The founder of Dutch ship-supply company Scama, William Mulder, has died aged 84.
The mechanical maintenance engineer had been suffering from lung cancer.
Often known as Bill to friends, Mulder died 12 days short of his 85th birthday in January, his son Peter told TradeWinds.
Scama supplied cooling systems to companies such as Norwegian tanker owner Stolt-Nielsen for decades.
Mulder began his career as a technical maintenance steward on various ships while sailing with companies like Stena Line.
He temporarily emigrated to Sweden, where he met his future wife and gained experience at a maintenance factory called Slottsmoellan, before returning to the Netherlands after seven years.
There he started work at a wharf named De Hoop, before founding Scama in 1969.
The company became well-known for both the manufacture and maintenance of air, lube oil and freshwater coolers and evaporators.
Revenues started to slide once electronically driven cooling units started to become more widespread, leaving the mechanical systems more and more obsolete.
The new equipment was designed for cooling both main and auxiliary engines to avoid loss of capacity while underway.
Peter Mulder told TradeWinds his father was “straightforward whenever doing business”.
“Committed to his task, precise, sympathetic and well-informed about anything relating to engines on board a ship,” he added. “He proved to be very ambitious and fascinated about ongoing developments within the maritime sector.”
Mulder decided to retire and sold off all his remaining buildings and machinery, living a “good pensioner’s life” for 15 years, his son said.
