He spoke little about his time in Changi or Kuching. As a child I remember seeing a simple exercise book with a record of the deaths of POWs in the camp. I have found three photos of him in the Australian War Archive collection, taken the day after Batu Lintang was liberated by the Australians and know the ship he was transported on from Singapore to Borneo – the SS De Klerk which was renamed the Imbari Maru by the Japanese. The wreck of this former steamer lies off the Lubuan coast and it is now known as the Australian Wreck.

Look forward to hearing from anyone who can give me more information.

The lifeboat reached Trinidad that same day.

Good question. What exacly was the reason to name her Abbekerk I don’t know.
The VNS (Verenigde Nederlandse Scheepvaarmaatschappij) named most of her bigger cargo ships after places in Holland that end on -kerk (Which means church in Dutch).
examples: Bovenkerk, Serooskerk, Maaskerk, Aagtekerk, Heemskerk, Amstelkerk, Hoogkerk etc. (I’m not sure if these places really all do exist:-)
The passenger ship often named -fontein (I guess thats because VNS had several lines to Africa and fontein (fountain) is a common ending for the names of towns in South Africa). Examples: Rietfontein, Boschfontein, Oranjefontein etc.
After the war, some ships that sailed lines to west Africa were often called -kust (meaning Coast), like Dahomeykust and Ivoorkust, but -kerk was by far the most used ending.
Ship names were often re-used after a ship was sold or scrapped. Or sunk.
On the VNS website you can find a lot of information on the ships. (VNS is now part of Nedloyd)

Peter

I live in Abbekerk (N-H) in the Netherlands.

Best regards,