Page 8 - Navigator 2021

EXACTLY A CENTURY AGO - ON THE 21ST OF OCTOBER 1921 – THE PILOT SCHOONER EEMS 2 PERISHED AT SEA ALONG WITH HER TEN-MAN CREW OF PILOTS AND CREW MEMBERS DURING A HEAVY STORM IN THE NORTH OF THE NETHERLANDS. IT CAUSED A LOT OF COMMOTION IN THE HOME PORT OF DELFZIJL, WHERE A MONUMENT WAS UNVEILED ON THE HARBOUR DIKE OVERLOOKING THE EEMS ONE YEAR LATER. TO THIS DAY, THE PILOT MONUMENT KEEPS ALIVE THE MEMORY OF ALL THOSE PILOTS AND CREW MEMBERS WHO PERISHED ON AND PRIOR TO THAT FATEFUL DAY.
The square granite column on the harbour dike of Delfzijl, which nowadays makes up Groningen Seaports together with Eemshaven, lists 38 names in total. In addition to the victims aboard the Eems 2, the monument bears the names of 28 pilots and crew members who perished at sea in the performance of their duty from 1872 on. It is a sad reminder of earlier times when pilotage was much more fraught with danger than it is today. Author Hans Beukema wrote the book ‘Op Kruispost’ on this topic in the eighties. The disaster with the Eems 2 in 1921 is extensively featured as well.
FAULTY EQUIPMENT
Speaking with Beukema, he mentions an important cause for the fatal event. “The disaster with the Eems 2 is largely attributable to the faultiness of the available equipment. In those days, Region North still had to make do with sailing pilot vessels which had been discarded by busier pilot stations elsewhere in the Netherlands. There, they were already using steamships.” Possible other causes are somewhat un- clear. A fact is that, as part of the Royal Navy at the time, the board of Loodswezen and the executive branches were two completely different worlds. “The pilot vessels were under strict orders to remain at their pilot stations at sea at all times. If the military leadership felt that the skipper of a pilot vessel had decided to leave too soon, he could face serious sanctions. A skipper would therefore think twice before doing something like that.”
PERMANENTLY AT SEA
Beukema explains how pilotage was organised off the northern Dutch coast in 1921. “There were two pilotage stations 30 miles off the coast – Westereems and Oostereems – which each had a sailing pilot schooner which was permanently stationed there with pilots and crew. Each week, a third schooner would sail from Delfzijl to the western pilotage station; the schooner there would then shift to the eastern pilotage station and the ship there would move to shore for a week. Thus, the ships were continuously rotated.”
VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE
On that fateful 21st of October 1921, during a heavy north-westerly storm, things went horribly wrong. Beukema: “During storms, the pilot vessels would always sail from the pilotage station out into the open sea, actually battling the elements. Remaining at the pilotage station would put the vessel at risk of running into the sandbanks off the coast.
A good ship can weather a storm at sea, but these particular pilot ves- sels were far from good ships. That is probably what caused this tragic event. When the third pilot schooner departed from Delfzijl and did not encounter the Eems 2 at the western pilotage station in the days following the storm, they initially thought that the ship was still out at sea or had already departed for the eastern pilot station to relieve the vessel there. This ship however arrived in Delfzijl without having being relieved.” After a short period of living between hope and fear, the inevitable became clear: the Eems 2 had perished.
ERECTION OF MONUMENT
Following earlier shipping disasters, the sinking of the Eems 2 caused great commotion among the residents of Delfzijl. Loodswezen played a prominent role in the local community there. From one day to the next, ten families had lost a father or a son. At the initiative of the Trade Association of Delfzijl, a committee was established to raise money for those left behind. Part of these funds went towards the erection of the monument on the harbour dike; since 1922, the Pilot Monument has been honouring those pilots and crew members who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Beukema: “The shipping disaster with the Eems 2 meant the end of pilotage with sailing ships from Delfzijl. Not immediately, but the major protests amongst the Delfzijlster community, multiple inquiries into
the cause of the disaster and into the quality of the ships as well as Parliamentary questions ultimately resulted in the commissioning of steamships from 1923 on.”
‘The shipping disaster with the Eems 2 meant the end of pilotage with sailing ships from Delfzijl’
8 NAVIGATOR NL 2021 N°21