The bargeman's mate
On
18th October, 1951,
a
barge was moored midstream,
close
to the Mallegat,
on
the river Meuse in Rotterdam,
waiting
for a towboat to sail
back
to the Ruhr region
to
load a new cargo of coal.
The mate was cleaning the
deck
using
a metal bucket on a rope.
He
had been living for half a year
in
the fore-cabin of the ship,
together
with his wife,
who
was 6 months pregnant
and
their three year old son.
Dropping
the bucket back
into
the river to refill it,
he
lost his balance
and
disappeared under water,
while,
at that very moment,
his
little son was playing
on
the roof of the deckhouse.
After
eighteen days searching
and
dragging the river downstream,
the
river police found him under the ship,
at
almost exactly the same place
as
he had fallen in,
with
the rope of the bucket
still
wound around his hand.
In
1958, the primary school,
attended
by the mate's little boy,
tried
to teach him to swim
in
the floating swimming pool
close
to the place
where
his father had drowned.
Original title: De schippersknecht - 2014
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Friday, 2 January 2015
The bargeman's mate by Hans van den Bos
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