Jan van Laer’s Long History with HAL

Jan van Laer recently sent us this story via e-mail:

Jan and Janet van Laer

I watched the christening ceremony with great interest. It was very nicely done.

I have a warm spot in my heart for the Holland America Line, going back almost 80 years. In 1931 our family sailed on a HAL vessel from Holland to America to our new home in Yonkers, N.Y. I don’t remember much about this trip, but, if memory serves me right, I believe the captain’s name was Bijl.

Thereafter, we returned on Holland America Line vessels every two or three years until the war came and interrupted those visits.

In June of 1950 I met my future wife, Janet, on board the Veendam. She boarded at Southampton on our trip to Holland and was a guest of Mrs. van den Toorn, the wife of the then president of HAL. We had dinner with them that night. This was right around the time the U.S. entered the Korean War. We married the following year.

In the summer 1960 we again sailed via HAL to Holland to attend the 60th wedding anniversary of my mother’s parents. In 1989 we cruised aboard the New Amsterdam to Alaska, taking our son and daughter-in-law with us.

This coming November we have signed up for a Thanksgiving cruise aboard the Eurodam and are taking our son, Eric, daughter-in-law Stella, and grandson Piet, along with us. Needless to say, we are looking forward to this trip with great pleasure.

The van Laers live in a retirement community in Florida where Holland America Line is promoting the Thanksgiving sailing, so there’s a good chance that they will be surrounded by both family and friends on their holiday cruise.

If you have a Holland America Line story or memory you would like to share with our readers, send us an e-mail and photo to roland@eurodamnews.com.