Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft was a Dutch ocean liner built in 1925. An onboard fire destroyed her passenger accommodation before she was completed. In 1932, another fire damaged her so severely that she was sold for scrapping, only to catch fire again before she was scrapped.
Ordering
The MSN and the NSM MS Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft was built for the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN). SMN had been founded in 1870 and its core business was the transport between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. Later the line added other destinations in the Pacific, e.g., from Java to the West Coast of the US, and even a line from Java to New York. The ships that carried passengers had to be fast and comfortable. For building these, and many other ships the SMN required, SMN had a long-standing relationship with the Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij (NSM), which had built all the SMN ships since c. 1905.
The order and French currency depreciation Between 1922 and 1926 the French Franc lost 43% of its value. From 1921 to 1926 there was a severe international crisis in shipbuilding. In 1923 the SMN then tendered the construction of a very large ship, the later Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft. The offers that came in were: Fijenoord and Wilton shipyard combination for 6,200,000 guilders; De Schelde and Wilton combination for 6,400,000; NSM 6,600,000 counting as 6,270,000 guilders due to a contract between NSM and SMN. The NSM still beat the other Dutch shipyards, because it offered a significantly faster delivery. The NSM had offered at cost price because construction would keep 1,000 employees occupied for a year.
The French shipyard Société des Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire (ACL) offered for 4,900,000 guilders. Its offer was for two months later delivery, which counted for 50,000 guilders. The additional cost for distance, transport etc. was also budgeted as 50,000 by the SMN. Possible support by the government and municipality was not sure and thought to be maximum 450,000. All in all the difference between the offer of the NSM and Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire was 6,270,000 - 4,900,000 - 50,000 - 50,000 - 450,000 = 820,000 guilders. This was such a significant amount that the SMN decided to give the order to Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire.
The English competition had also been invited to offer for P.C. Hooft. Indeed, the majority of the 19 offers came from shipyards from the United Kingdom. However, all of these bids except one, were equal to or higher than the Dutch offers. It is remarkable that when the first bids had come in, the SMN contacted the NSM for a second bid in case it could not agree on the payment in French Francs and the delivery term. During the Christmas week of 1923 the SMN had negotiated with the government for the 450,000 subsidy. In that same week the NSM had negotiated with its suppliers to make a new offer, which still remained 4% (15% according to the SMN) above the French offer. However, the negotiations with ACL about payment and delivery succeeded, and so the new offer of the NSM could not be considered.
The fact that so much work went to a French shipyard created a row in the Dutch press and House of Representatives. The affair was even mentioned in the British parliament. In general politics and media agreed that currency competition was to blame. More extreme points of view blamed it on the recently restricted labor hours, or on the SMN wanting to teach Dutch laborers a lesson. In fact a longer workweek could not have bridged the gap between the bids, and the fact that the SMN saved 820,000 guilders by accepting the French offer cannot be denied.
Construction
Société des Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire The Société des Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire (ACL) was a shipyard of far more renown than any Dutch shipyard. It consisted of two companies at different locations. In Nantes there was a shipyard that could employ up to 3,000 men. It had four slipways of 135 – 165 m length. It had built many torpedo boats, gunboats, light cruisers and the like. In Saint-Nazaire there was a shipyard that could employ up to 2,000 men. It had five slipways suitable to build bigger ships. It was favorably located near the floating docks of Penhoët and the metal works Forges de Trignac. The ACL Saint-Nazaire had a factory in Saint-Denis near Paris for the construction of turbines and explosion engines. Except for the engine factory, all locations could be modernized.
At the Saint-Nazaire location, ACL had built many battleships and even two dreadnoughts. These dreadnoughts were bigger than P.C. Hooft and had far more powerful machines, so there is no reason to doubt the technical skill of the ACL. However that may be, the February 1922 Washington Naval Treaty made any battleship construction very unlikely for the near future. The logical alternative was to build big merchant ships. While many ocean liners had been built in Saint-Nazaire, this had not been done by the ACL, but by the Ateliers et Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire Penhoët also located in Saint-Nazaire, and only separated from it by a wall.
The work progresses Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft was laid down as yard number 256. The ship was launched on 23 April 1925. Present were: Jhr. mr. A. Röell governor of North-Holland and member of the supervisory board of the SMN; Mr. Oderwald and Mr. Tegelberg, both member of the executive board of the SMN; Mr. Visker, chief engineer of the SMN; Joseph Asscher president of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Paris; Mr. Glaser French trade representative in The Hague; as well as many persons from the French ship building industry. In his speech the president of the ACL Mr. Naud recalled the crisis in the shipping industry: the surplus of merchant ships, the low freight prices, decreasing international transport, and finally the Washington treaties. It all made that the ACL had been extremely satisfied with the order for P.C. Hooft. Naud continued by naming some of the ships built by ACL Saint-Nazaire, mentioning the dreadnought , and the ocean liners Sphinx, Compiègne, and Fontainebleau of Messageries Maritimes, and Lipari of Chargeurs Réunis. P.C. Hooft would be the biggest of these ocean liners. P.C. Hooft was christened by Mrs. Hooft-Labouchère a descendant from P.C. Hooft.
Delays The original plan was that P.C. Hooft would make her trial trip to Amsterdam in September 1925. Due to a short strike this was delayed till October, and the first trip to the East Indies was re-planned to the second half of November, most probably 21 November. By 19 November it was known that this date would also not be met. The alleged cause was a lack of skilled laborers. The first trip to Java was then thought to leave in the second half of May 1925. In mid-December 1925 the engines had been installed, all rivetting had been done, and the cabins, saloons and the like were getting finished. I was thought that the ship would be finished at the end of January or early February 1926, with the SMN hoping for delivery in February.
On fire at the ACL shipyard
On 20 December 1925, a little more than a month before her expected completion a fire broke out on board ship. while P.C. Hooft was still being finished at the ACL shipyard. This major fire erupted at 10 AM and was quenched at noon, but the damage was very substantial. Deck A (cf. the deck plan), where the cabins for the officers were, had to be removed completely. The saloons on deck B and about 40 cabins on deck C were destroyed. Repairs would take 10–12 months, delaying delivery with half year. In money the damage was estimated at 1,000,000 French Francs. The works of art had not been damaged, and the decoration of the music saloon was save, because it had not yet been placed. A later investigation did not find a cause for the fire. It did find the body of a guard in the hold. He had a broken neck vertebra, and one suspected that he fell while on his way to report the fire. As a consequence, the fire could get so big.
Completed in Amsterdam On midnight in the night of 20–21 July 1926 tugboats brought P.C. Hooft from the shipyard to open sea, where the compass was corrected. At 9 AM she left Saint-Nazaire for Amsterdam. The initial plan to do the trial run on this trip had been dropped for an official trial run in August. In the morning of 23 July she arrived in IJmuiden at 10 AM. A correspondent was on board for the occasion, and noted that it all went according to plan. At 2 PM the ship was in Amsterdam. She was moored at the Javakade on Java-eiland where the SMN was based. Mr. Oderwald, of the Board of SMN was the first to enter ship, followed by the board members Mr. van Hengel and Mr. Koning. Captain Schippers reported a speed of 17 knots, and a very favorable stability.
Everything seemed to end well for P.C. Hooft, but three weeks after her arrival in Amsterdam the tone was less jubilant. The 'Metaalbewerker', a magazine of the metal workers union, was the first to report that the ship had been docked immediately after arrival in port. Most of the interior carpentry still had to be done, and there was as much iron work still in primer as was already painted. Only a small part of the technical and sanitary installations was ready. Hundreds of laborers were working day and night to finish her in time for the first voyage to Java on 31 August.
In view of the whole ordering process the affair was a bit embarrassing for the SMN and ACL. Mr. Tegelberg of the SMN told reporters that the delivery of a ship in such an unfinished state was: 'indeed an exceptional case of a special character'. 'The SMN absolutely required that the ship would be ready for the planned trip on 31 August. The lines to the East Indies were very busy, and all of the 2nd and third class tickets had already been sold. While the work of the ACL was of the very high quality required for warships, it was not experienced in building passenger ships of this size and quality. The SMN had therefore conferred with ACL, and ACL had agreed that the ship would be finished in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam there were many laborers available from the NSM, the SMN and other suppliers, making that the ship could be finished quicker. ACL would pay for the work in Amsterdam.'
Characteristics
Dimensions As built, the waterline length of Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft was , and the length between perpendiculars was , the beam was , the depth of hold till deck D was , the maximum draught was in summer, empty it was Construction displacement was 21,093 tons, maximum displacement 21,863 tons, and empty it was 10,330 tons all measured in 1016 kg tons. Gross register tonnage was 14,642, and net register tonnage was 10,432.
The big beam was judged to have given the P.C. Hooft her high stability. There were nine watertight bulkheads in the ship, with the ship planned to stay afloat when two compartments were flooded. Above the D-Deck there were four fire-turning bulkheads.
The 1930–31 refit aimed to increase the speed of P.C. Hooft. Tests in a ship model basin pointed out that her hull would generate a too pronounced bow wave at speeds of over 16.5 knots. Therefore, the bow was cut off at the first bulkhead, and a new 8 feet longer bow was made. This made the entry angles of the water much better, and reduced the bow wave to more acceptable proportions. After the rebuild her waterline length was and her length between perpendiculars was . The rebuild changed her tonnages to and .
Machinery