# Straat Holland



## woodend (Nov 23, 2009)

The picture of her at the top of the page today brought back a memory. The Holland, Hobart, Honshu were amongst the first of the tug masters nightmares on the S.A.'n coast. I got the Holland on her first voyage into Port Elizabeth as Master of one of the coal burners. Her dead slow was just about the maximum pick up speed. We used to land just forward of amidships and annoy the Mate of the ship by sliding forward to be ready to push. I picked her up fine but then the pilot said 'I'm going astern!' Damn it she went astern faster than I could,and luckily I managed to open the angle otherwise the flare of the bow would have got my bridge but rather embarrassingly we slid off the bow before we could push. The next class Amsterdam, Algoa and Adelaide(?) were even worse. Such is progress!!!!


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## China hand (Sep 11, 2008)

But weren't they LUVLY looking ships?


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## woodend (Nov 23, 2009)

They were indeed!!


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