on the Akihary family, smallpox and Salomé
On Saturday 12 May 1951 the 7th transport carrying Moluccan ex-KNIL soldiers and their families arrived in the port of Amsterdam. Captain De Wild moored the ship at the Javakade in front of the "Holland" shed of the Stoomvaart-Maatschappij Nederland.
The Groote Beer left Semarang on 12 April and sailed on to Amsterdam via Tanjung Priok, the port of Jakarta. On board were 765 passengers, 395 Moluccan men and 370 Moluccan women, making up 198 families, and 394 children and young people.
My grandfather Petrus Akihary (3rd from the left) with his young sons Willem Arnol (2nd from the left) and Johannis (right). The soldier on the right with glasses is private 1st class Uncle Izaak Akihary.
The Akihary family Also on board were my grandparents Akihary and their 7 children, including my father Pieter Paul. Sergeant Major Instructor P. Akihary, army number 081811000, had boarded at Semarang with his wife Jacoba Akihary – Nahumury, his sons Domingus (1929), Pieter Paul (1932), Johannis (1938), Willem Arnol (1940) and Melchior (1948) and his daughters Martha (1936) and Liza (1950).
Other Akihary names appear on the passenger list too. All family, belonging to the keluarga besar Akihary. And satu kampong, coming from one and the same village of origin in the Moluccas: Aboru.
My father Piet, who turned 19 during the crossing, together with his friends
Moving images It is quite remarkable that moving images exist of the crossing on the Groote Beer. Remarkable too because these are the only film images made of the passage of Moluccans to the Netherlands. Thanks are due to the crew member of the Groote Beer who filmed during the voyage, and in colour at that. You can experience the journey for yourself, from the port of Tanjung Priok via Aden, the Suez Canal and Port Said, across the Mediterranean to Amsterdam.
https://youtu.be/1UiTiqVG1rA
Life on board the ship De Groote Beer
Smallpox? Several newspapers in the Netherlands reported on 11 May 1951 that those on board the Groote Beer would be isolated for a few days as a precaution at camp Amersfoort. The reason was a suspicion of smallpox in a sick passenger who had been taken off the ship at Port Said.
Who was that passenger? De Telegraaf answered that question on 14 May 1951 in the article "Groote Beer sailed back to Port Said". The passenger was the 14-year-old Ambonese girl Solomé Latuny. She turned out not to have smallpox but chickenpox. De Telegraaf reassuringly reported: "Salome is already feeling almost better. And it will not be long before she arrives in the Netherlands, fully recovered."
Several other passengers turned out to have chickenpox too. And not smallpox, as my aunt Martha Anthony – Akihary thought: "What I still remember from the crossing was that smallpox broke out on the boat. One of the patients was my little sister Liza, then just 1 year old. As a result we were examined at Suez. A large number of handsome young doctors came on board to examine the entire transport of soldiers and families."
From: the daily De Tijd, 11 May 1951. In the days around the arrival of the Groote Beer there was a mild smallpox epidemic in the Netherlands, particularly around Tilburg.
Disembarkation followed on Sunday 13 May at 9 in the morning.
Further reading:
For a detailed description of the Groote Beer see "transportschepen", website of the Nationaal Archief, The Hague.
For the Groote Beer passenger list see "Molukkers naar Nederland", website of the Nationaal Archief, The Hague.
