the certificaat yvonne singer
A red line. I stare at the map. It looks so simple; a flat outline of water and land, fragments of western Europe, Africa, North America in light beige and shapes of blue grey waters in between designating the Atlantic ocean, the Mediterranean and the Great Lakes. Words are grey blue like the water. Key ports are in black, with touches of orange for the Orange Line. There are no co-ordinates the ship can use to navigate on this certificaat. I guess this is not its purpose. On the cover of the certificaat is a line drawing in blue grey of Neptune’s bearded face, semi-hooded eyes looking in the distance, his muscular torso in the water, holding his three pronged trident in the left hand and with the other hand, pointing to the line drawing of a ship on the horizon. He looks like a middle-aged patriarch with his long beard. Neptune’s mascot, another line drawing of a cod, a fish common in the North Atlantic, is in the lower right hand corner beside the logo of the shipping company, the Orange Line in ornate orange script. Using google translate’s awkward translation, I translate the document to discover that Neptune is taking me across the ocean. It has pleased Neptune, God of the Sea, Ruler of the Oceans, etc.etc, to issue this certificate to Yvonne M.E. Vandor (carefully handwritten) on the occasion of crossing the North Atlantic from Rotterdam to Montreal in the month of July 1949 with the m.s. Prince Johann William Friso. It has further pleased Neptune, after meeting with his counselors, to award the sea-fastness rating the figure 8. Thus done in the year of our honor, 1949,
below, clockwise: the front cover of the certificaat: Neptune; the back cover with the degrees of seamanship; the inside of the certificaat
July, at Gulf of St. Lawrence. Neptune and his Counselors Below are three different indecipherable signatures with no titles. Neptune’s counselors, perhaps? On the back in blue: a list. Degrees of Seamanship According to this chart, Neptune is awarding me an ‘8 = good sailor’.
What an honour to be personally escorted by Neptune and to be awarded an 8 for being a ‘good sailor’. How do I thank you Neptune? Mr. Neptune or is it Sir or maybe King Neptune. What is the proper way to address a god? This is like getting a letter from Santa.
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