The Ship

The MS Abbekerk was a 7900 brt freighter of the Verenigde Nederlandse Scheepvaartmaatschappij VNS. With a crew of 50, accomodation for 12 passengers, two powerful diesel-engines and two propellers, she was a fast ship designed for the Holland – Australia line. Abbekerk was build in Danzig and completed in 1939. Ironically Danzig was the pinnacle of the start of the Second World War and only months after Abbekerk was finished the Germans occupied it and started producing of 94 U-boats on the same shipyard.

Abbekerk was in Abadan or Madras when Holland entered the war and started sailing for the allies immediately. She returned to Liverpool and later sailed to Londen. She was attacked by airplane(s) when she passed Hull by night. Although they never saw the plane, a bomb exploded only 30 meters behind the ship and by daylight the crew found bullets and holes in the ship.
Later she docked in Albert Dock in London. Unfortunately this was during the last phase of the Battle of Britain, in which the London Docks became the primary target of the German Luftwaffe. On September 8 1940 Abbekerk was hit by two bombs and sunk. She was quickly refloated but it took half a year to get her seaworthy again.

Being a very fast ship for its time (17 knots officially, but according to my father she was capable of over 20 knots and did 22 knots on seatrials) , Abbekerk mostly sailed alone relying on her speed to outrun the enemy submarines or took part in fast (troop)convoys. In 1941 she was armed with only two Lewis guns and a hand grenade throwing device the crew didn’t dare to use. She sailed in convoy to Durban and then continued alone to the Dutch East Indies, the Pacific, the Panama Canal, Jamaica and finally back to England (from this journey I only have limited information found yet).
Now she got armed with a 10 cm anti submarine canon and two Bofors anti aircraft guns and – very rare for a freighter – 6 depthcharges on a rail. In the winter of 1941/42 she was in one of the convoys desperately trying to strengthen the defences of Singapore against the Japanese. With a cargo of mainly ammunition, anti aircraft guns and 12 Hurricane fighters she sailed in the heavily escorted convoy DM.01 to Singapore. The crew even put anti aircraft guns from her cargo on deck as extra defence.
By the time the convoy arrived in Singapore the harbour was under constant attack. The Hurricanes and guns were quickly unloaded but harbour workers simply refused to unload the ammunition. The crew then unloaded part of it but after a couple of days no empty barges came anymore. By that time there were no bombers left in Singapore for the heavy bombs Abbekerk was carrying. Abbekerk then sailed alone to Oosthaven were she helped to destroy (sink) barges and unloaded some more cargo. But she also had to unload all her bofors guns and the English troops that manned it.
Just before the Japanese invasion she sailed alone to Tjilitjap where she became a evacuation ship for troops and refugees. With over 1500 evacuees on board she sailed from Tjilitjap February 27 and was one of the lucky ships to arrive safely, despite being attacked by a Japanese aircraft.

From Fremantle she sailed independent with timber to Abadan. Near Colombo she wrongly identified a English reconaisance plane for the enemy and wouned the observer with her new Oerlikon guns. She continued to Durban and had a nightly head-on near collision with a unidentified submarine. From Durban to the Caribbean and, still lucky, crossed the Atlantic alone in the most successful period of the German Uboats. By now she had been in tropical waters for almost two years and her biggest defence against Uboats – her speed – was now seriously compromised by the algae on her hull. Her skipper tried to get her a place in a dry dock in Port of Spain but unfortunately there was no space.
On her way to England heavily loaded with sugar she failed to outrun a Uboat spotted half a day earlier and she was hit by a torpedo from U604 a quarter to midnight on August 24 1942. By the time a second torpedo hit the crew had abandoned ship in two lifeboats. 60 of the crew and passengers were picked up three days later by a the corvette Wallflower and later transfered to ships in the convoy Wallflower was escorting. Two of her crew didn’t survive her sinking.

Technical information:

Callsign: PDAD (not PCBK)
Compagny: VNS, Verenigde Nederlandse Scheepvaart Mij – Rotterdam
Year build: 1939
Launched: February 1939
Shipyard build: F.Schichau, Danzig (Dl.)(no. 1419)
BRT: 7.906
DWT: 11.604
L x B x H: 150,5 x 19,29 x 9,51/11,70 metre
Engines: 2 x 2TE 10 cilinder Sulzer, 2 propellors
Power: 11.000 Hp at 125 rpm
Speed: 17 Knots (according to my dad she did over 20 knots)
Crew: 52

Sisterships:

• Sister: MS Arendskerk, build in 1938 at the same shipyard and sunk by U44 Januari 15, 1940 while Holland was still neutral. (All of her crew were picked up by the Poelau Bras. She was the first ship the VNS lost in WOII.)
• Close sister: MS Amerskerk, build in Rotterdam 1942 and entered service for the Germans named Coburg. Sunk north of Holland by allied air-attack in 1944.
• After the war 2 ships were build that can still be considered close sister ships: MS Arendskerk and MS Annenkerk (they look very much alike the pre-war ships: main visible differences: funnel is closer to the front of the post-war ships, the bridge building is larger and the air-intakes/loading masts have different topforms)

Ships named “Abbekerk”:

• Abbekerk (1698) sailing ship of the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie)
• Abbekerk (1734) sailing ship of the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie)
• Abbekerk (1772) sailing ship of the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie)
• SS Abbekerk (1912 -1932) steam (cargo) ship of the VNS (Verenigde Nederlandse Scheepvaartmaatschappij)
• MS Abbekerk (1939 – 1942) motor (cargo) ship. This is the Abbekerk of this website (see also: click here)
• SS Abbekerk (1946 – 1972) steamturbine (cargo) ship (Type C3) of the VNS (Verenigde Nederlandse Scheepvaartmaatschappij)