Something about myself.

After having completed the school for naval mechanical engineers at Utrecht I joined the United Dutch Shipping company
(V.N.S., presently NedLloyd) as a twenty year old apprentice engineer.  

I sailed with the company for seven years: initially with difficulty, but later on with lots of fun.
After obtaining the B-certificate in Naval Mechanical Engineering I started working ashore. It was 1966 when I came to Berlin where I worked in the plastics industry. I liked Berlin, but not the job.
So back I went to Holland where I subsequently worked for 33 years as inspector at the Elevators Institute at Amsterdam.
A fantastic job with much technology.
I stayed there until my early retirement.

 

It must have been about 1986 when my wife wanted to visit a Housekeeping Fair.
Not my idea to spend the day, but I was wanted as the good chauffeur.
At this fair I was drawn to a shipping model, the SAVANNAH. This was the first ship of the Merchant Navy, powered by nuclear energy. What a beauty! I love her beautiful shape,  and would like to one day build her as a model. But where can I get her drawings.

(--in 2008 i finaly got the drawings and i have built the model--)
This was the beginning of my hobby, first with plastic models.
However, this was not what I really wanted.
It should be a ship belonging to the Merchant Navy, and preferably one on which I had sailed.  The NedLloyd archives helped my out. 
Of most ships there were drawings available, so I could start. 
I have built all of the ships which I sailed on. In all those years I built about 25 ships at the scale of 1:100. When you build at that scale you won’t be able to exhibit all these ships at home.
Many have gone to Shipping Musea, which naturally pleases me a lot.  Now that I am fully retired I can put all my attention to my hobby; not a day is spent in boredom. 

BUILDING SHIPMODELS,  A HELL OF A HOBBY.