[CW] Podcast about 1980 XXX and SOS of ms PRINSENDAM/PJTA

[David J. Ring, Jr.]

Yesterday, I listened to a podcast I dreaded listening to because I 
feared it would distort history.

It was a podcast about MS PRINSENDAM 
[https://wondery.com/shows/against-the-odds/season/26/](https://wondery.com/shows/against-the-odds/season/26/)and 
right near 34:50 on the timer, it says that the ship's Master 
(landlubber: Captain) says that he ordered the ship's radio operator 
[sic] to change the XXX message he previously ordered him to send to an 
SOS.

And that's exactly what didn't happen.

Of all the books written about PRINSENDAM, the only one (despite my 
telephoning the authors prior to publication and offering to review the 
pages about the radio communications, is the books by Stanley Jaceks.

What happened was that Chief Radio Officer Jack van der Zee of Beek, 
Netherlands was given a message by the Master and ordered to send it as 
"Urgent" or "XXX". R/O v.d. Zee told the Captain that sending an SOS was 
the appropriate thing to do, but the Master was concerned about ships 
answering the SOS and demanding salvage rights to a multimillion dollar 
passenger ship. When he did so, USCG Communications Station, Kodiak, 
Alaska advised him that it was more appropriate to send it as an SOS and 
proceed it by the series of dashes of the radiotelegraph autoalarm.

As MS PRINSENDAM/PJTA was a ship registered in Netherlands Antilles and 
not in U.S. territorial waters, the USCG could not order the ship to do 
so. Chief Radio Officer van der Zee advised the Master of what the USCG 
had advised but he did not wish to send an SOS.

Soon R/O van der Zee could feel the heat on the soles of his feet and as 
he told me, "If I don't send an SOS with the autoalarm signal to alert 
the cargo ships in the area, the lives of the passengers and crew would 
be in jeopardy but if I did so, I could be brought up on charges and 
lose my license, and even be put in prison." He made the choice that 
even if he faced prison, he would change the XXX message to SOS and send 
the autoalarm.

He said, "I might be in prison, but the passengers and crew would be 
alive." I told him that if he was ever brought up on charges, I'd fly to 
the hearing, and testify in his defense. A hero accepts the consequences 
of his actions and does the right thing to save people's lives.

I tried for many years to write to the Queen of the Netherlands to see 
if what Jack did could be honored, but when she finally agreed, 
unfortunately Jack had died the month before. See this account which is 
mostly correct: 
https://onetuberadio.com/2015/10/04/profile-in-courage-jack-van-der-zee-1980/
73 David N1EA Radio Officer T/T WILLIAMSBURGH/WGOA during the SOS.
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