At the time, in 1872, it was the first real voyage with the Rotterdam I from Maasstad across the Atlantic Ocean to America. The shipping company Holland America Line (HAL), which will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year, celebrated Saturday on the pier near the departure hall with the performance of Rotterdam’s ‘Frank Sinatra’, Frank in Person, who gives a aerial platform, among other things, saw the famous number New York, New York interpreted. The HAL had distributed white anniversary handkerchiefs, with which the people on the dock could greet the ship.
Also on the other side, at the Veerhaven, Rotterdam was greeted, at the monument to Pieter Caland a choir of 80 members sang a song, made by Mike Boddé.
After six hours the ropes were released and the Rotterdam set sail on the 150-year-old Nieuwe Maas and Nieuwe Waterweg to the North Sea. Rotterdam will also visit France’s Le Havre and England’s Plymouth on its journey to New York on 26 October. The Rotterdam VII is 300 meters long and 35 meters wide, can accommodate 2668 people and has 950 employees on board.
