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Assistant: Cruiser Zeven Provinciën Returns

Cruiser Zeven Provinciën Returns After a successful training voyage in Caribbean waters (From our correspondent) Den Helder, 5 April

HNLMS cruiser Zeven Provinciën returned today to the port of Den Helder from a training cruise in Caribbean waters. From 15 to 24 March, Zeven Provinciën was in the vicinity of San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the ship took part in joint exercises with Canadian and American fleet units. Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire were visited, as were the Venezuelan cities of La Guaira and Caracas.

“We were received with the utmost hospitality everywhere,” the commander of Training Squadron V, Commander L. Brouwer, told us in the officers’ quarters, where many images of De Ruyter’s flagship De Zeven Provinciën keep the memory of the 17th-century namesake alive. “Such a large ship visiting the West Indies strengthens ties with the Kingdom—this has been evident to me from many sides,” Commander Brouwer continued.

The trip was intended to train under favorable weather conditions. In Caribbean waters, the sea is usually calmer in winter than it is here. Aircraft can always fly there. There is no fog, and storms are not to be feared in those months either. In the North Sea, moreover, one must always take account of heavy shipping traffic and fishing.

As for the capabilities of Zeven Provinciën, I can say that we learned a great deal—and in that respect too the trip was a great success. We carried out a tactical exercise with Canadian ships, took on fuel at sea, and did a lot of gunnery practice with the ship’s batteries, for which conditions down there are ideal. Our radars are very good; with them we certainly do not lag behind foreign navies,” said Commander Brouwer.

Regarding personnel turnover in the navy, the commander said that it is just as great in the American (the print here is a bit unclear) and British navies.

The only shadow over the trip was the accident that occurred on Aruba after a “barbecue” (meal) offered by an oil company, when a participant threw an empty beer bottle out of a car. It landed on the windshield of another car, causing one of the occupants to get a shard of glass in the eye.

Zeven Provinciën will remain in Den Helder until its next voyage, in May, to Sweden.

— The first prize of 3,000 Swiss francs in an international poster competition, organized by the central bureau of Europabus, has been won by the Dutchman R. Stoop of Arnhem. The competition was open to artists from thirteen countries; there were 124 entries.