Witticism

…On the ‘Groningen’ we had B. v/d Velden as captain, a typical man with a sensitive heart.
A social person.

B. v/d Velden.

While we were sailing through the Indian Ocean, he was sunbathing on the scaffold and almost burned alive, that man looked like a boiled shrimp afterwards.
He was also somewhat reddish of himself.

Every Saturday morning he made his round through the ship, armed with a flashlight.
We called it the ‘Witticism’.
The man checked if it was all clean in the accommodations.
Then he sat for moment at your table in your hut and asked interested about your ups and downs and how it was at home.
Meanwhile he shyly looked at a picture of my wife.

But he took offence at one thing: the ‘Playboy’ folding pages.
That page was read or looked at on board and many a cabin was decorated with these ladies.

I liked the drawings by Alberto Vargas (1896-1983) much more.

Nice drawing.

If you can draw the woman like this!

Colourful in black and white.

It was possible against his faith and I just had to remove them.
When I argued that those records were ‘artistically’ responsible.
That those ‘Playboy and Varga Girls’ colours brought into a somber hut!

He hadn’t looked at it like this: they were allowed to hang around!