Willem Ruys (Achille Lauro)
Last week, my wife and I had to go to Flushing for a sad occasion (funeral of her aunt), but as we all know, at funerals and weddings you meet most relatives. One of my wife's cousins, who is working as a secretary at De Schelde Shipyard, and knowing I am interested in ships, did bring me a very nice book. 'Willem Ruys' Crown on the fleet: by Frans Luidinga and Nico Guns. This book, only being volume 1, counts 600 pages and has a lot of information and photos covering the period of design until the period that Indonesia became independent. As we know, the ship was laid down in 1939, but finally launched in 1946. During WW2, the ship, while on the slipway, dominated the sight in the city and luckily was never hit by allied bombs. Volume 2 will be published at the end of this year. The book is available at maritime bookshops in The Netherlands, but also at Mainmast Books in the U.K. The text is in Dutch, but there is an English summary included. The cover is showing Stephen Card's painting of the Willem Ruys.

Thank you for the information. Very familar with Stephen Card's work from traveling on Holland Ships. The book would be very interesting..what a history !