Company Renames Ship Named for Convicted Nazi War Criminal

A Dutch and Swiss maritime company have had to change the name of one of their vessels after an uproar was caused by the realization the ship is named after a convicted war criminal.

The Guardian reports the ship was named the Pieter Schielte and belongs to the marine engineering firm Allseas Group. The ship was named after the father of the founder of Allseas, Edward Heerema.

The company initially resisted calls from Dutch and British Jewish groups to change the vessel's name, but after the furor increased and gained international attention, the company backed down and said they would change the name after all. A new name for the vessel has not been announced.

A major cause of the name change was the involvement of the Shell oil company. Shell has contracted Allseas to help dismantle an oil platform currently in the North Sea.

The groups that had agitated for the change and drawn attention to the ship's name celebrated the news and counted it as a victory.

The company said it never meant to insult anyone.

Pieter Schielte served in Nazi Germany's Waffen SS as an officer. The Waffen SS was a paramilitary group aligned with the Nazi Party that eventually involved to one of the largest components of the Nazi military. Even though he is a convicted war criminal and served with the Nazis, he is considered one of the pioneers in maritime engineering. He is also credited with making oil exploration in the dangerous and unpredictable North Sea feasible.

The vessel the Pieter Schielte is 1,565 feet long and weighs 403,342 tons. It registered in Panama and was launched in 2013. Its primary mission is the set up and break down of oil platforms and piping systems.