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Attention Netherlands East Indies-philes

MaskRider

MaskRider

Tiller of Soil
I am building Boela oil installations and airfield on Ceram Island- need an assist!

Prior to and during the war- and even today- Boela "harbor" sported a series of very unusual oil drilling jetties. I currently have three images of Boela that show the jetties- two images from The AWM and an overhead shot from Google earth.

But I would love to see a little more detail on the jetties in particular and the overall harbor layout in general- especially during the war.

Even the existance of an airfield at Boela during the war is a bit in question. There is certainly one there now- kinda cheesy looking- might be the original, I don't know. And I can find plenty of references about strikes being flown against the oil installations and airfield at Boela.

So, I was wondering if any of you Netherlands East Indies types could lend a hand. Images, maps, diagrams or written material would be welcome.

Cheers,
Chris
 
Hey There Chris, I have a pack of info similar to what you have plus a couple of more pics of the time period airfield and a map. This was put together a couple of years back when I was going to take a shot at it, but it was a little too ambitious for my skills. :icon_lol: Especially using the stock mesh. I use to have a bookmark from a Netherlands Tankers and Freighters (1930's era) ships web page. It had good views of the piers and the oil storage locations. The storage areas were north and north west of the bay.
I'll email you what I have and possibly retrace the path that got me to that web page. Fingers crossed.
Dave
 
Hey Chris, I got an email back from the photographer for the 90th Bombers. He said he does not have any photos any longer and he was actually NOT on the raids on Ceram. So even if he had all of his originals, they would not have been of use to us for Ceram.

Since I am working the Bong/Lynch/McGuire flights from that area, I will continue to keep my eyes open for stuff you need.

DD
 
Thanks for the help guys. I've had some positive results. dvslats was able to provide a very useful image- an image that I actually already had but was totally unaware of what it was- other than it was some place on Ceram.

The first image below is the original.

The second is the same image flipped right side up and overlaid on top of Google Earth image. This is what the original airfield looked like- two runways.

I am still playing with the river- it changed course since the war- but I think I can get the wartime river course doped out from the recent photo.

My thanks to dvslats. However, DD anything else would be greatly appreciated!

I would really like to find a close up of one of those rigs on the jetties. Apparently, from what I can see- each pumping location on a jetty consisted of an oil rig/pump and a fuel line (much like what we used for underway refueling) running to a oil barge that swivels with the tide at the foot of each rig.

Cheers,
Chris
 
Some Good, Some Not So...

Hi MR,
I was able to locate the web site from a few years back but boy has it changed! Thousands and I means thousands of photoshave been added to their archive. Spent an hour or so looking around and have to admit, I'm lost. Can anyone here write or speak Dutch? :blind: I can't.
I'll throw in the link for the adventurous ones.

http://kitlv.pictura-dp.nl/index.ph...meline&ThemeID=16&title=1901-1950&rpp=12&cp=1

Really I think the clue here would be the correct name/names to use in the search bar. I've tried all of the common English ones. Going page by page equals over 25,000 photos.
For now that is the best I can do on that one Chris. Might have to go Artistic License on the questionable. :ernae:
Dave
 
dvslats,

Thanks!

That is a fascinating website! I think I have a handle on the search method. It seems that the search parameters are categorized in the same order/fashion as the image information window that opens when you pause your cursor on a thumbnail image. In particular the keywords work well. I found that entering petroleum as a keyword worked fine. Didn't come up with any pics of Boela, though. However, I did notice that a key word that shows up in some of the "petroleum" seach results images is the name of the company that ran the oil fields at Boela- the name escapes me at the moment- some Dutch name. So, when I get around to it I will run a search using that company's name as a key word.

Very cool web site.

I am putting the finishing touches on Ceram-Amahai and will soon turn my full attention to Ceram-Boela.

Cheers,
Chris

Ceram-Amahai
 
Hi Chris,

Here are some present day shots of Boela, Ceram, or Bula, Seram as it is now known. Unfortunately the original derricks appear to be long gone. They may be of some use regarding ground textures.

Kevin
 
Thanks very much Kevin!

Are these personal photos? If so is there a way for me to get larger versions of them- particularly the bottom image looking south at the jettys themselves with the town and hills behind them?

Thanks.
Chris
 
I just got these pictures from Google/Images. As you are probably aware, nothing much comes up when you type in the old Dutch spelling. When I used the modern Indonesian spelling, Bula, quite a lot of websites appeared. That last photo is the actual size. I could not find any old images.
 
I moderate another forum and a couple of my fellow mods are Dutch,one young man is very fluent in both English and Dutch so if you tell me exactly what you are looking for,I will see if he can find it for you.:USA-flag:
 
Hi safn1949, If you could, can you find out the wording for WW II or the long version World War II.
Thanks for this offer, Dave

BTW, that's a nice find on the jetties guys. :ernae:
 
Hi Fibber,

As far as I can discern the following are the three major Dutch companies that developed the oil resources in pre war Dutch East Indies:

Nederlandsche Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij

Nederlandsche Indische Aardolie Maatschappij

Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij

From what I can glean it was the third company, Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, that worked the Ceram-Boela oil fields.

Here is a link to a book preview- heavily digested- called Mining the Netherlands East Indies by Alex L. ter Braake. This info is on page 71 under the "Oil" section.

Chris

I haven't yet done any googling on these names. However I have made a dent on Boela/Bula. Got the coast line drawn in and a couple of rivers and the airfield location just "sketched" in. So far I have only done the stubs of the jettys. Still needs much work. Major LC rework needed. Fun!

Chris
 
MR;
Did you receive my message about a site where a member was a photographer for the RAAF and says he has many photos of the air raids he was on in that area? Look at the post I did of "RAAF WW2 photos".
 
dvslats said:
Hi safn1949, If you could, can you find out the wording for WW II or the long version World War II.
Thanks for this offer, Dave

BTW, that's a nice find on the jetties guys. :ernae:
Click to expand...
Tweede (2e) Wereldoorlog or WO2 is probably what they're looking for,says my friend.I hope this helps.
 
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