On October 25th, 2018 the re-tired senior surveyor, Jacques de Koning passed away due to heart failure.
Mr. de Koning senior started his career with James & Co, followed by Spedico in order to work for 17 years with Dammers van der Heide as Head of the Captains Room. Thereafter he started his successful carrier as an independent ship crewing and agency company. During 1984 he was requested to participate with the inspection program for Panama flagged vessels in the Netherlands and was praised by the Panama Government for his loyal continuation of the inspections during the Panama invasion late 1989. ‘The shipping companies shouldn’t become the victim of a political conflict’, he said.
Since then he became well connected with one of the principal architects of Panama’s modern maritime industry, Hugo Torrijos who oversaw the Panamanian Registry transforming the obscure register into one of the world’s largest open registries at the time.
Mr Jacob de Koning was respected in the maritime community for his way of surveying as he was always motivating the crew to continue their nautical study and to improve the standards on board. He was always full of ideas and enjoyed to brainstorm about various maritime topics.
Hubel Marine B.V. 