Card Art: Blijdendijk

Our final entry in this series of Eurodam art by Stephen Card features his painting of Blijdendijk. Built in 1943 at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in Portland, Maine, for the United States Maritime Commission, it originally was named Tobias Lear and sailed as a cargo ship. The ship was 134.6 meters (642 feet) long and 17.4 meters (81 feet) at the beam.

In 1944 the Dutch government took over and renamed it Fort Orange. It was the only Liberty-class ship to have a name starting with “Fort.” Holland America Line was given the ship to manage in 1945, and the company acquired the vessel in 1947 and renamed it Blijdendijk. However, HAL only kept the ship for 10 years and sold it to Ditti Luigi Pittaluga Vapori in 1957. The ship was stranded near the Rio Grande Do Sul in 1967, and after the cargo and fittings were removed it was abandoned as a total loss.