Since all the punishement rooms in the building were full I was locked up with another three in the so called Mouse tower; it was a Saturday afternoon. The tower was part of the old fortification; the internal space consisted only of a round room with a heavy pillar and the 1.5m thick outside wall was supporting the arched attic; in the walls were spaces for shooting holes who gave view on the city and were shut off with iron bars.
Amongst the cadets it was a well known secret that below the 7th floor board a stone with a long rope was hidden, which could be connected to the garden of a mason who lived at the foot of the tower. Along this route our collegue Cats Meyer brought us cigars, matches and a bottle of jenever, so we could spend Sunday in fitted cheerfulness without being caught.
The next day we were not that lucky although caused by our own fault and bravour; in the evening after dinner the officer of the week Ltnt. v. Leschen came to ask if we had anything to declaire; beforehand we had smudged our faces with phosphor from the smuggled matches; in the darkness we looked like ghosts and frightened v. L. quite a bit; he actually recovered almost at once and told us that he would investigate this the next morning so we would not escape our justified punishment.
Awaiting this we put the 7th floor board back in it’s place and placed the contraband in a corner underneath the clothing so it could be easily found; the trick was succesful and the secret of the jonkers was not discovered although we were all very hot after we were discharged by the governor, then got a loud scorning and again 4 pound as well. This time I was locked up in one of the detention rooms on the attic of the building, where it was horrificly cold.
My third detention punishment I underwent because according to the report of one of the under officers, knicknamed den Domme, ( in the evening after religious studies ) had tried to draw him. When reported with Schonstadt I wanted to protest I heard: keep your mouth shut, I am the only one speaking here.
This time I was being put in one of the cellars; there were 3 dentention chambers which took half of vault covered space, each room closed off with a thick wouden door, in which small windows with iron bars let light through. The cells were each seperated by a wall and in one of the two walls a hole was drilled by a former prisoner; through this hole I was able to get a knife from my neighbour.
With the aid of that knife I was able to cut away the wood of the iron bars so far that I could lift the iron bar out and with my small body I could crawl through the hole outside into the passage to the cells; thus I could get some outside air; however I was still separated by iron bars, which were placed in two large shooting holes, but could talk with the comrades outside and obtained cigars and matches from them, shared the loot amongst my co-prisonners, crawled back into my cage and put the iron bar back in the right spot.
When in the evening we were puffing away, we suddenly were frightened by a colossal noise above us in the inner court, followed by the alarm signal.
To understand this properly, the resistance in the corps had become larger all the time; they had the Governor, who clearly wanted to make himself popular and herefore had placed himself at times between the jonkers, taken for the push and had driven him to the fortification walls; it even came so far that he pulled his sabre, and if not one of the cadets of the music hall had seen everything and immediately blew the alarm: Disperse, it could for the same token have turned in to an accident.
A tiny spark was only needed to ignite the fire of the resistance, and this excisted in the denial of the administration to lend an ear to the advertisement about the food, which in these times left a lot to wish for.
The jonkers, at least a large amount of them, became rebellous and started to break the weapon room open.
Because of the raising of the alarm and the immediate actions of all armed under officers the revolt really was halted at the start, nevertheless they thought it wise to admit to the plan of the rebells to discharge the detained from the prison rooms and the police room.
For this purpose a sergeant came in the cellars with two armed guards and told us to pack our stuff and come along with them to the excercise hall, where to all the jonkers had been ordered.
The sergeant was obviously so upset that he didn’t even notice that our cells were full of smoke and so we had been puffing unpunished.
The bull’s party, as us cadets called a riot like that, had wide stretched consequences; a sharp investigation was set up with the result that the rascals of the riot were drafted in te army for 3 to 6 months, so some became officers a year too late. Apart from that a complete overhaul of the organisation of the K.M.A. was decided; the 4 year course was changed into a 3 year course with the strict Governor B. staying on for the time being; however his actions were much calmer.
Going back to my last detention I want to mention, that after that my blamable behaviour was declaired. Attached to this laudable notice we were now not at all allowed out on Sundays , whilst we were banned from the priveledge of exemption for promotion exam in the subjects in which we reached 80 or more points during the course.
After my last punishment I seemed not to have been found out so often and to my greatest joy a few days before the promotion exam it was read from the report that my blamable behaviour was crossed off. Then I suddenly received an exemption for 7 subjects, under which all the specialised engineer’s subjects.
According to my own judgement I also passed for the remaining subjects of the exam and was very surprised when the results were read out that I had to do a re-exam for descriptive mathematics.
When during my leave in the Hague I met my teacher Ltnt. Krantz I asked him how it came that I failed, whilst I knew for sure to have answered all the questions correctly, he said: Yes little man, you have been rather naughty in the past year and besides had worked rather messy, reason why I gave the commission consideration to let you do a re-exam.
A wonderful idea!
Since my naughty behaviour I had also fallen out if favour with my company commander Govert, which he made clear by refusing to provide me with a new double breasted jacket, which all the jonkers who had grown a bit at the end of the year received. This was the case with me and I looked rather laughable with my too tight and too short jacket.
As a consequence my parents still had to buy me a non regulated jacket, which had to happen in the cheapest way.
At a secondhand store they bought a not quite worn out officer’s jacket which was altered into a double breasted one for me, so I looked quite passable.
From the holidays I can remember too little; so much is sure that I made very few trips for the simple reason that I hardly ever had any money in my pocket; my parents couldn’t miss much and couldn’t give me the guilder a week, which had been given as pocket money in Breda.
This pocket money in Breda was also far from sufficient; a large percentage of this went to small repairs of shoes and clothing, for wear and tear of household goods, so we often had to be happy if we’d receive 30 cents; any extra from home I didn’t receive so for me it was always a treat to receive a letter from my eldest sister Joh in Harderwijk.
From her meagre wages of 200 guilders a year she still knew always to save and then often sending a voucher for Fl.1.22, for which I then could buy some cigars.
During my leave I sometimes earned a bit by holding up wool or silk strands for an old maid who lived above us in furnished rooms; afterwards she asked me to show my wallet and put some silver coins in it. Still her kitchenmaster purse was not meagre.
I didn’t use a book about descriptive mathematics as I felt I kew this subject all too well and I sure did pass the re-examination and started the 3rd year with renewed courage.
I still have to memorise here that in the Schedeldoekshaven in the Hague an old cousin Kerlen lived who during my holidays took me sometimes to his cafe in the Raamstraat and then treated me to a glass of beer; this cousin now and then also send me a box of cigars; they were however cheap pickwicks, but I nevertheless liked to smoked them.
My third year was not unpleasant, although I did little at the own excercises, I always progressed well in the lessons because I had the commendable pretence to pay good attention to the citings of my instructors, which was an advantage at my promotion exam; the subjects for the engineering especially appealed to me and I still memorise the pleasant manner in which the engineer officers taught us. So, men like Boonacker, Ermeling, Voorduin ( nicknamed the Rooster ) and Eland I will never forget.
Meanwhile the food had improved a lot and at the end of the amusement hall a cantine had been set up, where for a few cents we could buy a good cuppa, coffee or chocolate and also could get beer. I couldn’t use it much as my wallet was ususally empty and so I treated myself only occasionally.
On Sundays we were allowed to go out more and could with an invitation always stay away till 8 pm.
I was introduced by my club mate to a couple of old ladies in Ginneken – unfortunately I have completely forgotten their names – where the three of us regularly were guests; we were treated excellently, ate deliciously and after a Boerenschroom game went home with fat bellies.
During the day we then went for a walk in the village and often went to Hueser, where we could dance with farmer’s daughters or went to the Duivelsbrug Inn, where we could buy a pitcher of beer for 8 cents; for 10 cents we even got sugar with it.
One episode from my 3rd year I would still like to relevate here:
The Belgian Government detached a commision to study the teaching at the K.M.A.; a parade at the Grote Markt would be held for the gentlemen.
By the oldest year then the order:”Stand to attention” was given, which for us younger ones was law. It resulted in the parade sounding like a clock and papa Schonstadt was so satisfied, he send us off free for the rest of the day.
The fourth year ordered the decree like “Advocaten party” and the whole cadet corps did just that, spreaded themselves out over the city and surrounding villages.
My club went to Prinsenhagen and ordered a terrine with egg nog at Ant Warmenbol, a wellknown personalitiy in those days, who managed an Inn just outside the village; she was a neat and wise old farmer’s wife, who, if a jonker orered snaps with sugar, she refused every time because she didn’t want to be known to encourage the cadets to drink.
She didn’t have anything against eggnog. So our little club got stuck right in to it and of course came home a bit tipsy just like most of our mates, from whom some even were stoned and got punished, the remainder walked free.
The opinion of the Belgian commission was that they had never seen a corps which exercised so neat and firm, but also could drink like that.
In the evening I slept off my intoxication on the hard sofa in one of the reading rooms and as far as I know I have never had such a hangover again and since then I hated all eggnogs.
Twice a week after supper I was able to practice the piano; in 4 classrooms was a piano, one for each study year and these were for us to be used.
When I was at boarding school with Nierhof I had a few months piano lessons but wasn’t very good at it; my sister Mina, who played very well had given me simple music sheets and so I practiced like mad to annoyance of my mates who were well practiced; in this way I set the foundations of my knowledge of music, which, although not great, have given me a lot of pleasure during my life.
The promotion examination this year was 1.5 month earlier, because the last 6 weeks were for the cadet’s camp in Teteringen; in the few subjects in which I had to do exam I passed satisfactorly and before the commencement of the camp it was known that I would be promoted without re-exams.
Consequently I had a worryfree and nice camptime; however they were tiring days, especially if we had to make trips to the country, but there was a a sociable tone just the same, which was concluded with a singalong under the flagpost in the evening.
When I came to the Hague on holidays there was of course great joy under the whole family and I was treated to my favourite dish: baked plaice. It was a huge fish, which I had been given as a present from our fisherman’s wife Mie in Scheveningen, who always walked with her large strawhat, a real Scheveningen characteristic.
From this last leave I also remember very little, the only thing I know is that I studied a lot at the old flat piano, which stood in our living room and at which Nina usually helped me with difficult pieces. The old woman on the first floor was still there and she let me now and then earn a few quarters and sometimes even two guilders 50.
I now had to share my bedroom with a paid guest, a certain de Jongh, clerk at some office or ministry.
This didn’t please me at all as I could not get along with this stiff Claus, an orthodox from Oudenbosch and so it sometimes came to an argument.
I spent much time at a friend of my parent, Miss Roermeester, whose daughter Marie was an excellent piano player and whom I rather soon got fond of, without telling her this.
At the given time I left again for Breda to commence my 4th study year. According to myself I followed the lessons with good results, especially in the higher applied mathematics at Capt. Simons and in chemistry with the wellknown Piet Meursinge, who because his continued work with test tubes had a thumb twice the size.
After a short period with good behaviour we obtained more freedoms again and were allowed to go out without an invitation also on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.
The artillery and engineers from our year then hired a furnished room together and turned it into our private society. Every member had in turn “the week” and had to be purposely present in the room to supply drinks, which were stored in a locked cupboard. Of course I had no money to join properly according to the rules, but the 4th year had in Breda credit and from that I have profited in a very modest way.
Under the condition that you would order your officer’s uniform from them, you could borrow large amounts of money from any tailor; I took this opportunity to collect the total money of 60 guilders. ( Little students nowaways think about this differently ). In this manner I could also join the society and spent many pleasant hours there.
Now and then during my stay at the K.M.A. an alteration in the corp’s uniforms was made. When I arrived the winglets were replaced by brass shoulder coverings, which later on was exchanged for camelhair shoulder knots, there after forages were added made out of the same red coloured material with red tassles for the first year; for the 2nd year those tassles had silver peardrops and for the 3rd also silver frills; as a result of this the 2nd year got the rank of corporal and the 3rd of sergeant.
Eater 1869 I was accepted as member of the Reformative Community. This took place in the house of Ds.v.d. Broek, in the presence of a very orthodox elder; during which several jonkers pulled funny faces, so that the elder walked away crossly; however this didn’t take away that we were still comfirmed on the first day of Easter and had to take part in the holy evening meal.
At this occasion I came to sit next to an old civilian, who had a drippy nose and at the passing of the goblet dropped some of his noble liquid in it; I then had thought with Jezus: Lord, please let this goblet pass me!
Shortly before our officer’s exam the engineers of the 4th ( 3rd ) year made a study tour; firstly to Geertruidenberg, then to Moerdijk under the guidance of the Rooster; for this purpose a handsome sum of money was put aside by the administration from which we were festively treated in both places.
The trip to G. was very tiring as we had to cover the road to and fro by foot; neither roads gave us any important views.
The one to Moerdijk on the contrary was extremely interesting; there we got to see one of the largest works from that time in action namely the building of the long railway bridge over the Hollands Diep.
From all that we saw there, the building of the pneumatic piers in the deep end was the best. The firm foundation ground was first found at 23 m. below the water level and therefore they had to let the upside down turned iron caissons down to the ground, which was caused by concreting on top of the caisson and whilst it went down the airpressure inside the caisson became higher. On top of the caisson stood two large iron cylindres which served as sluice doors, one for people, the other for building material. The workers who worked inside the caisson were especially checked; this also happened with the visitors, who wanted to be admitted.
Also the Haantje and three cadets were admitted and the four of us were put into the sluice cylinder in which, after the outside air had been shut off, pressurised atmospheric3 air, was let in. Clearly I couldn’t stand it and got a nose bleed, so I had to be rescued from the cylinder before they would continue.
I sometimes had a problem with nose bleeding like that at the K.M.A. and was cured at the advice of the health officer by wearing flannel vests continuously.
The results of the officer’s exams which took more than 3 weeks were a real disappointment for us; of the 57 cadets who took part in the exams, 16 failed partly or totally, something as far as was known had never happened before.
The motive for this would have been that the management wanted to excercise a kind of punishment because our year had caused quite a few problems during the last 3 years.
Two of them were asymptotic ( 1 year staying behind in a class ); the others had to do re-exams in 6 months, 3 months or 6 weeks. I had to do re-exams in the statica after the holidays, so after 6 weeks.
If you realise that the statica is the foundation of all 6 mathematical subjects of the last study year, it seems at least strange that I had failed in this; well later on it proved to be that there was nothing else behind it.
Of the 3 engineers O.I.L. the order had always been Staal, Hoffman, Kerlen. Well, Staal was a well behaved boy and also because of his elder brother, a persona grata and therefore had to purposely stay no. 1; I actually had reached higher points than him in most subjects, so nothing would be easier than to let the naughty little one re-do one subject; lucky they chose the easiest.
Nevertheless the view of the commission later on has caused me a lot of damage with my promotion; for instance I became S. Captain not until 2 years later and also much later major, for further ranks he didn’t trouble me.
After the exams the two eldest years went back to the camp in Teteringen; because of the unfavourable results of the exams the atmosphere was not half as happy as in the past years and the traditional civilian party in Breda didn’t take place and we went home for our holidays with less pleasant feelings.
I didn’t have to study, but the atmosphere at home however was not pleasant and I sought my consolation mainly in playing our old harpsichord, which the family didn’t find amusing either; so then I went to listen to my friend Marie R.’s piano play. To sum it up for me the holidays were a boring time.
The 2nd of September I had to go back to Breda in order to show my knowledge of the statica again; that night I slept for the last time in my old bunk and was particularly calm.
I had to answer 10 questions on paper, 5 before and 5 after the break; my examener was Captain Simons, who, because I was the only candidate in this subject, every time I had an answer ready, straight away presented the next one, thus I had finished all 10 questions even before the break.
He was so friendly to tell me that I had passed and I could leave the building as soon as I wished. This didn’t fall on deaf ears and after I had collected my stuff I stormed out of the building ( my prison ) as free as a birdy.
I still had to stay in Breda that day because I couldn’t reach the steamer Moerdijk-Rotterdam in time and left on 2nd September for the Hague after having slept in the hotel .
First thing I had to do upon arrival was to report to the officer of the main guard at the Buitenhof. This officer started to tell me off for not appearing in full dress on the crown Prince’s birthday. I replied that I didn’t have other clothing anymore than the ones I was wearing and that my arms were taken off me when I left the K.M.A., something he as a trouper of course didn’t know. He was still looking mad at me for a while and then said: just go away! A very nice first meeting with the officer’s corps!
The homecoming was now a lot happier than before the holidays; the whole family stood there waiting for me and after I had put on my new civilian clothes, I was again treated with plaice.
In the State’s newspaper of 12th September was announced that the day before I had been promoted by H.M. the King to 2nd Lieutenant with the Engineer’s Corps, Miners and Sappers in the Dutch East Indies, and so I could put on my beautiful uniform with a helmet on the collar.
I can close this chapter actually now and start with my life and carier as subaltern officer, I find it strange to count the period that I still spend in the Netherlands to my youth as well.
I was still as green as grass, did absolutely no service and during that time had been lazing around, something I was very sorry for later on.
An aquintance of my parents, Mr. Portier, who was working at the Ministry for Colonies, was able to organise that I would be sent to Indie as late as possible; this stretched my sweet “doing nothing” till the end of May 1870.
Already soon after my commission I was called up to Harderwijk in order to swear into that and so stayed with Mrs. Braskamp, the owner of the boutique where my sister Joh was working.
Colonel Seelig, chief of the colonial Werfdepot had to administer the oath; they had warned me not to look at the man’s feet, who were of unknown measurements, as that would at least cost a lower stay at the depot.
So I stayed clear of that and was well received by him, with recommendation to the administrator to immediately pay out half of my huge bonus of 400 guilders. With the 200 guilders I imagined to be as rich as a Prince.
After staying for two days with my sister, who by me will be entitled Aunty Joh in the rest of my story, I returned to the Hague.
I got a payment of 75 guilders a month and agreed with my mother to pay her 30 guilders for maintenance, further I hired a piano as replacement for the harpsichord, which was sent off to the attic.
I continuously practiced at this really good new instrument, which gave me a lot of pleasure, whilst calling upon my sister Mina for information. I also amused myself with my dog Smier, who one of the first days after my homecoming walked in as a stray; it was a grey, very ugly Griffon, however particularly intelligent and with the aid of pieces of liver I taught him all kinds of tricks; he could get the newspaper or a breadroll from our neighbour Derksen across the road, the baker from the Oude Vette Hen; he fetched my slippers from my bedroom when I got home and took my shoes back and further performed all kinds of normal tricks.
Sundays before church we were not allowed to play the piano and I had to go to church with my dad all the time and then he always wanted me to wear my uniform and the only time I went in civilian clothes he was definitely in a bad mood and those continuing church services started to bore me badly; I have actually kept it up till my departure, because of to the urgent request of my dear mother. The result however has been that I had to endure too much of this good stuff that I hardly ever went to church in my later life, without definitely being an atheist.
In the autumn of 1869 I made a trip to Gelderland with my father so I could say farewell to the family.
First we visited Zutphen, the birthplace as well of my father as mine; we stayed at my eldest brother Gerrit, who with his marquesse had formed a large household; the eldest daughter Marie, who later married Gerrit Nikkels was then 17 years old and I didn’t like it in the least when she teased me with me being her uncle; I could easily take it from the younger girls and gave them each a small fur necklet as souvenir.
With my father I visited all family members and friends, most of whom from the last ones I didn’t even know.
In Almen lived my uncle Oitink, who was married with a sister of my deceased mother; she was nicknamed Aaltjemeue; her maidenname was the same as my mother’s Kornegoor; the christian name of last mentioned was Racheltje; there was also another unmarried sister called Harmkemeue; all these farmer families were well off, however not inclined to support me in any financial way in the beginning of my career; from Harmkemeue I did inherit later on a small amount.
From Zutphen we left again for Arnhem, where we stayed with the former business partner of my mother, Miss Jansen; she seemed to have done well in drapery goods, at least she lived in a beautiful villa togethere with a certain Mrs. Volkers and we had a perfect time there. A particularity of this old women was that they owned a large cat and a canary and the latter flew freely through the house and even dared to sit on the back of the cat.
Apart from that I don’t remember much of the stay in Arnhem, only this:
Footnote:
Racheltje Kornegoor was Johannes Godfried’s mother.
I went with my father to visit an old maid who when saying farewell asked if I would take the good Lord with me when leaving for Indie; I answered that I had him in my pocket, which caused me a grave reprimand by my father.
He was usually not so exact orthodox and leant more in to the liberal direction and was a fan of Ds. v. Koetsveld, but couldn’t agree at all with Ds. Zaalberg, who was far too progressive for his liking.
From Arnhem to Nijmegen in those days a trip of 3 hours with the boat over Rijn and Waal; then I saw the beautiful regions, well known to me, again.
We stayed with my brother Anton, who now had a neat shop with workshop in the Burgstraat across the large clubhouse the Harmonie; he seemed to be going well with wife and children. A shame his wife died, I cannot remember when- and remarried with his sister in law Sophie who clearly wasn’t such a caring housewife as her deceased sister and under whose management the business gradually diminished!
My father stayed only one day in Nijmegen because he had to go back to the Hague for his work; I myself stayed a while in N. and spent the time visiting the surroundings of the old aquaintances and schoolmates.
I still had also an old girlfriend called Sannetje v. Leeuwen, who wouldn’t have minded to become Mrs. Kerlen.
There was however no way in the world I would think about marrying; with the stupid 400 guilders bonus I couldn’t even pay half of my gear and so I had to leave for Indie owing money, where I only would get a meagre pay in the first years; I told darling Sannetje about these things and we decided not to wait for each other.
Later on in Indie I heard that S. started to like Beier beer too much and so she passed away at quite a young age.
In Tiel I had an aquaintance namely the headmaster van Kuyk, with whom I had spent a week over Christmas in my gymnast time; he had an adopted son Jacob v. Zaanen with whom I then became good friends; I asked the teacher if I could come and I received an answer from Jacob to come soon, because the fair was just on in Tiel. So then I spent a few very pleasant days there.
When I arrived back in the Hague I found a summons of the management of the Council for the draw for the National Defence, which had to happen in the large hall of the butter weighhouse. When I arrived in my uniform all draw candidates dashed aside, it was a real comedy and I was drawn free.
My best friend in my last Dutch period was Willem le Rutte; we were already friends at Neiman’s school. His father was head commissioner at one of the Ministeries and although he didn’t have much money because of his large family, he did give his children a proper education, lived in quite an upmarket house in the Juffrouw Ida straat.
The eldest son then was 10 year older than Willem, was Officer of administration with the marine and had just come from the West Indies in those days, treated us to a nice Havana cigar.
I took many walks with Willem and when we had a few quarters left over we rowed on the Loosdrechtse river, where we could hire boats on the spot where the Paul Krugerlaan starts. Not far from here in the direction of the beach was a tea garden with pergolas from the innkeeper Schrijver; in the adjacent hall stood an old fashioned piano, which in the evenings was played by the son of the owner; we then danced with the girls from the shops and rested from exhaustion (?) in the teahouses.
When later on The Hague was expanded the same Schrijver had bought a large block of land for little money and became landlord of nearly all houses in the Eastpart of where now runs the Beeklaan.
Willem was a few years younger than I and because of that he was considered for the exam a year later than I; he choose the same profession as his brother and since only a three year course was needed for that, we finished at the same time. He had an uncle, who was officer of health in the Ind. army; this man was very sympathetic to us and adviced me amongst other things to pay a visit to the mother of my next chef, major van Kappen.
The lady lived in Haarlem and since he personally wasn’t there, he suggested me to visit under guidance of his brother in law, an inf. lieutenant, whose name I have forgotten.
So I went on the arranged day to Leiden, where the officer was in garrison and expected him there at the station. I didn’t have much money in my pocket and didn’t eat anything and when my mentor finally arrived just in time, there was no time left to consume anything.
So we went by rail to Haarlem, then straight to the house of Mrs. v. Kappen and I was introduced to her. Already at the start of the conversation I fainted and I am still surprised I didn’t fall off the straight chair on which I was sitting and only at the very end of the conversation I came to so I had heard nothing of the conversation, which according to my mentor was not even noticed by Mrs. v.Kappen.
The officer took me to the society and gave me a glass of portwine, from which I recouperated and later took part at the officer’s table with a great appetite.
I haven’t had regrets about this strange visit, since I have experienced much support and appreciation from the later chief of the arms v. K.
Willem le Rutte didn’t get further in his service than 1st class well to do civilian, married a rich West Indian woman and became a well to do civilian of the Hague after his retirement and lived for years in the van Speyckstraat.
I only met him once during my leave and our friendship was only renewd after my retirement which in good time, I still hope to talk about.
I also associated in those days with a lieutenant of the Cavalry Jan Mulder, who had been appointed at the same time as I. His fahter was bookbinder at the ministry of war, lived in a court at the Spui and had much trouble to pay the schoolfees for his son at Neuman and even sacrificed himself further when Jan became officer to move into a neat home so he could give his son the opportunity to receive his friends in a proper way.
The old man rather liked me and went through all kinds of trouble with my parents to promote the association between the two sons.
He also knew to organise that we would be sent to Indie at the same time and quite soon it became known that this would happen with the Clipperfregat Dordrecht II. J. Mulder has never actually been a real friend for me, which will be evident from the further part of my story.
It was hardly known that M. and I were incorporated with the detachment which would leave at the end of May with Dordrecht II, when my father read in the paper, that the clipper had fallen over in the dock in Amsterdam, which upset him and especially my mother; I wasn’t scared of it, knowing that the ship already had made a few good trips and of course didn’t have any ballast.
Note from Marguerite
I’ve written to Mr. Blokland in Holland who has an extensive website on all these old ships. I have only found this info but asked him if there was a picture.
Kerlen leaves on 27 May 1870 for Indie. The message at the bottom was of her maiden voyage.
Clipper/fregat ,,DORDRECHT 2,, 468 last / bijlbrief nr 262 / 3-5-1869. Reder Gerrit van Hoogstraten te Dordrecht.
1e Kapitein Cornelis Jans Rotgans / D 37( 1819 Terschelling / 1880 a/b schip).
1e reis MRD nr 28 / 30-5-1869 / met 25 man naar Batavia.
I had to go to Amsterdam to introduce mysel to my prospective detachment commander in Amsterdam, so I could also look at the ship. It was a beautiful boat with a long poop deck, under which was the first class part with beautiful cabins; the cabin destined for me for instance was so large, it could hold a piano and the large portholes provided a lot of light.
Captain Rotgans was not on board and I was shown around by the first steersman, who explained the further setup for the soldiers and sub officers with hospital and pharmacy to me; everything was in proper order thus I had full confidence in the journey.My visit with the detachment commander, the captain storekeeper of the Artillery Mathijsen was very short; he lived with wife and 5 children in a small topstory house and was clearly not rich, which was not surprising under the then poor wages for leave.Here is the right place to mention what happened at home in my last period:
One day my parents got a visit from a certain J. Benard, stamper at the stampoffice at the Binnenhof, who after requesting to be left alone with them, at once came out with the proposal to marry one of my two eldest sisters.
He was widower and had 6 children; when the Father had put this proposal in the open, some laughs emerged and tante Joh suggested she’d be bought off with 10 cents; Cato had a different opinion and decided after a day’s deliberations to take on the difficult job of raising the 6 little kids.The engagement was drunk to and not long after the marriage contracted; this of course took place in the Town Hall and I was going to be a witness, but was declined by the civil servant, because, even though officer, I was not an adult yet.
The blessings of the marriage took place in the Nieuwe Kerk on the Spui and further the wedding was celebrated at our home.
Tante Joh took conduct of the lot and knew to feed and lavish us so much that many guest became sick.
She gave us for instance punch pique to drink ( a mixture of punch and red wine ) which was for most of us the knock out, it was really old fashioned.