I ran across this on your site while I was searching for info on my grandfather Willem van Rhijn.
Ship Yselhaven attacjed on june 6th 1941

This sounds alot like my grandfather from what I remember of his accounts. I also believe that was his birthday.

I was told that he was either on a ship or a sub and it was sunk, he somehow then made it to the USA and became a citizen. If this was him , he was my step grandfather. He married my grandmother and they were together until her death in the mid 70's. He lived until his death in the early 90's. I wish I would have asked more about his life. He did remain a merchant marine until his retirement. He was a hard working old world kind of guy. loved raw fish and fat sandwiches. woke up and started working every day very early until he had a stoke in about 1981-1982 ish. Any more info out there ? Thanks