Kota Inten in 1948 opened Canada-bound ship schedule

Nova Scotia elated with new arrivals

Tens of thousands of young men from rural Canada had enlisted in the army during World War II, to join the troops overseas. Officials at home did not expect that many of these men, once discharged, would take up farming again.

The situation in rural Nova Scotia already was desperate during the 1930s with numerous farms being abandoned. Federal government plans to bring in Dutch farmers and farm labourers were embraced enthusiastically by officials in Nova Scotia.

On March 23, 1948, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Agriculture, A.W. MacKenzie, and the Director of Land Settlement and Immigration for the province, S. Ellsworth Lewis, were on hand at the Halifax harbour to welcome the first arrivals in Canada aboard the Dutch ship Kota Inten.

The following years, more Dutch agriculturalists arrived in Nova Scotia. The province has been very good to the Dutch-Canadian farming community ever since. In addition to farming, it also gave the province an extensive agricultural infrastructure. The farms branched out into a range of aligned activities beyond the farm gate such as processing, marketing and distributing.

There were no Kota Inten passenger lists printed. The March 12 1948 departure from Rotterdam included the following families and individuals: J.C. Bakker, H. Baron, J. de Jong, J.A. Gerritsen, J. Hendrikx, C. Heurkens, J.W. Hofsink, L. Hovius, J. Klazinga, J. Knibbe, W. Knibbe, K. Kollen, Meerburg, E. Renkema, G.W. Reuvekamp, S. Terpstra, J. Tolsma, H. Van der Kooi, Pilippus & Eerde Vanderveen, Klaas Veenstra, A. Verboom, Henk Vermeulen, C.F. Vos, Vroom, and J. Westerhof. Nameless also are about 250 displaced Ukranians who traveled aboard the ship to Canada.

Thanks to the diary of Mrs. Koob Kollen and the chaplaincy report of Rev. D.J. Scholten (see To All Our Children), the historic Kota Inten journey was well documented.

In an ongoing project, forms are available for registering passengers who were on any of the Kota Inten (1948-9), Tabinta (1947-) and Volendam (1949-1951) transatlantic trips as well as for the July 1947 Waterman journey. Please contact the Windmill Herald office for a form.