HAL in "On the Waterfront"

[JennysUncle]

Last night we were watching "On the Waterfront" and I thought I recognized an old HAL funnel. A later scene showed the signage of Holland America Line in the background. Turns out it was filmed on the Hoboken Waterfront in 1953 or 54. What was the ship? Must have been the Ryndam or Maasdam, sisters. Three clips from the film, and then the full length photo is the Ryndam. (If I can upload them.)

 

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[Mtn2Sea]

Cool photos!  Thanks for posting them.

[Sir PMP]

Copper will have the answer.

[Copper10-8]

5 hours ago, JennysUncle said:

 

Last night we were watching "On the Waterfront" and I thought I recognized an old HAL funnel. A later scene showed the signage of Holland America Line in the background. Turns out it was filmed on the Hoboken Waterfront in 1953 or 54. What was the ship? Must have been the Ryndam or Maasdam, sisters. Three clips from the film, and then the full length photo is the Ryndam. (If I can upload them.)

 

 

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Yes, that's either tss (turbine steam ship) Rijndam from 1951 or her sister tss (turbine steam ship) Maasdam from 1952. They made regular runs from Rotterdam to HAL's Hoboken, New Jersey 5th Street Pier (usually via Le Havre and Southampton) - see attached 1st pic - 

 

Interesting tidbit is that both ships were laid down as freighters, Rijndam was originally going to be the Dinteldyk and Maasdam, the Diemerdyk. HAL, throughout its history had passenger ship names end in "dam" and freighters/cargo ships in "dyk." During construction, the then powers to be at HAL decided that both ships should be changed to passenger ships. The other big change was that both ships introduced HAL's new color scheme of that time; a gray hull and a white superstructure.

 

Both ships were soon known as the "economy twins" however, having been designed as freighters, they were not comfy ships to ride across the big Atlantic, especially during winter weather

 

 

 

 

 

[ski ww]

Thanks for that bit of history Copper.

[0bnxshs]

Thanks to OP and Copper10-8 for the interesting history lesson this morning. 😁

 

I do recall seeing that film and the ships and signage but hadn't done the research.

[MISTER 67]

2 HAL liners were in On The Waterfront, the Nieuw Amsterdam and the Ryndam.

Great movie and one of 500 in our film library. 

One of the best lines in the history of Cinema, "Charlie, I could have been a contender, I could have had class, instead I got me a one way ticket to Palookaville". 

[Mosaic]

Nice replies.....

 

[JeffElizabeth]

Awesome. Great film. One of Brando's best.