Eurodam Dedication to Be on ‘Holy Ground’

The dedication of Eurodam will take place in Rotterdam, where the cruise terminal is located on “holy ground” — the Wilhelminapier. The present cruise terminal used to be the terminal of the “old” Holland-Amerika Lijn, the shipping company well known from the sailings during the 1890s and 1920s out of Rotterdam to the “promised land.”

Aerial photo of Wilhelminapier from 1938, courtesy Maritiem Museum Rotterdam.

About half a million of Europeans made the one-way trip, escaping from poverty and looking forward to new opportunities. They all followed the Pilgrim Fathers, who set sail from Delfshaven, one of the oldest ports in Rotterdam, with their ship Speedwell in 1620.

When Nieuw Amsterdam II left Rotterdam Nov. 8, 1971, for the last crossing to New York, an import part of Dutch maritime history came to an end.

Since the early 1990s the area of the Wilhelminapier has been redeveloped with a new theater, a new courthouse and a lot of skyscrapers — with even more skyscrapers to be built. The area is now nicknamed “Manhattan aan de Maas.”

At the top of the pier there is Hotel New York, a very popular place in Rotterdam. Built in 1880, it is the former headquarters of the Holland-Amerika Lijn.

At the top of the building you can find a gold-colored weather vane, shaped like a schooner. The vane represents the schooner De Halve Maen (The Half Moon), explorer Henry Hudson’s ship with which he tried to find a northeastern passage from Amsterdam to India in 1609. You know the story: instead of India Hudson “discovered” Manhattan and named the local river the Hudson. In 1614, on the banks of the Hudson River a village was founded — New Amsterdam, later known as New York.

Since early 2007 Holland America Line has been back in Rotterdam with an office located in the Montevideo building, one of the tallest buildings in the Netherlands. When you look out of the office windows, you can see the present-day cruise terminal as well as Hotel New York.

Rotterdam arriving home. In the background are World Port Center (right) and the Montevideo building with the M on top, where Holland America’s Rotterdam office is located.

You can watch an online movie on the history and future of Wilhelminapier here.