Daily Gazette 12 February 2015
Man’s fight to change ship’s Nazi-linked name succeeds
John Donovan, 67, of Colchester, launched an online petition calling for the vessel, the world’s largest crane ship, to be re-named.
The 403,342 gross tonne vessel had been named by the owner The Pieter Schelte after his father.
He was a Dutch officer in the Waffen-SS who eventually became an informant for the Dutch resistance in 1943.
But the name sparked outrage among leaders of Jewish communities and Holocaust memorial groups in Britain and in the Netherlands.
Mr Donovan, a retired contract worker for Shell, said: “Shell was signed up as one of the first customers and these companies knew this ship was going to be named in this way..