Heinerika Hidderina Zeijlstra (1861-1893)
Heinerika Hidderina Zeijlstra (1861–1893) did not work in the maritime sector but she did accompany her husband, a merchant navy captain, for eighteen months on his voyages. She herself came from a maritime family as both her father Hein Hidde Zeijlstra and grandfather Foeke Hiddes Zeijlstra were captains in the merchant navy.
Zeijlstra married Mattheus Johannes Kimmerer (1862–1923) in 1891. Five months after their wedding, she boarded the clipper Nachtegaal when it set sail from Amsterdam.
The ship returned to the city on 23 May 1893. But without Heinerika Zeijlstra. She had died on board. To be precise, she passed away on 2 April 1893 in the South Atlantic Ocean at 7⁰2’S 15⁰27’W.
What happened? The ship’s log does not tell us much. She became sick on 1 April, coughing up blood and becoming rapidly weaker. She was dead the next day. She may have succumbed to acute stomach bleeding. Captain Kimmerer was overcome with grief at the loss of his wife. As he wrote in the death notice, “I suffered the most appalling blow in my life from the unexpected loss of my dearly beloved wife, after a most happy but unfortunately very brief marriage of 21 months.” He would never remarry.
