The first Moluccans arrived in the Netherlands on 21 March 1951. The Kota Inten left Surabaya on 20 February with the first group and arrived in Rotterdam. Eleven more voyages were to follow, bringing a total of more than 12,500 mainly Moluccan soldiers and their families to the Netherlands. They arrived in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. That was exactly 69 years ago today.
Commemorative walk at the Lloydkade
Within the Moluccan community, the date of arrival is now seen as a marker in the history of Moluccans in the Netherlands. For some years now a commemorative walk has been held towards the Lloydkade in Rotterdam. On social media, too, descendants of this first generation share photographs of their (great-)grandparents in memory of this historic event.
Kota Inten
The accompanying photograph shows the departure of the Kota Inten (1st voyage). Past the soldiers on board the ship you can see the people waving them off on the quay. The Kota Inten was built in 1927 by Maatschappij Fijenoord in Rotterdam. She was deployed twice to bring Moluccan soldiers and their families from Java to the Netherlands. The ship was scrapped in Hong Kong in 1957. You can find more photographs, including of life on board and during the crossing, on this website.
More about the crossing
Below is an overview of the ships on which Moluccans arrived in the Netherlands. Would you like to know which ship your family made the crossing on? Then use this database.
Moluccan transportsVoyageArrivalDate of arrivalAsturias9Amsterdam17 May 1951Atlantis2Rotterdam23 March 1951Castelbianco4Rotterdam24 April 1951Fairsea10Rotterdam5 June 1951Goya11Rotterdam15 June 1951Groote Beer7Amsterdam12 May 1951Kota Inten (first voyage)1Rotterdam21 March 1951Kota Inten (second voyage)12Rotterdam21 June 1951New Austalia5Amsterdam29 April 1951Roma3Rotterdam8 April 1951Skaubryn6Rotterdam10 May 1951Somersetshire8Amsterdam16 May 1951
