Jhr. Van Rensselaar Bowier was a colonel of the Royal Netherlands Navy who in July 1879 commanded the naval force that carried and landed the Lamtoba column at Lampanas on the north coast of Groot-Atjeh, as recorded in W. Cool and G. B. Hooijer’s Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis (1889).
The passage from Oleh-leh
At the embarkation of 26 July 1879 Generaal van der Heijden himself was present aboard the steamship Soerabaya, where the colonel — “de Kolonel Jhr. Van Rensselaar Bowier” — held the command. In his spacious cabin the Colonel offered the General and the staff officers of the expedition the rijsttafel: a European calf, fattened on board, was slaughtered for the occasion and served as only a colonel of the Marine’s European cook could prepare it — a rarity in the Indies, where veal is never seen, and one that the younger staff officers, the authors allow, attacked with memorable appetite, “besproeid met bier, wijn en champagne.” In the longroom the ship’s officers entertained the officers of the land force at their own table, and long after the General had left the ship, and after all the boats had steamed away from the roadstead of Oleh-leh at four o’clock, glowing toasts were still being drunk to the land- and sea-service. At half past eight in the evening, in bright moonlight, the squadron anchored on the roadstead of Lampanas.
The landing
On the morning of 27 July 1879 the Colonel took post with the column-commander and his officers under the awning on the afterdeck of the Soerabaya, watching the landing point, while his adjudant — the luitenant ter zee 2e klasse Titzing — moved among the gathering boats in a fast flet regulating the landing sloops. Under his direction four steamships — the Merapi, Soerabaya, Borneo and Graaf van Bijland — put ashore 46 officers, 1,104 officers’ underofficers and men, 984 labourers, horses, guns and stores, beginning at six o’clock; the horses were lowered by tackle from the high warship’s side upon an iron pontoon raft towed by the steam barkas, and the last stores were landed at eight in the evening.
See Also
- Marine (Dutch Navy)
- Soerabaya (Z.M. stoomschip)
- Titzing
- Embarkation at Oleh-leh and landing at Lampanas (26–27 July 1879)
- Lampanas
- 1879
Source
Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis, door W. Cool en G. B. Hooijer (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1889), pp. 7-10. OCR-filename: 20260720_115822_DLP-135-Eene_schoone_bladzijde_uit_Atjeh_s_geschiedenis_Nemotron_OCR_v2_OCR.txt.