 The ship on this photograph has a history that will be interesting for car-enthusiasts like us. On the funnel you can just about decipher the emblem of a blue bird. This blue bird was the emblem of the famous Campbell family who tried to break every speed record on land and water with their racing cars and racing boats. The ship was built in 1938 in Goole in the U.K. for Sir Malcolm Campbell, who wanted to use it to go treasure-hunting in the Cocos Islands in the Pacific (click here to find out why). Of course he christened his motor yacht “Blue Bird”, just like his racing cars. Sir Malcolm Campbell used to call his cars “The Flapper”, but in 1912 he adopted the name “Blue Bird”after seeing the stage play “ The Blue Bird” by Maurice Maeterlinck. However, the outbreak of the Second World War put an end to his plans, because in 1940 the “Blue Bird” was requisitioned by the Royal Navy to be used during the evacuation of the British troops from the beaches of Dunkirk. Later it was used for patrol duty along the Scottish and Irish coast. After the war the ship was returned to Sir Malcolm Campbell, but he died before he could fulfill his plans to sail to the Cocos Islands. The ship was then sold to Jean-Louis Renault, who kept it for 28 years. More owners followed, but the ship wasn’t getting better. In 1995 the present owner found the ship in Falmouth in the U.K. and had it restored to its original condition. After bringing it to the port of Rotterdam, he now uses “Blue Bird” for short sailing trips and parties. photo Rutger Booy February 21, 2004
 As a motorcar Hispano Suiza is of course world famous. Also its mascot, the flying stork is well known. Rather less known are the origins of this mascot. During World War I a French air hero, Georges Guynemer, who not only drove a Hispano Suiza, but also flew a Hispano powered, twin winged Spad, in which he achieved 53 victories. In 1917 he was reported missing after an air fight.
The mascot of his squadron was a Flying Stork and as a tribute to Georges Guynemer it graced all radiators of Hispano Suiza from 1918 on. In the port area of Dunkerque, in Northern France, a statue was erected for Georges Guynemer, with of course the mascot of the Flying Stork on it.
photo Rutger Booy
January 18, 2004
 among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
with weight and urgency
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city
Way back in 1919 the American poet William Carlos Williams wrote “The Great Figure”, after he had seen and heard a firetruck passing by from the window of Marsden Hartley's studio on Fifteenth Street. In his autobiography (1951) he later said: “I heard a great clatter of bells and the roar of a fire engine passing the end of the street down Ninth Avenue. I turned just in time to see a golden figure 5 on a red background flash by. The impression was so sudden and forceful that I took a piece of paper out of my pocket and wrote a short poem about it.”
In 1928 his friend Charles Demuth, inspired by this poem, painted “The Figure 5 in Gold” (oil on cardboard) in a style aptly called Precisionism. Clearly the streetlights, the red back of the truck and the engine company number 5 from the New York Fire Department can be seen on the painting. This painting now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who kindly gave permission to publish this picture.
This story was published as homage to the brave firemen of New York after the attack on September 11th 2001
September 11, 2003
 This week it will be 100 years ago that a Packard model F made a historic trip across the United States. Back in 1903 two gentlemen from Ohio, E.T. (Tom) Fetch and M.C. Krarup, drove their ton-and-a-half, single cylinder Packard across a country that had no roads, no bridges and don’t even think of gas stations or garages. Fetch and Krarup started their journey on June 20 from San Francisco Bay, where they reversed into the Pacific Ocean (only with the rear wheels) to baptize the car. From then on the Packard was known as “Old Pacific”. On the back of the car they carried two twenty-foot strips of heavy canvas, to serve as an improvised road. Almost two months later, on August 16, they arrived in New York after endless hours of being stuck in mud, bombarded by heavy rainfall and building bridges across impossible terrain. The lithograph by Angela Trotta Thomas shows Old Pacific somewhere along the route, its drivers trying to fix a broken wheel. This lithograph can be bought from The National Packard Museum in Ohio.
Litho by Angela Trotta Thomas
August 8, 2003
 Portugal is, among other things, famous for its tiles, known as azulejos. They adorn the inside and outside of many buildings in Portugal. Portuguese and Flemish artists began to produce tiles in Lisbon in the Sixteenth Century. Blue and yellow were the favourite colour combination and the tiles depicted mostly floral patterns or religious scenes. But over the years the tiles were modernised and were incorporated into commercial buildings and even used for advertising. Blue and white became the favourite colours.
Several years ago I visited the lovely town of Santarém in Portugal. Wandering through the streets I suddenly found a wonderful range of tiles on the outside the of the Fire Station in the centre of the town. There were several of them, each one depicting an important occasion in the history of the fire-fighters.
One of the firemen saw me making the picture and invited me inside. There they still had the original fire-engine, a Chevrolet of 1932 vintage. It was in a deplorable state, but he said they were going to restore it, together with a group of volunteers. Now, several years later, the car has been finished although it has been rebuilt to a later specification. But it does look beautiful.
photo Rutger Booy
November 28, 2002
This picture was supplied by Pedro Carvalho of the “Bombeiros Municipais de Santarém”
|
 Two years ago I was on holiday in Normandy in France and there I happened to drive past a very small village, St.-Christophe-Le-Jajolet. This little village has a small church devoted to Sint Christoffel, the patron saint of travellers and, of course, motorists. Every last Sunday of July and first Sunday of October a lot of motorists meet there to have their cars blessed by the vicar. On a wall inside the church are many plaques on which people thank Saint Christopher for protecting them.
But the most wonderful part of the church is the outside wall that has been decorated with several exceptional paintings. The most beautiful is of course the one on which Saint Christopher blesses an antique racing car. I don’t know if it’s a well known make or an "artist’s impression". The radiator emblem is a shield on which again Saint Christopher has been depicted. Unfortunately the paint of this true work of art is starting to disintegrate slowly, despite a glass plate that has been bolted in front of the painting. The glass and the dampness are also the cause of the ugly spots on the photograph.
photo Rutger Booy
October 27, 2002
Back in the fifties when I was a small boy, I used to go by tramway over the “Laan van Meerdervoort” in The Hague. Every time the carriages approached the “Suezkade” I pressed my nose to the window, because I knew that on the bridge was a statue with two beautiful automobiles on it.
It’s been a long time since I lived in The Hague, but I’ve never forgotten those toy cars, so not long ago I went back to The Hague to find out if the statue was still there. Indeed, it was!
I had no idea why the cars were a part of the statue, not even if they were known makes. However, they do go give an impression of momentum and speed. Maybe that was what the artist was trying to express. I was intrigued and with the name of the sculptor, that was chiselled on the base of the statue, I went to the “Rijksarchief voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie” (Netherlands Institute for art history) in The Hague. There I found a folder with information about the sculptor and this statue.
The mother with her two children depicts “Safety in Traffic”. The statue dates from 1937 and was made by the sculptor Dirk Wolbers. Obviously in 1937 safety was already an issue. Mothers, bringing their offspring to school, were urged not to cross the street too reckless. Traffic had already become too dangerous for that. And it shows in the faces of the two kids. The boy looks very tense. His whole attitude spells action. Within a few seconds - when mother gives the signal - he’ll rush to the other side of the street.
The attitude of the girl shows her fear. Afraid of the oncoming traffic she shrinks back and tries to find protection with her careful mother. The three of them are enclosed by the two automobiles that are the subject of this story and these very two automobiles received lots of criticism when the granite statue was placed on the bridge. It was argued that the cars were much too small compared with a real car and too big for a “Dinky Toy”.
 It was thought that the statue as a whole was all right, nobody would get excited about it, but on the other hand, nobody would be offended by it.
Among other works, Dirk Wolbers also made seven statues for the Town Hall of Rotterdam, but he became famous when he made a statue of Maria de la Queillerie, wife of Jan van Riebeeck, the first president of the South-African Republic. In 1954 this statue was presented to South-Africa by the Dutch government.
In 1957 Dirk Wolbers died a very poignant death. When crossing a busy intersection in Voorschoten, near The Hague, he failed to see an approaching lorry. He was hit and died from his injuries.
(Sources: an article from - probably - the “Haagse Courant” dated march 30, 1988 and a newspaper cutting dated September 29, 1937, from an unknown newspaper)
photos Rutger Booy
October 2002
 Whenever the combination of cars and music comes up, the obvious is to think of the fifties and sixties: Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and later Bruce Springsteen put their love for the automobile into song. But of course the motorcar has influenced songwriters for a much longer time, the first songs even date from the last years of the nineteenth century. When the first automobiles appeared on the still unpaved roads, people soon realized their importance, what they could do with it and of course what could go wrong. And so songwriters tried to find the words and lyrics to express the emotion they felt when seeing or perhaps even driving a motorcar. A nice example of such a song is ‘He’d have to get under - get out and get under (to fix up his automobile)’, composed in 1913 by Maurice Abrahams (music) and Grant Glarke and Edgar Leslie (words). Turn up your speakers! (used by kind permission of Don Ferguson). This song was recorded by many artists of which the most famous was Al Jolson.
A special note for older Dutch readers: if you think you recognize this song, you’re right. In the thirties it was translated in Dutch by Louis Davids who used it in the musical ‘Rooie Sien’ titled ‘Eruit en eronder’. It was also recorded by ‘Willeke Alberti in 1975 for the movie of the same name.
Of course a lot more of this kind of songs have been written during the early years. For those of you who want too know more, there’s a marvelous website that has a search engine for all kinds of older music. Type in what you’re looking for, for instance ‘automobiles’, ‘airplanes’, or ‘motorcycles’ or whatever you like.
(Permission to publish the picture of the sheet music was given by the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, Special Collections, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University)
October 11, 2002
 Today the Grand Prix of Italy will be held at the circuit of Monza. Without doubt Michael Schumacher has a big chance of winning this Grand Prix for the fourth time and many see him as the greatest racing driver of all times. But 70 years ago, during the Italian Grand Prix of 1932 a man appeared at the starting line, who also deserves a right to that title. Tazio Nuvolari, born in Mantua, that day accomplished a feat few people will be able to match. That Grand Prix he finished only third place but drove the whole race almost single-handed!
During the practice for the race Nuvolari, driving an Alfa Romeo P3, almost hit the 16-cylinder Maserati of Fagioli, who skidded in front of him. Whist trying to keep his car on the track, Nuvolari sprained his wrist. The pain didn’t stop him from starting on the day of the race. Nuvolari took the lead from the start but, as the pain increased, tried to rest his wrist by taking his hand from the steering wheel while driving with a speed of more than 200 kilometres per hour at the straight end. The pain must have been unbearable, a P3 steers a lot heavier than a Formula One car of today. During the last lap fate intervened, Nuvolari ran out of fuel but still managed to finish third place.
The stamp was issued in 1992 by the Italian Postal Service to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Nuvolari’s birthday in 1892. (stamp collection Rutger Booy)
September 13, 2002
|
|
Back in the fifties when I was a small boy, I used to go by tramway over the “Laan van Meerdervoort” in The Hague. Every time the carriages approached the “Suezkade” I pressed my nose to the window, because I knew that on the bridge was a statue with two beautiful automobiles on it.
A special note for older Dutch readers: if you think you recognize this song, 