Op hoop van zegen

Summary

The sea gives and has made a rich man of Bos, the owner of a fishing fleet, a hard businessman with a haughty wife and a sympathetic daughter. Most of the men of the village are fishermen and it is the sea that provides them and their families with a living. The sea also takes away! Kniertje has lost her husband and brother at sea. Now she must take care not only of her youngest son, Barend, who hates the sea and dreams of becoming a musician, but also of her orphaned niece, Jo, who is pregnant and engaged to her eldest son, Geert. The pittance Knier earns as a charwoman in the Bos household does not go far. Geert was in the navy, but after a fight in an dance hall during which he struck his superior officer who had insulted Jo, he is now serving six months in prison. Clementine Bos, unlike her father, is kind hearted. She visits the poorest cottages and helps where she can. When Geert comes home, he realises that he and Barend must be the family breadwinners and forces his brother to sign the articles and, with him, become a member of the crew of the Op Hoop van Zegen, even though it is rumoured that the boat is unseaworthy. Simon, the ship's carpenter, has warned Bos, but in order to save his own job he signs a paper declaring that the boat is ready to go to sea. When Barend hears this he panics and runs away. Bos summons the police, who hunt Barend as if he was an escaped animal. When the terrified lad seeks refuge with his mother, she hands him over to the police. The Op Hoop van Zegen sets sial. On a stormy night, the fishermen's wives gather in Kniertje's cottage and relate their stories of what the sea has taken from them. Their premonition that the Op Hoop van Zegen will sink is confirmed when, in her father's office, Clementine answers the telephone and hears that Barend's body has been washed ashore. Clementine packs her belongings and leaves the house. The villagers blame Bos for the tragedy, but Kobus, the old man from the almshouse, says that no one but the sea is to blame. 'You women have lost husbands, sons and fiancés and Bos has lost his daughter.' A broken Bos takes hold of Kniertjes hand and realises how painful it is to lose a child.