# Pieter Schelte Renamed



## McCloggie (Apr 19, 2008)

Has anyone else picked this up?

The Dutch company Allseas' new decommissioning vessel "Pieter Schelte" has been renamed "Pioneering Spirit".

The ship was originally named after Edward Heerema's (Allseas owner) father Pieter Schelte Heerema who just happened to be a volunteer for the Waffen SS in WWII and supposedly had links with top Nazis. He was arrested for war crimes and spent over a year in prison before going to South America in the late 1940s.

This row has been going on for years in the Netherlands, ever since the ship was proposed as a project over 10 years ago. As late as last week Allseas were going ahead with the name but the UK government wrote to Shell (who are giving Allseas the first vessel contract and pointed out that the name was "inappropriate. Shell then supposedly put pressure on Allseas and the new name was announced yesterday.

McC


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## A.D.FROST (Sep 1, 2008)

Just as well shes a motor ship,because if it was a steam ship it would have been ss Pieter Schelte(Smoke)


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## Erimus (Feb 20, 2012)

Strange I posted on this yesterday but like the Marie Celeste..a mystery!!

Geoff


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## vinnie05 (Apr 25, 2009)

What a surprise!! The name was under fire years ago when I started working on the ship. I should imagine it will certainly not please the owner but when a company like Shell steps in there is really no alternative.


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## 5036 (Jan 23, 2006)

It still retains the initials "P S." A hollow victory really.


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## McCloggie (Apr 19, 2008)

One of the problems in the Netherlands is that the owner has appeared to condone his father's actions by allegedly supporting contentcious political causes and I am only saying what is common gossip.

His two brothers on the othe other hand appear to run their bussines without the same attendant publicity.

McC


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

He was not wholly black (or brown) it would seem, this from the Telegraph: ''

...He said he then switched sides and joined the resistance in 1943 "as he could no longer associate himself with the ideas of the Nazis". He noted that Heerema was tried and released shortly after the war, which shows he "cannot have been seriously delinquent".

The Netherlands Institute for War Do***entation said that while Mr Heerema's father had been recognised by the courts as providing "very important" services to the resistance, he was earlier a "prominent" figure among Dutch collaborators with the Nazis.


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