Dutch contribution to the rescue operation in Agadir, the 'city of death'
At the time of the earthquake, the Dutch naval task group ‘Smaldeel 1' was in the Mediterranean Sea for an exercise off Gibraltar, with the cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter (the flagship), the submarine hunters HNLMS Gelderland, HNLMS Drenthe and HNLMS Limburg, the frigate HNLMS De Bitter and the submarine HNLMS Zwaardvis.
Naval task group to Morocco
On Tuesday 1 March, these vessels were ordered to make haste to Morocco. Only HNLMS Zwaardvis had little to offer so did not go with the other ships. Crown Prince Moulai Hassan, who was in command of the aid effort in Agadir, asked task group commander, Commodore A.P. Ferwerda, to deploy his men in the Founti district of the stricken city, whereupon the task group staff formed working parties and medical teams. The remaining personnel took care of the food supplies to be distributed among the survivors.
Recovery of remains
For the most part, the working parties found only crushed bodies under the rubble in the city and the Dutch rescue workers could do little more than put the already decomposing bodies onto stretchers and take them to a collection point on the boulevard. There, the human remains were identified where possible and wrapped in blankets. They were later shovelled into mass graves by bulldozers.
Blood plasma and other relief supplies
After a while, hardly any more survivors were being found and so the rescue effort was abandoned, partly because "the risk to the rescue workers of deadly diseases outweighed the chance of rescuing victims from the rubble." The day after this decision, on Friday 5 March, the Dutch brought another 25 tonnes of foodstuffs to shore for the survivors. 2 Royal NL Air Force Dakotas also flew in 1.022 kg of blood plasma and 1.000 blankets for the stricken population. The US army also took care of what became known as the ‘burial of Agadir', evacuating the city before covering it with a layer of quicklime.