Just in time. Storm to New York

2 September 1942.

Me, the captain and some others were transferred to the Dutch SS Jan van Goyen. We had been picked up just in time: already in the afternoon winds became stronger and around midnight we found ourselfs in a full scale gale. We would almost certainly not have survived in the lifeboats.
On the 7th we made port in Halifax (Nova Scotia). We left the ship and were accommodated in a hotel awaiting new orders. The captain was taken to hospital for his injuries.
Third mate Jacob Visser

SS Widestone (1922) that took engineer Kik safely to New York, was to be torpedoed in her next convoy and sank with all hands. (Source: genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com)

The fourth engineer and I found ourselves on an old steamship called “Widestone”. The captain and officers were friendly enough but reserved as if they were somewhat embarrassed for the old steam rustbucket on which they sailed. True we could see that in peacetime this ship would have been scrapped long ago. Yet these people earned our respect. The ship was empty and the screw turned half in, half out of the water. The main bearing of the steam engine had so much slack that one could count every revolution on the bridge. The speed of the convoy was seven knots and we could only just keep up. They were stoking the furnace as if their lives depended on it. And of course this was true. Thick black smoke bellowed out of the funnel. The chief engineer was busy filling the grease pots which needed constant attention. Boy, oh boy! A real tramp steamer with a crew to match. The messroom and cabins were all decorated in a dark color, small portholes and very small globes. Sober meals in an even more sober environment. It seemed that on this ship, like ashore in England, everything was rationed.
We arrived in New York without any further difficulties in the first week of September 1942
Assistent engineer Adriaan Kik