The Texel anchorage during the 16th century

Today's blogpost includes no photographs. Two reasons: the rainy and cloudy weather has kept us inside, reading, working and playing the piano (Lyn only!) for most of the day. And secondly, even if we had had pictures to share, the WiFi connection is now too slow to upload anything (the harbour is quite busy so lots of people sharing the connection). And there is no 3G signal from Vodafone here, just GPRS :-(.

But I don't really need pictures to tell about a bit of history:

In the 1600's, the time of the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the 'trading company' that ran the trade with the East Indian colonies, now Indonesia), the ships plying the route between Batavia (Jakarta) and the Netherlands would anchor right in front of the harbour where we are now (there was no harbour here in these days, ships generally anchored). Although there was a harbour in Amsterdam, it was difficult to reach because of the shallows in the Zuiderzee (now IJsselmeer) and often the ships would discharge their cargo into smaller vessels which could more easily reach the VOC towns around the Zuiderzee, not only Amsterdam but also Hoorn, Enkhuizen and others. Another important reason to choose the Texel anchorage was that water taken on from Texel would last (i.e. not spoil) for a long time, often until the ship reached the Cape of Good Hope where fresh water was available. The reason for the good water quality was the high iron content. So the Texel anchorage (Reede van Texel) was one of the most important 'harbours' in Europe in the 16th century. The dike between Oudeschild where we are and the ferry harbour 5 miles south of here is still called 'Reede'.

So far for a very small dose of history.

Tomorrow we plan to leave at 7am, take advantage of the last bit of the incoming tide to help us over the 'Bollen', through the 'Visjagersgaatje' to the Stevin locks at Den Oever. Then back on fresh, non-tidal water on the IJsselmeer to Medemblik. Hopefully we'll have at least good 3G there to upload some pictures of that trip!

Location:Haven,,The Netherlands