Hr Ms Zeearend

Whilst I was researching my latest book, I came across the story of the ship that became HMS Western Isles during the Second World War.

Batavier IV and her sister ship Batavier V were built in 1902 by Gourlay Brothers & Co. of Dundee for Wm. H. Müller & Company's Batavier Line. They were passenger/cargo ships, and were used on the Rotterdam to London route alongside the other ships owned by the company. They were designed to carry 75 First-class and 28 Second-class passengers, plus up to 325 in Third or Steerage class.

Batavier V, Batavier IV's sister ship.

Unlike her sisters ship (which was stopped and seized as a prize by the U-28 and subsequently released by a German Prize Court, only to be sunk by a mine off the British coast in May 1916), Batavier IV had a relatively uneventful war.

In 1922 the Batavier Line moved its London terminal from Customs House and Wool Quays near the Tower Bridge to Gravesend. Although called the Batavier Pier, it was actually owned by the London Chatham & Dover Railway, which ran special boat trains to and from the pier to Victoria Station in central London. (The year after the Batavier Line moved their terminal to Gravesend, the London Chatham & Dover Railway, the South Eastern Railway, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and the London and South Western Railway amalgamated and became the Southern Railway. The change of ownership did not affect the Batavier Line's continued use of the pier.)

The Batavier IV continued to operate on the Rotterdam to London route until the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940. The ship was almost immediately chartered by the British Ministry of War Transport and she was sent to Guernsey to collect children who were being evacuated in case the Germans managed to reach and occupy the Channel Islands. In June of that year Batavier IV was transferred to the Royal Navy, and in September 1940 she was commissioned as HMS Eastern Isles to act as the floating headquarters of the Western Apoproaches Anti-Submarine School. She was subsequently renamed HMS Western Isles in March 1941, and served under that name until 1946.

HMS Western Isles.

At the end of the Second World War, HMS Western Isles was not returned to the ownership of the Batavier Line. Instead she was sold to the Royal Netherlands Navy, where she was renamed Hr Ms Zeearend (A892). (Zeearend means White-tailed Eagle.) She then served as an anti-submarine warfare training vessel until October 1970, when she was finally decommissioned. She was then sold and scrapped in late 1972.

Above and below: the hulked Hr Ms Zeearend serving as a static anti-submarine warfare training vessel.

The ship's characteristics as built are:

• Tonnage: 1,568 Gross Registered Tonnage
• Dimensions:
• Length: 260.2ft (79.31m)
• Beam: 35.1ft (10.7m)
• Draught: 14.4ft (4.39m)
• Propulsion: 1 x 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine driving one propeller
• Speed: 14.5 knots
• Passenger Capacity: Total = 428 passengers (75 × First-class; 28 × Second-class; Up to 325 x Third/Steerage-class)

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It is interesting to note that the Netherlands Customs Service operated a Damen Stan Type 4207 Patrol Vessel named Zeearend from 2002 onwards. (The UK Border Force currently operates four ex- UK Border Agency Damen Stan Type 4207 Patrol Vessels, Seeker, Searcher, Vigilant, and Valiant.) Zeearend was subsequently been handed over to the Dutch Coast Guard, who continue to use her.