Rotterdam’s Engine Control Room—it looks like a power plant!

The Machine Shop where major repairs can be made as needed

One of Rotterdam’s five V-16 diesel engines, made by ABB Brown Boveri

Squeekie beside one of the engines; each of the green covers with a black circular device on it is a cylinder head cover

Moss surrounded by pipes

One of Rotterdam’s spinning propeller shafts

Heavy ship traffic nearing Hong Kong

Fishing nets in the Cai River at Nha Trang

Tran Phu Street, the main seaside street in Nha Trang

Wooden fishing boats in the river at Nha Trang

Panorama of the Cai River and bay at Nha Trang, Vietnam; the Ha Ra Bridge is in the foreground

Squeek and Moss beside the ancient Po Nagar Cham temple to the god of reproduction

Altar inside the Cham temple

In the distance over the rooftops of Nha Trang is the white stone statue of Buddha

Squeekie climbed up over 100 steps to the Seated Buddha

The Long Son Buddhist temple interior

A food vendor on the street in Nha Trang

The beach at Nha Trang

A woman weaving silk at Nha Trang

Sunset as we left Vietnam


Fiftieth Day (Tuesday, March 10, 2009)-- Today, which is our fiftieth day on this cruise, was an at sea day which Squeekie and I both greeted with pleasure as we were tired from the fast pace of the last five days in China. I have virtually nothing to report except that I downloaded our numerous (many hundreds of) pictures from China and began sorting them and categorizing them. Squeekie has “discovered” the “Dam Dollars” offered aboard for certain sporting events, and is now starting to go to these events in order to earn the dollars—I wonder what she will buy with them.


Fifty-first Day (Wednesday, March 11, 2009)-- Today we sailed southward through the Taiwan Straits; we missed this journey on the northbound trip because we flew from Hong Kong into the interior of China, but I understand from other passengers that it was a rough stretch back then, with heavy roll and high waves. Such was not the case today. We had a calm sea and nice weather; that was very nice because this “at sea” day was very special—Squeekie and I were treated to a long-desired tour of the engine room, courtesy of Captain Olav. Our tour guide was the Third Engineer, a Dutchman named Wido, who met us at the Front Office on Deck Four and escorted us into the mysterious depths of the Rotterdam. Another couple joined us, but I have no idea who they were because they were not very communicative. Wido has worked for Holland-America for five years, working his way up the ladder of positions within the Operating Department. I must say that he knew his equipment very thoroughly, and he was an interesting fellow despite his heavily accented English.

We began by going down to A Deck, which is mostly closed to passengers except on “at port” days when the gangway is accessed through A Deck forward or amidships. We passed through the heavy double doors into the “crew only” area and then descended down to B Deck. We clearly were in the heart of the working area of the ship. Wido brought us into a room identified as the “Control Room.” To Squeekie and I, veterans of electric power systems, this room with its control boards, operating desk, computer screens, blinking lights, and other control apparatus, looked just like what we have seen in electric generating stations. Indeed, it almost felt like home, and for a moment I really felt homesick for my days at Edison now so long ago. This room monitors all of the operating machinery aboard the Rotterdam: propulsion, climate control, water supply, sewerage removal, electric power, and so forth. Wido explained that all of the ship’s systems are monitored from this centre. One naturally assumes that such control comes from the Bridge (up on Deck Seven on the Rotterdam), but Wido explained (rather proudly, I thought) that, although steering is done from the Bridge, speed and acceleration is done from this Control Room, albeit under command from the Bridge.

Then we descended into the Machine Shop, where a well-trained crew of machinist technicians stood ready to perform any required repairs to the machinery aboard the ship; indeed, we know some important (but unspecified) work had just been completed that day. From here we climbed down some narrow ladders into the lowest depths of the ship. We had arrived at the engine rooms. The metal plates that formed the (removable) floor of these rooms were a bit slippery with petroleum residue, and the entire area smelled of diesel oil. Rotterdam has a total of five large diesel engines, all of them built by ABB Brown Boveri, a Swiss Company which also has built generating equipment and railroad locomotives. The engines are V-16 monsters, the last such large engines to be placed in Holland-America motor ships; now they have gone to the slightly smaller (and more fuel efficient) V-12s. Three of these giants are placed side-by-side in the forward engine room, which seems to lie in the exact middle of the ship (from fore to aft). Immediately behind this room is the second engine room, where two more engines sit aside one another. These engines are at the very bottom of the Rotterdam; at one spot Wido pointed to the metal plate just beneath our feet and said that on the other side of that plate was the ocean itself! Under normal operating conditions, Wido told us, only two or three of these engines are running at the same time. They power electric generators which produce kilowatts (at 6.6 kV) to produce both propulsion and electricity for the ship’s light and power requirements. As may be seen by the pictures appended to this blog, the cylinders of these engines are huge, although not quite large enough for me to fit inside. I was reminded of the old Vernon Diesel Generating Plant, whose antique MAN engines are the cousins of those used in Germany’s “pocket” battleships. I also was reminded of the famous propulsion system used in the USS New Mexico battleship, the very first electric propulsion technology ever used at sea. Those old technologies were the pioneers of what now moves us along so easily aboard the Rotterdam. The diesels turn the electric generators, which in turn power large electric motors which turn the propeller shafts.

Wido took us to the extreme aft of the ship and showed us the electric motors which turn the propeller shafts at high speed (I think he said 6000 RPM, but I am not certain). Interestingly, the motor and the first few feet of the shaft are located on the level, but then the shaft must go through a high-speed tolerant angle bearing to connect with the rear section of the shaft which runs at a slight angle downward toward the aft of the ship. (The propellers sit about 6 meters below the water line at the rear of the ship.) That bearing is an amazing piece of technology in and of itself, as it must deal with high speeds and the resulting temperatures, as well as the stresses imposed by the electric motor at one end and the propeller itself at the other end. Wido explained that the propellers themselves (there are two of them, one on each propulsion shaft) have blades the pitch of which can be controlled electrically to change direction (forward or backward) and speed. How amazing! I thought that propellers were solid items, but nowadays they can be changed just like the propellers on an aircraft (for those aircraft which still have them). Rotterdam was the last ship in the Holland-America fleet to have the traditional propeller propulsion technology which has been the crucial element of ship power since the middle of the nineteenth century; subsequent ships (like the Oosterdam with which we are familiar) use azipods to assist their propeller propulsion. Rotterdam also has four sideways propulsion units called thrusters (two forward, two aft, one on each side) to assist in tight maneuvers when docking. Now the azipods assist in this as well, although I believe that these new ships still have thrusters, too.

Wido, who obviously enjoyed his work, also showed us some of the other systems: air conditioning, water purification, sewage, the ship’s stabilizers, and so forth. Of special interest were the trash disposal and sewerage systems; Rotterdam must meet many environmental rules and these systems are essential to fulfill these criteria. Trash is recycled as much as possible. Aluminum cans are crushed and offloaded in those ports which will accept them. Some food scraps are ground up and actually dumped overboard, or rather shot out the sides of the ship underneath the surface. Virtually all of the water used on the ship is made from sea water. Black water (sewage water) is treated and dumped in the ocean. (The sewage holding tank was being cleaned when we saw it; the work reminded me of the television program “Dirty Jobs.”). Some trash is burned in an incinerator on board. Certain countries, such as Sweden and the United States, require a low sulfur diesel fuel to be used in the engines while other countries are not so particular. All of the photographic waste is offloaded in ports that will accept the dirty chemicals contained in that waste. Both Squeekie and I took many pictures of both the machinery and the people who work down on these systems since they rarely ever come up to where the passengers might see them. This tour was a unique experience which both Squeekie and I deeply appreciated—thanks Captain Olav!

Following the tour I had to hurry up to Deck Five for a special installment of the noontime trivia contest. The answers to the special “Brain” questions our teams had been asked since early in the voyage were used to “seed” the teams, and those teams with the highest ranking were selected to compete in a championship event held today. Each of the selected competitor teams (our team, the “Orphans,” composed of Susan, Elaine, Janet, Irmgard, Wally, and myself was one of the seeded championship contenders) had to chose one member to answer all of the questions asked, with no assistance being permitted from other team members. This was such an interesting event that even Squeekie came down to watch. Unfortunately, our team, which selected our leader Susan as our representative competitor, did not do very well at all—Susan thinks that it was because she was battling a cold. Oh well! The winning team received a free lunch for all six members at the Pinnacle Grill.

Late in the afternoon of this very interesting “at sea” day Rotterdam came in close to Hong Kong to enable some mechanics, who had finished a special but unstated project, to be picked up by a tender and taken to the International Airport to fly home. When Captain Olav mentioned in his “Voice from the Bridge” announcement that we would do this, Squeekie and I both had hopes of coming in close to Victoria Harbour and seeing Hong Kong one more time, hopefully now in sunshine without the fog we had endured before, but this was not to be. We entered the busy traffic sea lanes approaching the harbour, but a small boat zoomed out from Hong Kong to pick up the travelers and we never even came within sight of the islands! Oh, well, I hope that we will get back to this interesting city another time.

I conclude my description of this very interesting day with a statement that I must have picked up a cold of some kind from the dirty (and much spit upon) streets of China. I didn’t feel well and went to bed early. . . .


Fifty-second Day (Thursday, March 12, 2009)-- Today I was sick all day. I worked a bit on the computer on our growing collection of photographs, but it was not a very good day. I went to see the doctor, a very nice woman, and she gave me some antibiotics. I hope it suppresses this quickly, as we have more ports soon to come. This was our third day at sea after China, but tomorrow we will be landing in Vietnam, and Malaysia and Singapore will follow.


Fifty-third Day (Friday, March 13, 2009)-- Today we have landed in Vietnam. Although I was never here myself, I am of the generation that had to deal with that conflict and all of the social issues which arose from it. I lost two good school friends in the war and endured the stress of my younger brother Rob’s year-long tour here, which drove Mom nearly crazy with worry. I admit that I had no desire to come here on this trip, and I was tempted to use this port call as an excuse not to come on the world cruise, but I could not do that to Squeekie. In retrospect I am glad that I came on this trip, for it has been VERY INTERESTING! But I still was not very excited to land here today.

We awoke this morning just as the Rotterdam was sailing into the harbour at Nha Trang, which is the capital of Khanh Hoa Province. Once upon a time this was just a quiet fishing village beside the sea, but it became popular as a beach resort for recovering American soldiers during the war and is once again becoming a fashionable beach resort and scuba diving destination on the international circuit. Recent investments by the Vietnamese government and private sources have transformed Nha Trang into a busy resort town with popular hotels and a nice beachside promenade. The beach remains lovely and is well maintained. The older community along the Cai River remains of interest too, however; a large fishing fleet anchors at the wide mouth of the river when it is not out fishing in the South China Sea, and there are two important religious temple complexes which have survived Vietnam’s recent turbulent history, the Long Son Pagoda and the older Po Nagar Temple complex.

We boarded our tour bus and drove off the dock into this interesting community. We drove along Tran Phu Street, a lovely beachside boulevard, passing an interesting remnant of French colonialism, the Yersin-Pasteur Institute and Museum, where some of the early research into tropical diseases and their cures was done. Swiss-born Alexandre Yersin was a student of Louis Pasteur; he migrated to Vietnam in 1891 and established this research institute where he developed an antidote for Bubonic Plague. He also brought South American quinine trees to Vietnam and planted plantations of them in an effort to fight malaria. Part of this facility is now a museum, but research continues and vaccines are still produced.

Further down the lovely beach road was a large (and I though rather gaudy) memorial to the war. I was appalled by this, of course, because this is the war my beloved country fought and lost, and too many young men of my generation lost their lives or their humanity in a war in which we should never have become involved.

A short historical commentary-- As I have already said, I am of the generation of American boys and men who had to deal with the Vietnam War. The French, who had made Vietnam the focal point of their Indo-China colony at the end of the nineteenth century, were pushed out of the region after European France was conquered by Nazi Germany in June of 1940; within weeks of this major defeat, Japan moved into French Indo-China. Soon after, a Vietnamese independence movement became active; this was subsequently supported by America and its Allies as one way to push the Japanese out of the area. Unfortunately, at the end of the Pacific War in 1945, the French decided that they wanted their colony back (there were huge rubber tree plantations owned by Michelin which the French wished to continue to own and operate) and moved back in. The anti-Japanese movement quickly became an independence movement which, as the post-war world became the Cold War world, turned toward Communism for support because the United States thought it better to help the French than the Vietnamese. After the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1953, the French government persuaded the Americans to step in to this conflict “to prevent Vietnam from becoming communist.” The Eisenhower administration tried to resolve this issue by dividing Vietnam into two sections, the North, which became communist, and the South, which was given an allegedly “democratic” government which became increasingly unpopular with its own citizens for a number of reasons. The leader of North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, refused to accept this division of “his” country, and continued to fight in the south, although in a rather clandestine way. This complex and potentially dangerous political situation remained throughout the 1950s, although American involvement was relatively minor. However, in 1964 major fighting erupted and America found herself involved in a war she could not win but did not wish to lose. My generation was drafted to fight a war which quickly became very unpopular. I was not drafted (although called twice for medical evaluations), but many others were. By 1968 it was clear we could not win, but we didn’t leave Vietnam until the early 1970s. It was the first war in American history which it was clear that we lost.

Back to our tour-- After driving past the War Memorial our bus passed the Nha Trang Roman Catholic Cathedral, which was built in 1933. There is still a significant minority of Vietnamese Catholics, but one of very few relics of the French colonial era to be remembered with any nostalgia. Our bus was headed north, and soon crossed over the Cai River to get to the Po Nagar towers. The Nha Trang region was once part of the Champa Kingdom, which existed between the seventh and twelfth centuries AD and was one of the most enlightened periods in the long history of Vietnam. The Chams nurtured art, letters, and culture, and were influenced by Hindu Indian immigrants. On the hilltop at Po Nagar, the Hindus built a group of towers to worship several of their gods, and they worshipped there for more than five hundred years. Only four of the original eight towers still exist, and of these the main tower is dedicated to Po Ino Nagar, the wife of Prince Bac Hai. The temple is still used today by Buddhists for sexual organ worship, and representations of these organs can be seen decorating the exteriors of the towers. Squeekie and I walked around this structure on a hilltop north of the Cai River, and looking out to the south in the distance we could see a seated Buddha carved out of gleaming white stone—that would be out next stop.

A short drive got us to the Long Son Pagoda, the site of which is marked by a giant white stone statue of a seated Buddha on the hilltop above the pagoda. This beautiful temple was built in the nineteenth century, but pays tribute to the lives and tragic deaths of the Buddhist monks who dramatically used gasoline to burn themselves to death to assert their protest against the Vietnam War then being fought. It is a somber reminder of the tragedies of a war which ended some thirty years ago with the reunification of Vietnam under a Communist regime. The inside of the pagoda was beautifully decorated with allegorical images—the dragon for male intelligence, the unicorn for female intelligence, the turtle for patience, and the phoenix for peace—and looked much like a church. Squeekie and others in our party then climbed up the 152 steps to see the giant white Buddha statue built in 1963.

The next stop on our tour was a workshop and showroom for hand embroidery. Here we saw young women bent over large frames holding pieces of fabric that they embroidered into beautiful works of art. These pieces from a distance looked like real paintings, when in fact they were composed of stitches made with a myriad of colored threads. Our last stop of this tour was at the Four Seasons Hotel’s beachside restaurant, where we were served coconut juice while being entertained by a trio playing Vietnamese musical instruments—a wooden flute, bamboo xylophone, and a 36-stringed flat harp.

After this the bus returned to the dock and I reboarded the Rotterdam. As I said above, I had no desire to visit Vietnam, and I viewed what I saw with real uncertainty. The part of the country we visited seems to have recovered well enough from the war, although I cannot say anything about other parts. I was interested in the Cham temples from Vietnam’s ancient past, but cared less for the more modern structures. It appears as though, like Communist-ruled China, Vietnam has westernized itself despite its Communist rule. The problem is, too many American sons and America’s reputation as a good and concerned nation died in the Vietnam War and in the long view of history this may be the greater tragedy. After returning to the Rotterdam I was still feeling rather poorly, so I went to the cabin for a nap, while Squeekie went back into town with Sheryl, one of the ship’s store salesladies whom she has befriended. Apparently they had a fun time looking at the stuff for sale, but she resisted the temptations and didn’t purchase anything. Rotterdam left this port at five o’clock in the afternoon, and Squeekie enjoyed a lovely sunset over the island dotted coast of Vietnam. I stayed in bed and skipped dinner.