SS Van Waerwijck

Between 1907 and 1914, KPM took delivery of a set of sister ships from different Dutch shipyards. Maatschappij voor Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Fijenoord in Rotterdam completed in 1907, Le Maire and Van Spilbergen in 1908, Van der Hagen in 1909, Van Waerwijck in 1910, and Sloet van de Beele and Van Imhoff in 1914. Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij in Amsterdam completed in 1909, Van Linschoten in 1910, and Van Neck in 1912. Rijkee & Co in Rotterdam completed Van Rees in 1913. Fijenoord built Van Waerwijck as yard number 228. She was launched on 9 December 1909 and completed in February 1910. Her registered length was , her beam was and her depth was . Her tonnages were , , and . She had berths for 1,426 passengers: 31 in first class, 21 in second class, and 1,374 in steerage. Her holds had capacity for of grain, or of baled cargo. The ship had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine. It was rated at 233 NHP or 1,300 ihp, and gave her a speed of . KPM registered Van Waerwijck at Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. Her code letters were TJKD. ==Van Waerwijck==

On 20 March 1918 President Woodrow Wilson issued Proclamation 1436, authorising the seizure under angary of Dutch ships in US ports. The UK also seized Dutch ships in ports of the British Isles and the British Empire. Van Waerwijck was seized in Hong Kong. She was vested in the UK Shipping Controller, who appointed Jardine Matheson & Co to manage her. She was registered in Hong Kong, with the UK official number 142209 and code letters THMS. She was returned to Batavia and to her owners in February 1919. By 1926 Van Waerwijcks code letters had been changed to TJMK. By 1934 her code letters were superseded by the call sign PKHQ. On 8 December 1941 Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies. On 1 March 1942 Japanese forces landed on Java. The next day, Van Waerwijcks crew scuttled her in the harbour mouth of the Port of Tanjung Priok as a blockship. ==Harugiku Maru==

The Japanese raised the ship in July 1942, repaired her, renamed her 治菊丸 (Harugiku Maru), and returned her to service. On 24 June 1944, Japanese trucks took several hundred Allied PoWs from Gloe Gloer prisoner-of-war camp on Sumatra to the Port of Belawan, where they were embarked on Harugiku Maru. She also carried a cargo of timber and rubber. The PoWs were being taken to Pekanbaru, to be forced labourers on the Pekanbaru Railway. The prisoners were crowded into some of the ship's holds. The next day, the ship left Belawan in a small convoy with a small number of merchant ships, escorted by one or more Imperial Japanese Navy ships, plus a twin-engined aircraft circling overhead. Sources differ as to the number and details of the other ships in the convoy, and the number of Allied PoWs aboard Harugiku Maru. The PoWs included Australian Army, and Dutch personnel. One source states that the soldiers guarding the PoWs were Korean. Groups of PoWs from the holds were allowed on deck in turns. 198 is also cited as the total number of victims. The number of PoWs who survived is variously cited as 553, 1,014, or 1,020. ==Judy==

aboard One of the PoWs embarked on Harugiku Maru, RAF Leading Aircraftman Frank Williams, smuggled a pointer dog aboard in a sack. Judy was a ship's dog who had survived the sinking of the gunboat on 14 February 1942, and spent more than two years in a PoW camp at Medan. As Harugiku Maru was sinking, Williams pushed Judy out of a porthole, and then separately made his own escape from the ship. Other survivors found Judy in the water, and she is said to have saved survivors in the water by pushing items of flotsam to them. She was rescued and taken with them to Sumatra, where she was reunited with Les Searle, a member of Grasshoppers crew. Judy survived the war, was awarded the Dickin Medal in 1946, and lived until 1950. ==Model==

There is a model of Harugiku Maru in a museum on Sumatra. ==References==