Chapter II.
My life and carier as subaltern officer.
a. as Lieutenant.
Late in the afternoon of the 22nd May 1870 I arrived in Harderwijk; tante Joh was of course at the station and together we walke the long road to the house of Mrs. Braskamp, where I was going to stay again.
The next morning Mulder and I announced ourselves at the barracks of the Colonial Werf depot; captain Matthijsen was already there before us and one of the officers of the depot introduced us to the 150 troups strong detachment during which we had to enter to be submitted to an inspection of Colonel Seelig and so I had the opportunity to admire the Colonel’s more than colossal feet.
The departure to Den Helder was arranged for the 25th and meanwhile we had to do our duties at the Depot, which mainly consisted in roll call and to be present at the purchase of materials for the detachment, which were not given by the sailing ship; it was rather strange that amongst these were haring and pickles.
I still had to buy drinks and cigars for myself; I didn’t do that in the Hague because aquaintences of tante Joh, the firm Hubers & Co had recommended themselves for the goods under the condition that I would pay by instalments, after arrival in Indie.
Mulder who didn’t have supplies either suggested to order together and unfortunately I agreed.
What good friends the Hubersen were was proven when they immediately after delivering wrote to the department of war in Batavia asking for a rebate on my wages, so that this gratuity was ready for me upon my arrival.
My afternoons I spend taking long walks with Henriette Braskamp, a pretty girl, of whom I however never heard again.
On 25th the whole detachment from Harderwijk departed with the Netherlands Central Railway under the guidance of the lieutenant van Vlierden of the Colonial warf department; all officers of the depot were present at the station, tante Joh was there too.
After an emotional farewell of last mentioned the train left for Amsterdam, it stopped just before Utrecht to take in more water and after that steaming straight on, sothat we couldn’t leave the train anywhere.
Upon arrival in Amserdam we were immediately guided to a large shed at the warf, who later on was used by the Maatschappy Nederland; we were discharged by a captain, who’s only occupation was just that and afterwards were pushed like herrings in a river steamer and the voyage commenced through the Noord Hollands Kanaal to Den Helder. How we got on board of our Dordrecht II I cannot remember.
As the weather didn’t allow to sail away immediately, we had to remain for several days in the Nieuwediep; Mulder and I got the watch in turn, although we were allowed to move around freely; the sub officers and crew however were not allowed to leave the ship.
Apart from our boat there were three other boats ready to set sail; one of them was the Hendrik Ido Ambacht, amongst the passengers on board was Jeanne Borel, whom I saw every now and then in my later life; further were a civil servant Halkema and a German named Blumer, who during the voyage got engaged to Jeanne Borel; the passengers of the 4 ships visited each other during the day.
During one of these visits a monitor came to ly right across our ship, the warship had two screws and with those it turned on the spot and steamed away at once; I want to point out this for our days simple action, because it will come up again in the further part of my story.
Our detachment commander captain Matthysen was a kind and fat man. He had a nice and energetic wife and 5 children, as Mrs. M. was expecting number 6 pretty soon they had taken a nanny with them; besides the already mentioned persons was also a co leader, a certain Dr. Smits, officer of health 3rd class, a miserable small guy, who had taken a dirty little smous dog on board, which during the whole voyage arose the irritation of captain Rotgans as well as that of the crew and passengers.
In the night of the 27th May the wind turned to N.E. and so the next morning all sails of the 4 ships were unfolded and each ship was pulled along outside the narrows by a tugboat, after which the bulkheads were fastened and each ship started the voyage on their own account.
It was beautiful weather and softly the Dordrecht II moved over the North Sea in the direction of the Channel.
Us passengers were sitting on the high deck in the late afternoon and since there was a little more swell on the water most of us were starting to feel a little seasick.
Captain Rotgans adviced us to take a small glass of cognac and it did help some; It was an efficacious means as pretty soon I felt quite normal and for the rest of the voyage I have not felt sesaick at all.
The next day the four ships were already in the middle of the Channel and we stayed in each other’s neighbourhood for some days, also in the Atlantic Ocean.
Each morning after the reveille the Hendrik Ido Ambacht was called, which was done by the ships caller, shouting the name Halkema through a megaphone; we did this because we had teased the civil servant sometimes in Nieuwediep; it was a joke, but we did often get an unintelligable yelling as an answer.
Not until the 5th June the ships lost sight of each other; it just was my 20th birthday and because of it I was treated by captain Rotgans, who gave me a touching speech. The ship rolled quite a bit and the pendulum table had been set to work; I have never seen such a table again; the edges were fixed though the center piece was balancing around a long axle in the direction of the ship. It was an amazing sight seeing all dishes and bottles going up and down and one had to really get used to it; the plates were being held into position by ordinary slats like you can see at any other ship.
The evening of the 5th I gave a small party in my cabin and one can imagine the space of it if I explain that, whilst I sat down and played the piano, Mr. and Mrs. Matthysen, Mulder and Dr. Smits were sitting around me. The 5 children were bunked on my bed and on the cabin sofa in front of the cabin the captain, 1st officer and ship’s doctor had taken place.
We had a lot of fun that evening, old and young sang along under the accompaniment of my piano plucking and we made a good dent in Hubert’s supply which had not been paid for yet.
After continuing a few more days with changing wind our boat picked up the South East trade wind and with this favourable opportunity we could head straight for the Eastcoast of South America; the ship was lying as the sailors say on one ear, so that the lifeboats, who were hanging in davit’s on starboard side, nearly touched the water; the ship made good progress, however we soon got bored by it.
Yet us officers had plenty of distraction from roll call and theories for detachment; I had been given the task of arithmatic for the lower maths for the cadre. Further more I never had to get bored as my beloved piano stood always ready to be played on. I had another distraction because with the captain and the 1st steerman I determined the position of the ship, which for me was a pleasant occupation.
Already quite soon we entered the zone of the doldrums around the Equator; we then slowed to snail pace and we seemed to be floating around. The Neptune festiveties in honour of the passing of the Equator as it is celebrated on most ships during these forced unemployment time, came to nothing because Rotgans and Matthysen raised objections in view of possible differences between the soldiers and the ship’s crew and so these were boring days, which were aggrevated by a horrible tropical heat.
So it was a relief when a real tropical downpoor with thunderstorm broke loose and everyone dressed only in pyama pants enjoyed this natural fresh water bath. This was for the crew, who always had to bath with salt water, a real treat, still also a luxury for us, as we only got our washing bowl filled with fresh water. They profited from this opportunity to fill up the supply in the hold.
The tropical downpour however provided another good side as it was followed by some wind from a different direction, which luckily brought us outside the doldrums; for the crew it was busy work as they had to continuously change around the sails and pull on the sheets; they preferred to hear the commando “Bazaanschoot aan” ( tie up the backrope of the aft sail ), which meant that they would get a drink ( with the troops the Wilhelmus will then be played ).
Soon the wind blew from the North and with this favourable weather we reached the West wind zone after some time – I don’t know how long for- .
To use these winds as much as possible to our advantage we coursed on up to the 43rd parallel South and then we headed East.
This all took place in stormy weather, which worsened so much we we had to take in all reef sails, except for the foresail and we only sailed on with this one with a speed of 14 miles. The technical term for this manoeuvre in the right course direction is “Emptying for the wind “ and the great danger of this is that the heavy and high swell can catch up with the ship, which then crashes on everything that is in the way.
To lessen this danger an armthick bended hawser was fastened on the rear of the ship, sothat the bend would just hit the top of the wave; we could see the useful effect of this hawser clearly, saw the top of the wave on the spot of the hawser somewhat lower than on both sides of it.
You should have seen this frightening natural scene to be able to make a good judgement about it; all of us felt very small and were, because of the great danger consigned to the cabin and latches were closed.
Meanwhile we reached ournext destination, being the Indian Ocean, in great speed and could go about to calmer zones again; we coursed to the islands Pul and Amsterdam. When we imagined we had these in view, I asked the captain permission to climb in the top of the large mast in order to first see land. This was granted, however imagine my horror when I was followed by a climbing sailor fastening me to the rigging. I didn’t know this was a custom and learned that I could buy myself free with a bottle of genever, which thus happened.
I then continued my trip to the maintop and I had the real satisfaction that I was the first to discover land with the sailor of the lookout, which we had not been allowed to see since leaving the Channel.
We sailed between both menitoned islands and after that we kept getting beautiful tradewinds weather; although we didn’t sail at such great speed as we had South of Cape of Good Hope, still this was completely compensated by the pleasant voyage; how long this has lasted I cannot remember, but I do remember, that in the evening of the 11th August we dropped anchor in Strait Soenda.
Wasn’t it a coincidence that these were the same 4 ships we set sail with on May 28th in the Nieuwediep?
We waited for the landwind and sailed with full sails to the roads of Batavia, where we arrived in the afternoon of 12th August in the same order as we left our native country and dropped the anchor almost at the same time .
Immediately after the navy officer of health came aboard to hold a medical inspection and from him we learnt that a war between France and Germany was going on in full swing, an event we hadn’t heard about until now.
The first thing captain Rotgans did after the inspection was to lower a lifeboat in order to get Mrs. Matthysen, who’se baby was expected any minute to row her ashore and I still can see his happy face when he saw her in good shape in the lifeboat and said: “Glad that this dirty package has gone in time”. Mrs. M. gave birth to a well shaped daughter that same evening in Hotel der Nederlanden.
Later in the afternoon the replacing adjudant from Batavia came with several proas and local canoes to pick up the whole detachement; this happened quite fast and upon arrival on the warf we were loaded onto a few horsedrawn trams which would transport us to Meester Cornelis. In front of each wagon three small ponies were put to; we could not imagine these small animals were called horses here and could pull the large wagons along.
Still it proved to be so and even with a relative fast speed; on our way we got a real tropical downpour and the officers who were standing on the balconies did get rather muddy.
footnote:
The Indonesian place names etc. are kept in the spelling of that time.
Upon arrival at the tramstop in Meester Cornelis many officers were waiting to welcome us; the most striking under them was a small screecher, who talked the loudest, namely lieutenant Deijkerhof. Little did I suspect that he would play quite a big roll in my later service.
When the troops were in the barrack of the supply depot us officers were free to return to Weltevreden. What could I do? I only owned two ten cent pieces and with those I could just pay the tram to the hotel der Nederlanden, where I decided to bunk down; I didn’t have luggage with me, so I had to sleep in my vest the first night and the next morning had to pay a visit to the bathroom in my uniform. The owner of the hotel, to whom I had explained my situation lend me some money and with this I could manage to get on for the next two days.
Before I returned to Mr. Cornelis the next morning I had to report to Headoffice at the Schoolweg, where I first was admitted to the Chief of Arms, colonel Egter van Eissekerke, a dignified gentleman, who looked down on me completely and asked where I would mostly like to be placed. My answer was Soerabaja, because I would then be serving under the commands of major G. de Vos, son of the French teacher in Zutphen, whom I had learned to appreciate during his leave. The Chief told me then there wouldn’t be any opportunity for that at the moment but that they would take my request into consideration. The outcome of the bill was that during my whole career I have never been in garrison in Soerabaja.
After this visit I was let in by the Sub-Chief, the lieutenant colonel van Walcheren, also a dignified, though very likable man who talked to me about a lot of things.
Whilst leaving his room I seemed to have taken very little notice of the officer who was also sitting in the room; how could this be otherwise? All officers and civil servants were in civilian clothes; it turned out to be captain Dozy, a happy Larry, who kept teasing me because I had mistaken him for a civil servant.