Pieter Schelte, the ship cursed with a Nazi name

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR EDWARD HEEREMA, FOUNDER AND SOLE OWNER OF ALLSEAS

I am sure you are aware of the aggressive email I received at an early stage in my contact with Allseas. Your PR Manager Mr. Jeroen Hagelstein, informed me that Allseas reputation and integrity are extremely important. The last paragraph of his email amounted to a full broadside, with threats of immediate legal action. Shell can testify that I am not susceptible to threats.

Dear Mr. Heerema

You are well aware of my petition trying to persuade you to change the name of your new ship, The Pieter Schelte, named after your father, an officer in the infamous German Waffen SS.

You have already paid a self-inflicted price for your good-intentioned, but wrongheaded decision and are apparently prepared to stick with the Nazi linked name in the long term.

I am referring to the collateral damage to your own reputation (for unwise decision making) and the reputation of your company, Allseas, as a result of being seen to brazenly operate a prominent ship under a Nazi linked name. That evil association will precede and follow the ship like an albatross, wherever it sails, for the rest of its days.

I will follow the ships progress and relentlessly publish related news stories about its Nazi heritage. Shell will testify to my long term determination.

I am sure you are aware of the aggressive email I received at an early stage in my contact with Allseas. Your PR Manager Mr. Jeroen Hagelstein, informed me that Allseas reputation and integrity are extremely important. (You should have kept that in mind when naming the vessel.) The last paragraph of his email amounted to a full broadside, with threats of immediate legal action. Shell can testify that I am not susceptible to threats.

What you may not know, is that during the recent high court case in London, which exposed some very shady activity, I was approached by solicitors acting for Paul Sultana, a defendant in the claims bought against him by your front companies in Malta and Panama. At the request of his solicitors, I supplied evidence entrusted to me by a whistleblower. I read the subsequent 85 page Judgement by Mr Justice Peter Smith released into the public domain just months ago. I think many members of the public would view all of the players, including you, with distaste, given the background of financial machination.

I suspect a degree of machination may have also been used in some of the anonymous comments posted online in response to the latest bout of international news stories on the naming controversy, which has now spread to The Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Turkey, Norway, Israel and France. Some comments supportive of your naming choice seem oddly repetitive/similar, leading me to wonder whether some originated from an organised initiative by an unknown party.

I have no personal animosity towards you or your company.

If you do decided at some stage to change the name, perhaps because the current one frightens off clients, with the ship becoming an international pariah, then my campaign will cease immediately provided you do not switch to another Nazi linked name.

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