Genealogie RUITER

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However, it was but a very small group that took part--about a dozen of the third class passengers. The rest of the 250 Dutch and German passengers took no part in this psalm singing.
Really, we thought within ourselves, 'How few there are who desire to serve the Lord and how many there are who rush onward on the broad way'. Among the other passengers also we noticed no sign of worship.
We heard all kinds of languages here from many lands-- Dutch, German, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Finnish, French, Belgian, Bulgarian, and Servian. All kinds of people mingled together in the third class. The Hollanders and Germans, however, were in a separate part of the ship, in the upper section directly beneath the deck. The others were in the lower section of the ship. They did not sit at the same tables with us in the dining room. They had to go through our section to get to their places. It made it unpleasant for us because those who were seasick usually vomited in our vicinity and then it didn't take long before there was such an unpleasant odor that you could hardly stand it and everything nauseated you. My wife stayed in the cabin with the children. She didn't come out at all and I brought in food that they could eat in the cabin, although I didn't touch it.
I couldn't swallow it and had such a churning feeling, like when one is nauseated from smoking too much, but I was sick because of the bad odor. My wife was eating and I was watching-and then I quickly jerked open the door, but before I could set a foot in the hallway, I lost everything that was in my stomach.
At that sight, Lammechien also felt sick and the food was left standing and before two hours had passed, she was sick and vomiting too. The following three days were very bad.I always had to leave the cabin for drinking water or wash water; or to empty the pot, and always through that awful mess. The workers cleaned it up every day, but in a little while everything was filthy again.
When you read this, you will say, 'Oh, what a life.' Fortunately, it didn't last too long, as I said about three days, and then it began to get better, since people seemed to get more used to being rocked up and down and back and forth.

A nice color picture of the Statendam, riding the waves! - JR

The farther we went into the ocean, the higher the waves became. It was truly a beautiful and great sight when you stood on the deck of the ship and cast your eyes over the ocean. The crests of the waves were white as snow and covered with foam by the movement of the water.

This sight made us think of the Psalm writer when he wrote (Psalm 46:2--Dutch Psalmboek) :
'Though angry billows roar and break against the shore Our mighty God will hear us.'

This gave us true comfort when we beheld the churning waters and angry billows that sometimes sent great waves over the ship. And so we went steadily forward, each day the same life and the same view.
A few times we saw another ship, coming or passing, although always at a great distance, so that we couldn't see the other ship clearly.
With this weather it was rather monotonous on board, since we could hardly do anything else but sit or lie down because walking was difficult. You had to hold on tightly to everything and then you would still bump into things so that people who saw you had to laugh. Everyone was still quite cheerful. We sang and read and talked with each other and some people sometimes gave a recitation. We made it as sociable as possible and we slept long, for by nine o'clock at night everybody was already in bed.

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The letter from Roelof Pieters Ruiter - 3