A few days ago it announced that an essay written by Ms Maria Henderson was chosen as the overall winner. The cruise line received more than 400 entries and the panel of judges apparently had quite an uphill task to choose the best one from all the excellent entries.

Contestants had to write about their own or a family member or friend’s experience during a Holland America cruise at any time during the nearly 140 years the company has been in existence.

The winning prize for Ms Henderson will be a cruise for two aboard the company’s Ms Rotterdam when it sets off on its celebratory journey between New York and Rotterdam on the 12th July this year.

The Executive Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Guest Programs for the cruise line, Richard Meadows, had this to say: “We were touched by how many wonderful and moving essays we received from people who were so greatly affected by Holland America Line and our historic crossings, Maria’s story was especially emotional with the many twists of fate she encountered.”

Ms Henderson’s essay tells the story of how she, her parents and her four sisters crossed the Atlantic in the Holland America Line cruise ship the SS Groote Beer in 1956. Her father wished to become an American citizen after U.S. soldiers freed him from the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945.

After that she and her family took part in many other Holland America Line cruises. During 2010, on board one of these cruises, she met an American who served in the same army that freed her father in 1945. On top of that she also met someone who was on the same epic journey she and her family undertook so many years ago in 1956!