In April 1896 the Amsterdam cigar maker and writer Justus van Maurik left for the Indies on board the steamship Prinses Amalia. He describes his voyage in the story ‘Met “De Amalia” van Genua naar Padang’ [On ‘The Amalia’ from Genoa to Padang], posthumously published in the collection Op reis en thuis (On the road and at home, 1905). He goes into great detail sketching the other persons on board: two nuns, an Indonesian nanny, some Dutch colonial long-timers and a detachment of eighty soldiers of various nationalities who had been seconded to Aceh. The moment that the ship left the Gulf of Genoa, the sea became extremely choppy, and sea sickness struck. The ship swayed, lurched and rumbled so badly that many spent the day lying in loungers on deck, groaning with misery. Van Maurik notes that a corpulent, convivial Austrian seemed unperturbed, however. His remedy was a lot of beer and fatty food: ‘Fat greases the stomach and keeps it steady in your body, I eat for three and I’m absolutely fine.’ Van Maurik himself fell asleep against the ‘sighing and weeping of ladies and children, gurgling stomachs, cleared throats and bubbling coughs’ in the background.
Justus van Maurik, Op reis en thuis. Novellen en schetsen. Amsterdam: Van Holkema & Warendorf, [1909] (2nd edition). [KIT Collection P 84-633]