Reuben Goossens, Maritime Historian

About the Author of …

ssMaritime.com

Reuben Goossens

Maritime Historian, Author, Cruise Journalist/Reviewer

By Kosta Specis & Hun-Eng Tan

(Updated May 2008)

Reuben Goossens in the Crow’s Nest aboard MV Aurora 29 January 2006

Photograph: Hun-Eng Tan

47 years in the Passenger Shipping/Cruise Industry

Having known and worked for Reuben Goossens as a secretary and personal assistant since the early eighties, and Eng has worked with and been a close friend since 1995, we feel that we are well qualified to write about him. Reuben has spent all his working life in the passenger shipping industry, the industry he obviously loves. His incredible knowledge of ships and cruising is beyond question. We have both cruised with Reuben, and have witnessed first hand his in-depth knowledge of ships sailing today and those of the past. Captains, officers and many of the crew on different ships sailed on knew Reuben personally and obviously greatly respected him. On each cruise we were invited to the captain’s lounge, bridge, even on certain occasions we were given a tour of the engine room whilst in port, in addition Reuben is invited to many private functions. On various cruises he is booked as the guest maritime lecturer. Although I recall, whilst he was on Fair Princess’ final cruise to New Zealand in 2000, Reuben was on a vacation, yet he received a special request from cruise director Dan Styne if he would be so kind as to give a lecture in the Meridian Lounge, As so many passengers and most senior crew already knew him by sight he said yes and astonishingly the Meridian Lounge was filled to capacity with passengers sitting on the floor and standing down the hallway. Captain Phillip Pickford and several of his officers were also in attendance. I knew of his long-standing renown, but that day really blew me away!

Rotterdam 1945 - 1955

Reuben Goossens was born in Rotterdam The Netherlands several days after the war on 16 May 1945. Coming from a Jewish family his mother was lucky to escape from the Holocaust. However, his families’ tragic wartime detail is long, long story and this is not the place to tell it.

From an early age he would spend time harbour side whenever possible, and he would sit just across from the Holland America Line wharves. Almost every day a liner would be in port, including ships from the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd such as the MS Sibajak that at 12,000-ton she would be considered today as a small passenger liner. She had steel grey hull and a single tall black funnel and was built in 1928. Unknown to him in those early years, this ship would eventually be responsible for his entire working life in the passenger industry. Other ships in the port of Rotterdam included the imposing twin funnelled MS Willem Ruys, yet his all time favourite liner of the day was the stately two funnelled Holland America Liner SS Nieuw Amsterdam, a ship that is still regarded as one of the most beautiful liners ever built. Whenever possible, Reuben would sit alongside the Maas River and watch the river barges, tugs, cargo ships and other passenger liners pass by. At times he would be quayside as a liner departed for a far away destination, bedecked in flags and streamers flying in the wind.

Holland America’s SS Nieuw Amsterdam

Royal Rotterdam Lloyd’s MS Willem Ruys, which later to become Flotta Lauro’s Achille Lauro

Amsterdam 1955 - 1958

At the age of ten, he and his mother moved to Amsterdam, being another great Port city to watch ships come and go. Whenever the liner MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and her newer running mate MS Oranje of the Netherland Line were in port he would make a special effort to be at the Javakade (Java wharves) to watch passenger’s board and experience the excitement of their departure. I recall him telling me that he would be as excited as those who were aboard ready to depart. He would dream that one day he would be standing at the railing of a great ship like that waving goodbye to those ashore as he headed to countries far across the ocean. Little did he know that in his adult life he would not only have done just that, but will have sailed hundreds of times, but that he will have managed shipping companies and operated a Cruise Company in Australia.

The Netherland Line MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. She was sold to become the ill-fated Greek Lakonia

Whilst The Netherland Line MS Oranje was sold to become the Flotta Lauro Angelino Lauro

MS Sibajak 1958

On 17 May, 1958, one day after his thirteenth birthday Reuben’s dream became a reality as he and his mother departed Rotterdam for Wellington New Zealand on the Sibajak. This voyage to New Zealand sailed via Southampton, across the Atlantic to the very Dutch but tropical, Willemstad in Curacao, Balboa, transiting the Panama Canal, with a port call at the then notorious Panama City. Whilst crossing the Pacific a visit was made to the exotic Papeete, the Capital of Tahiti before arriving in Wellington.

The Royal Rotterdam Lloyd – MS Sibajak

MS Sibajak was built especially for the Indonesian service, later to become a migrant carrier to Canada, the USA and later placed on the Australia / New Zealand route. Her original first class lounges and dinning room were typically luxuriant and elegant featuring superb dark timber carvings. In 1958, the Sibajak was ageing and she was scrapped in 1959. However, this old liner gave Reuben the experience of a lifetime and this voyage cemented his love of the sea and the ships that sail them. At the age of thirteen onboard the Sibajak he decided that he would work in the shipping industry in one way or another.

Wellington

To date (2007) Reuben has had 47 years experience in the passenger shipping industry. However, he obtained his first job commenced in May 1960 as an office boy with Russell and Sommers who was the General Sales Agents for the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd and the Nederland Line, also known as “Royal Dutch Mail.” At the time their ships included the Willem Ruys, Oranje and the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. Other Russell and Sommers were also the GSA for Holland America Line who also managed three “Dutch Victory ships”, SS Zuiderkruis, Groote Beer and Waterman and the German Europe Canada Line ex C3 Class ship, SS Seven Seas.

SS Zuiderkruis one of 3 US built & rebuilt “Victory” Ships – including the Groote Beer & Waterman

Later the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand sought his services to join their stevedoring department. Within six months Reuben was placed second in charge of their Wellington stevedoring office, which looked after Union Steam Ship Co passenger ships that included the inter Island ferries, and passenger cargo ships ailing the South Pacific. His employment in the shipping industry gave him many opportunities to visit and sail on many ships, including, his very first cruise that departed Wellington on 20 December 1961, being a Christmas and New Year Cruise on the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt to Australia. Reuben has written a book on the JVO, which is available online at ssMaritime.com.

Brisbane Australia

After moving to Brisbane, he joined Australian Express as a travel agent, later became a branch Manager. Australian Express was the General Sales Agents for Chandris Lines in Queensland, and the company operated the Chandris Lines “Around the World Tours.” Reuben sailed sectors many sectors to and from the UK and spent a great deal of time on a ship he greatly loved the SS Australis ex SS America, also the ex Matson liners, SS Ellinis and SS Britanis. He was onboard ensuring quality control and aiding the sales of optional tours. Australian Express was eventually sold to Trafalgar Tours and its Australian offices were closed. Later together with Atlantic and Pacific International Travel the Russian liner TSS Fedor Shalyapin was chartered for a newly formed company “Shaw Savill Holidays” which marketed their cruises under the banner of “Celebrity Club Cruises” – “Celebrity” was later taken over by Chandris for their new cruise company “Celebrity Cruises.” The first cruise departed Sydney in October 1975 being the beginning of a popular cruise venture that had an average loading of 94.6%. Also operating Russian ships was CTC Cruises Australia who at the time did not enjoy the success of Shaw Savill Holidays. It was for this reason her Russian owners decided to rescind their charter agreement with “Shaw Savill Holidays” and the Fedor Shalyapin was transferred to CTC Cruises, which was a wholly Russian owned Company, but had their head quarters based in London. Whilst with CTC she never regained the popularity enjoyed during Reuben’s days.

Then there was an occurrence that would end the operation in Australia when the ship rendezvoused with a Russian submarine whist crossing the Tasman Sea towards Sydney. Upon her return to Sydney, passengers told the media of the strange events encountered and how both cargo and crew were transferred to the submarine. This caused great controversy in Australia, however, what and why it happened was never fully explained. Australia banned all Soviet based passenger ships for a considerable time.

At 30 years old, Reuben is seen (center) with TV and singing stars Jimmy Hannan and Ken

James on Hawaiian night during a cruise on Fedor Shalyapin, ex Sydney 25 January 1976

Photograph: Ships photographer

TSS Fedor Shalyapin seen in Auckland February 1976

Photograph: Reuben Goossens

During his work in the shipping/travel industry he also managed, Astronaut Travel (today’s Jetset) and founded and established yet another company Coronet Travel Service, CTS Tours and FunPac Tours. In the mid eighties Reuben decided to retire and spent his time travelling and cruising the world. However, whilst in India in October 1987 he was involved in a car accident, which caused a serious illness that almost took his life. When his health improved in the mid nineties he returned to the maritime scene. With his vast experience in shipping he was invited world wide to lecture in his new role as a maritime historian and author.

In addition Reuben decided to become a part time freelance journalist, writing cruise reports, either by invitation or whilst on a private cruise vacations. In addition he commenced a new website MaritimeWorld.com that covered cruise ships and articles on the great ocean liners of the past. However, with MaritimeWorld.com becoming too large, this site was split up into three new sites; ssmaritime.com for articles on vintage liners, e-cruiseworld.com the international cruise site and cruise-australia.net aiming mostly at the Australian and New Zealand cruise market. To date these sites have received over 88.7 million visits.

Reuben on stage with Captain Philip Pickford 8 February 2000
A lecture was presented during Fair Princess’ final cruise to New Zealand to a packed Seaward Lounge

Photograph: Ships photographer

“Save the Classic Liner Campaign”

One of the strengths of ssMaritime.com has been the “Save the Classic Liners Campaign,” which Reuben founded 1999. He commenced the “Save the SS Rotterdam Campaign” when the SS Rembrandt was laid up in Freeport on September 21, 2000. Thankfully, the SS Rotterdam has now been saved and she is now undergoing restoration and will officially opened and serve as a hotel and a tourist facility in 2008 in her home city Rotterdam. Other ships worked on were; SS OceanBreeze (ex Southern Cross), the Margarita L (ex Windsor Castle), Princessa Victoria (ex Victoria, Dunnottar castle) Big Red Boat II (ex Eugenio C), Madagascar (ex Stella Maris) Norway (ex France) and a good many others. However, all of these, except the Madagascar, ended on a Bangladeshi or Indian beach and have been broken up or are in the process of being cut up. Reuben was directly involved with the sale of the Madagascar. His battle to save the great SS Norway (ex France) has taken a bad toll on him health wise. Two other ships in the firing line are the SS Oceanic, ex Independence and the SS United States. Although NCL has already sold the Oceanic to the Indian’s, meaning she has been betrayed by NCL, just like the Norway, for NCL she is just another casualty. Reuben feels that NCL will do the very same with the great American, SS United States, as he put’s it, NCL has no shame for they are being dictated to by Asians who care nothing about American heritage!”

As Reuben says, “NCL used two American ships to sway the US Senate to give this Chinese Malaysian Casino backed NCL Cruise Company to get a US Flagged Company, NCL America, and now they have it, they will dump the two finest American liners that still exist. NCL America is as Patriotic to America as Islamic Malaysia is Christian!” (Note: The Malaysian owned “Resort World Bhd” is part of the “Genting Casino Group” owns Star Cruises, who owns the majority shares of NCL and Star Cruises make all the major decisions, thus, it is Malaysia who rules, not NCL America!). See the concluding Note re the campaign.

Line Voyages and Cruises

To date Reuben has undertaken a total of 115 line voyages-cruises, with his first experience at sea being on the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd liner MS Sibajak in 1958. Since then he has sailed on 48 liners/cruise ships either once or a number of times. All voyages undertaken (listed) were from five to 45 nights. In addition he has sailed on a number of mini cruises (2 or 3 nights), as well as many overnight ferries services. During his 46 years in the industry Reuben has also inspected countless ships around the world.

List of ships sailed on - (listed in alphabetical order) …

Achille Lauro - Arcadia (2 & 3) – Aurelia – Aurora – Australis – Britanis – Canberra - Club 1 - Dominion Monarch – Ellinis - Fairsky (I & II) - Fair Princess - Fairsea (1) – Fairstar - Fedor Shalyapin – Flavia – Galileo - Gothic (2) - Himalaya (3) - Iberia (3) - Johan van Oldenbarnevelt – Karelia - Mariposa (3) – Matua - Mikhail Sholokhov - Monterey (3) - Nieuw Amsterdam (2) – Oranje - Orcades (3) - Oriana (1 & 2) - Oriental Queen - Orsova (2) - Pacific Princess (2) – Patris - QE2 – Rangitoto - Reef Endeavour - Rotterdam (5) – Russ - Seven Seas – Sibajak - Southern Cross (Shaw Savill) - Southern Cross (CTC) - SuperStar Leo - SuperStar Virgo – Tofua - Willem Ruys. (Recently Reuben told I missed a few and he will list them at a later dade).

Reuben’s most recent cruise was a 50 night voyage on MV Oriana from Brisbane (26 February 2008) sailing around the bottom of Australia up to Asia, down the Indian Ocean and around Africa to Southampton. Prior to that ir was the Pacific Princess New Zealand Cruise in February 2007.

Reuben’s next voyages.

The next voyage is very special as Reuben is due to sail on the 1914 American built ship, MV Doulos from Brisbane to Sydney - 17 to 23 August 2008. She was originally the American Onion/potato cargo ship SS Medina, then rebuilt as a migrant ship SS Roma, a luxury cruise ship MS Franca C, to become the famed Book-ship MS Doulos.

On December 17, Reuben and Eng will join the maiden voyage of the Classic International Cruises MS Princess Daphne in Brisbane, which will sail for Sydney, before undertaking a 10 night Pacific cruise.

Then, Reuben and I (Kosta) will join the MV Pacific Dawn on June 4, 2009, for a 28 night cruise to Tahiti and the Pacific Islands.

MV Oriana anchor in the Whitsundays (Great Barrier Reef) February 2005

That year Reuben sailed on this fine ship from Brisbane to the UK

Photograph: Reuben Goossens

MV Oriana is Reuben’s favourite cruise ship; he claims that she is superior to anything afloat, although the QE2 is a true classic liner, he dislikes her due to her being a class oriented ship and that he feels is something that belongs in the past!

Taken in 2006 aboard MV Aurora

There is no doubt that Reuben Goossens is a stalwart of the industry and he is greatly respected by his readers, maritime historians and shipping companies worldwide.

PS. When I told him I was going to write this piece (originally in 2000, he gave me a just one instruction; “As long as you include photographs of ships you might mention.” Obviously there are far too many listed on this page to do so, however, I have used at least those early ships that were so important in his early life, as well as the ship he chartered SS Fedor Shalyapin. The personal photographs, well they were my choice from the massive catalogue of photographs I searched through, and I know he will hate them all!

Kosta Specis & Eng Tan

Photographs: Photographs on this page are 1. By Reuben Goossens. 2. Hun-Eng Tan. 3. The ships photographer. Postcards: Nieuw Amsterdam, Sibajak, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Oranje, and Zuiderkruis are from Reuben’s private collection.

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