Home in a Near Gale. The Harbor, Oudeschild, Texel, North Holland, The Netherlands
Swept into the safe calm of the Harbor of Oudeschild, Texel, in a near gale of Beaufort 7, is 'Emmie', TX-10. She was built in 1977 and fitted out with a Scania Vablis engine in 1988. Prawn-fishing is in decline since the VIBEG agreement of 2012 (Fishing in Protected [Natural] Areas). Increasingly these sturdy ships are used in the tourist trade for excursions to sandbanks to view seals or for fishing demonstrations.
Texel and in particular the fishing village of Oudeschild has a glorious past in the maritime history of The Netherlands. The roadstead - anchorage possibilities - of Texel (from the south of the island of Vlieland to the south of Texel) - in the lee of the North Sea served as a safe haven for fleets setting out to the north - the Baltic or even Arctic seas - or to the south and to the Far East. Texel was a favorite anchorage, too, because its fresh water was so good. It had a high iron content and could be stored freshly for a very long time, even all the way to the Dutch East Indies or Brazil.
The 'Emmie' - a modern shrimper - has a length of about 41 metres. Amaziingly the Indiamen - the ships sailing to the Far East - of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC) at their very largest were less than 50 metres long. And yet they made those dangerous voyages providing on their return - if they returned - a fortune to cities such as Amsterdam. Just take a look at many of the seventeenth-century canal houses, 'palaces' indeed, of that city. Or visit the majestic East-India House, now part of the University. Wondrous stories have been told about that Dutch Seafaring Empire...
But I doubt that the holiday makers of the 'Emmie' had much time for those histories as they heavily rolled into Oudeschild harbor the other day!
Home in a Near Gale. The Harbor, Oudeschild, Texel, North Holland, The Netherlands
Swept into the safe calm of the Harbor of Oudeschild, Texel, in a near gale of Beaufort 7, is 'Emmie', TX-10. She was built in 1977 and fitted out with a Scania Vablis engine in 1988. Prawn-fishing is in decline since the VIBEG agreement of 2012 (Fishing in Protected [Natural] Areas). Increasingly these sturdy ships are used in the tourist trade for excursions to sandbanks to view seals or for fishing demonstrations.
Texel and in particular the fishing village of Oudeschild has a glorious past in the maritime history of The Netherlands. The roadstead - anchorage possibilities - of Texel (from the south of the island of Vlieland to the south of Texel) - in the lee of the North Sea served as a safe haven for fleets setting out to the north - the Baltic or even Arctic seas - or to the south and to the Far East. Texel was a favorite anchorage, too, because its fresh water was so good. It had a high iron content and could be stored freshly for a very long time, even all the way to the Dutch East Indies or Brazil.
The 'Emmie' - a modern shrimper - has a length of about 41 metres. Amaziingly the Indiamen - the ships sailing to the Far East - of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC) at their very largest were less than 50 metres long. And yet they made those dangerous voyages providing on their return - if they returned - a fortune to cities such as Amsterdam. Just take a look at many of the seventeenth-century canal houses, 'palaces' indeed, of that city. Or visit the majestic East-India House, now part of the University. Wondrous stories have been told about that Dutch Seafaring Empire...
But I doubt that the holiday makers of the 'Emmie' had much time for those histories as they heavily rolled into Oudeschild harbor the other day!