Bert Visser, the younger brother of crew member Bouke, came into contact with Cees Meeldijk by chance a year ago. He is from the Maritime Missing Research Foundation, which focuses on finding shipwrecks for relatives. Bert and Cees are interested in a search for the missing cutter, and Cees also informs Kelly.
“I thought it would be nice to record that whole process,” she says. “Normally I only write a story when the ship has been found. But there is so much more to it. It is much more than just diving to the point of wreckage somewhere at sea and identifying the ship.”
Twelve hours sailing from IJmuiden
This can also be seen in the documentary. Through conversations with relatives, exchanging information with Rijkswaterstaat and a dive into the National Archives, Cees arrives at a mysterious wreck point somewhere in the middle of the North Sea. Kelly went on the boat with the diving team last August, although she found it exciting. The place where the fishing vessel could be moored was twelve hours sailing, about seventy nautical miles from IJmuiden. In total they were at sea for three days.
When the divers went into the water at the spot Cees had found, it quickly became clear: it is the one. The missing fishing vessel was finally found after almost 54 years. It was very nice for everyone, including Kelly, that the cutter was found. “That was an exciting moment. It sometimes happens that such a huge search is launched and nothing is found. But we have indisputable proof: we have it clearly on the screen that it is the TX26 .”
Watch the trailer for the documentary below (text continues below the video)