Maritime artist Captain Stephen J. Card has spent a total of 316 days aboard Rotterdam V. "Not all at once, of course," he says. "But over the years I cruised on her several times. I was hoping to add up to a year, but I didn't quite make it."

Card painted the portraits of Rotterdam V and her four predecessors, as well as of Rotterdam VI. The oil paintings hang in places of honor on the new ship.

As a former navigator, sea captain and harbormaster, Card is well qualified to capture on canvas the images of great ships. "My understanding of the sea and how ships operate has helped me to depict them accurately," he notes.

Card's technical proficiency, combined with his artistic prowess have made him one of the most highly regarded marine artist in the world. His paintings have been exhibited at the Mystic Maritime Gallery in Mystic, Connecticut and at the American Merchant Maritime Museum in New York City. He has also painted the ships portraits of Holland America's Statendam, Maasdam, Ryndam, Veendam, Zaandam, Volendam, Amsterdam, Prinsendam, Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, Westerdam, Noordam and is currently working for Eurodam.

"I come from a seafaring background," he explains. "My grandfather was in the Royal Navy, and most of the family was involved in some aspect of sailing. And I grew up in Bermuda, where you're never far from the ocean. I got to go on some of the ships when thay came into port. The first time I saw Rotterdam V was in May 1965. I was a little kid when she came into Bermuda and I got to go aboard. I was enthralled and never forgot that first impression."

Card became a navigator, then a ship's captain. "I came ashore to be a harbormaster in Bermuda in 1982." he says. "The idea of a career in art had never crossed my mind. But I'd always done a lot of sketching, and one day in 1984, I got a call from Nico van de Vorm. He was then the chairman of Holland America Line. He'd seen a painting I'd done of a ship, and asked me if I'd like to do portraits of the new Noordam and Nieuw Amsterdam. Now I'm a full time artist."

In Card's series aboard Rotterdam VI, he depicts Rotterdam I at sea and Rotterdam II sailing into the Verrazano Narrows passage at New York. Rotterdam III is shown in the English Channel by moonlight, and Rotterdam IV is arriving at Cowes Roads, Southampton. "I've painted Rotterdam IV with white hull," he reports. "For about a year, 1933-34, the ship was painted white, because she was to sail in the tropics." The story goes that the white hull was too difficult to keep clean, so the company repainted the ship the following year, but Card's painting captures an interesting moment in the ship's history.

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