Kees Van der Gaag

Kees Van Der Gaag

Job Description
Skipper

Period
1969 - 1977

Kees (Kase) was born in Rotterdam in Holland on 17th Oct. 1930 and had one brother and five sisters. His father was a banker. When he left school he joined the Merchant navy and worked on cargo ships. He always wanted to go to sea for the freedom and the adventure. 

Kase was married in Holland in 1957 and had one daughter and two sons. After having enough of sea life, being away for eight or nine months of the year and away from family he wanted to get another job away from the sea. There was nothing available for ex-seamen in Holland, so he decided to emigrate, having a choice of a few different countries. He chose Australia and came out on the 4th October 1969.

He worked at ALCOA as a labourer for a week, decided it was not for him, so bought a car and set off for Albany – having been here before.

Kase obtained  a job with Cheynes Beach Whaling Company on the Gascoyne as a deckhand. He had to redo his ticket for Australia as his Dutch qualifications were not recognized. He became Skipper on the Cheynes II in 1973.

Kase enjoyed his time with Cheynes Beach Whaling Company – the pay, the mateship, the conditions. He left in 1977 and went to Cape Lambert working a tug boat. He is now retired and living in Albany.

When Kase worked as Skipper on Cheynes II, he once found himself in an awkward position on the gun-deck. He positioned himself behind the gun-deck and heard a hissing sound. The fuse on the explosive head had been set off! Two deckhands jumped for safety onto the fore-deck and the other, Peter Johnson, headed up the catwalk for the bridge, hotly pursued by Kees. Peter claims he still has Kees’ footprints in his kidneys. The grenade blew out sections of the two inch wooden gun-deck.

Another incident on Cheynes II was when a bull whale dived under the ship. He came up and hit the prop, taking off one of the large blades and breaking the thrust block and the tail shaft. The Cheynes II had to be towed back to port and was out of commission for three weeks.