply vessel for the m. v. Willem Barendsz II,
the mother ship, which was also owned by his company.
After his return from the Antarctic waters in 1961 he was appointed as Chief
Officer on a newly acquired tanker and sailed on her until August 1963 when the
doctor in Providence, RI discovered two ulcers and decided to fly him home for
further treatment.
Once recovered the company decided to let him follow two Radar Simulator courses
in Amsterdam and after that was completed they sent him for a few weeks to the
Rotterdam Fire Brigade for a Maritime Firefighters course.
Once he obtained
these certificates he thought that his studies were done. However in these days
it was customary to have certain officers with a master license follow an
emergency room course in a for that purpose approved hospital.
They decided to take advantage of the fact that he was at home anyway so sent
him the St. Elizabeth Hospital in The Hague where he wrestled for three months
with all kinds of patients in the emergency room and even in the OR.
He walked around with a white coat and a stethoscope in his pocket almost like a
doctor.
This was done to give the right impression and not to make the patients more
nervous than they already were.
They did not have to know that he was just learning.
From the viewpoint of activity he was lucky that it was winter with lots of snow
and ice so there was no shortage of patients.
They kept falling and slipping
particularly during the holidays when they tried to ride their bikes home under
the influence. Most nights he did not get home before very late.
Of course all the stitching, bandaging, injecting, advising, etc. etc. was done
under the careful eye of the surgeon or the doctor on watch.
Since these courses took about three months and the companies continued to pay
the officer's salaries it was a quite expensive program and a few years later it
was discontinued.
Unfortunately so because it showed to be of great value in the middle of the
ocean.
Meantime he had married Mieke - the girl next door - and when the courses were completed he joined his
ship again in Singapore.
While on leave he had applied for a pilot position with the Dutch Pilot
Association and was accepted just before he left for sea again but he then
eventually refused the offer.
Mieke followed him a few months later in Australia and stayed on board until the
vessel returned to Rotterdam in the begin of 1965.
In May of that year he was given his first command and left for Bermuda. At this
time he was 15 years with his company.
In the 3 years to follow he sailed on the Poinciana which vessel was operating
in a Liner service between Bermuda and the US East coast.
The Poinciana and Hibiscus had regular sailings from New York and the Oleander
from Jacksonville, Florida.
His wife Mieke stayed in Holland while he registered as a resident in Bermuda. On
the island he lived on Knapton Hill in Smith Parish.
In February 1966 on the way back from Bermuda to Baltimore his ship ran into an
extremely harsh winter storm.
It lasted for nearly 5 days. The vessel became heavily damaged including all
communications equipment.
The US coastguard searched for the ship for 3 days with reconnaissance planes
both from the Kindley Air Force base in Bermuda as well as from the Virginian
coast.
Unfortunately due to the breakdown of the communication equipment the vessel was
unable to make contact with the shore because she could only receive but not
transmit. Since the news of the missing vessel had reached the news media in
Holland his wife was informed by his company.
She was near the end of her
pregnancy from Elleke, their first child and delivered her when Tom was on the way back from New
York to Bermuda.
Then after his ship had arrived in Bermuda he was permitted to fly home for 3
days to visit his family to assure everybody that he was o.k.
A few months
later Mieke and Elleke joined him on the island.
Pictured
on the left are Elleke, dad and grandpa Seesink in 1969 after returning home from
Bermuda.
In 1969 he was offered a position as terminal superintendent with Hopkins
Stevedoring Co. in Baltimore and was assigned to the loading and discharge of
steel products.
(It should be noted that in the mid 60's the carrying of steel products in
tweendeckers was gradually phased out and replaced by the use of bulk
carriers.)
Loading steel products in these vessels was a new challenge.
Although he had never planned to go ashore he decided to give it a try.
At that time most of the steel was loaded at Antwerp and was carried by vessels
operated by Universal Shipping Corp.
It was known in the trade as the Trans Atlantic Steel Service.
In 1969 Universal Shipping Corp. was bought out by RETLA Steamship Company (with
head offices in Long Beach, CA.) and they invited him to join as a port captain.
Since this offered more opportunities in the operational field in which he could
use a lot of his background he accepted and joined RETLA.
His territory covered the ports on the East coast, the Great Lakes, the Gulf and
the Caribbean.
In 1972 he was promoted to Operations manager and in 1975 to General Manager.
Meanwhile the import of both plywood and steel from the Far East had also
increased considerably which meant more port calls.
In 1974 due to the increasing number of vessels the company decided to have the
Gulf area split and have these ports covered out of New Orleans and Houston.
In the years to follow he would be confronted with the problems and frustrations
caused by the energy crises, it's affect on the trade and the battle of the
ocean freights caused by inflated bunker prices and followed by the ultimate
collapse of the steel market.
In 1976 when the New York office was moved to New Jersey RETLA moved him to the
Paramus, N.J. office where he continued to operate in the same capacity.
When in 1977 worldwide competition between the carriers threatened to destroy
the rate structures RETLA decided not to participate in it and graciously bowed
out leaving the battle of survival to the remaining carriers, at that time
mainly Sanko and Panocean. Not much later it proved to be the right decision and
one made with vision.
Until the end of 1979 he stayed with the company under an agreement to assist
them in honoring outstanding contracts and in the winding down of all port and
vessel operations. On the Eastcoast he was the last one to leave.
The company fulfilled all its obligations leaving a memory behind unique in the
industry.
The name RETLA surfaces often and when mentioned it always gets high numbers.
The saying: "The good old RETLA days" deserved its meaning from what they truly
were: The good old RETLA days.
RETLA always remains by far his favorite company and until this very day he
never lost touch with his old friends.
In 1980 immediately after RETLA officially had closed the doors he was offered
the position of assistant Vice president operations with REL in Bloomfield, N.J.
During the period 1984 -1991 he spent the winter months in the ice covered areas
of the Canadian Maritimes where the company was trying to keep the vessels
operating as long as possible until such time that the ice pack became too
heavy.
After a REL vessel had encountered heavy ice damage in 1984 followed by a major
dry-docking in Halifax the company had decided to have him attend the vessels
every year after that. Once the ice started forming, usually mid-December, he
would make his home on the PEI until the last vessel had sailed or was
eventually diverted.
His time spent in the Antarctic waters gave him somewhat of an edge over most
masters who had little or no experience in ice-navigation.
His function was to be a liaison between the masters, the Canadian Coastguard,
the captains of the ice-breakers and the Ottawa ice-control office.
In some cases he would join the icebreakers, occasionally he would join them in
icepack inspection flights by helicopter and in other cases he would stay with
the vessel.
The most important task was to make sure that the vessels would not be caught in
the ice for the rest of the winter. However almost equally important was to try
to avoid damage to the vessel with on the other hand keeping in mind not to move
out before absolutely necessary. From a stability viewpoint this could sometimes
be a real nightmare.
About these winter experiences he could write a book itself.
Later in 1991 and in 1992 he was sent to Belize where the company had contracted
to start a fortnightly service into a brand-new port called Big Creek.
He arrived there on the first vessel when the port was officially opened in
October, 1991.
Not only the port was brand-new but so was the approach, the channel entrance.
Initially it was dredged for the use of one vessel. The navigation was new for
everybody involved including the pilots who flew in each time from Belize City.
In the begin only a primitive issued navigation chart had been made available.
During the first months he took the masters by a small private plane (4 seater)
from the previous port, usually Puerto Cortez in Honduras, to Big Creek to show
them the approach from the air. The planes had to stop for customs clearance in
Guatemala because they flew over their airspace. The gravel runways were of poor
quality and the masters did not like these trips particularly not the landings
and take-off's which were a kind of bumpy.
They started politely refusing to fly these small planes and it was then decided
to board the vessels outside the channel together with the pilot in order to
acquaint the masters with the channel prior to entering.
A special video was made to show the masters the approach.
From time to time he would discuss his experiences in the channel approach with
the responsible engineers of the Glasgow based Hydrographic office who
were in charge of making adjustments in the channel buoying system during the
further development of the port.
These very same vessels would also call a just re-opened port in the Dominican
Republic called Manzanillo.
The finger pier in this port - which had not been used for large vessels since
the late 40's - was in a decayed condition and was in urgent need of repairs. It
was his job to make sure that navigation would not be endangered and that REL
would not be held liable for any unavoidable damage to the bulkhead during
docking due to its rusted and weakened construction.
At one time the Port Authority had threatened to arrest one of REL's vessels
after colliding with the pier but when it was proven to them that the cause was
not the vessel but the condition of the pier itself they cancelled their
intentions.
Then the government started repairs and he was to report the progress made.
He continuously traveled back and forth between Belize and the Dominican
Republic and although his duties were mainly of a navigational nature once being
there he of course also supervised the loading and discharge operations.
In begin 1993 he was promoted to Vice president of FMSL, the owners branch of
REL.
Due to the continuously increasing manning costs he had to start looking
for other crews in countries such as Russia, the Philippines, Croatia and Poland. This required extensive traveling but eventually once the change-over had been
accomplished he returned to his regular office duties however not for long. In
1995 at the age of 65 he retired and started his own company under
the name Seeway International Limited., a Maritime consulting company. (
www.Seewayinternational.com ) After all
these years he had no intention to completely stop.
Later it became clear that it had been the right decision because within a few
years REL folded and the company was completely resolved.
He returned to the steel trade which he had always favored most but also serves
as a maritime consultant and port captain attending the loading and discharge of vessels
in the USA, Canada, Great lakes, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central & South America,
Asia and Europe.
He is still active in his profession and has no plans for retirement.
When not traveling to ships and ports he also gives presentations and lectures on schools and universities,
for clubs and organizations
sharing with them a lifetime of experience and
knowledge of the
shipping world. One thing is for sure: He will never be bored !