The heavy timbers ofthe 16th-century Dutch East lndiaman replica
Batavia rise over a busy shipyard on the shore of the /Jsselmeer.
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An early 16th-century wreck under excavation in Flevoland.
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but to also revive shipbuilding skills in an environment that would provide job training for youth. By all accounts he has succeeded. From a very modest and uncertain beginning, the Batavia project has grown to attract 250,000 visitors per year, has a membership of 40,000, 150 volunteer docents who staff the adjoining museum, and has graduated l 00 of its 170 job placement trainees to date. To wander in Batavia's dark lower decks is to be overwhelmed by wood: the smell of it and the mass of it (all 80,000 cubic feet). Each of the heavy protruding knees was personally selected by Willem from grown timbers in Denmark. The bowsprit alone consumed 177 cubic feet of Danish larch and weighs 4.3 tons. My guide taps on the inner hull lining and beams: "It is twenty inches thick here!" The project has also kindled Vos's hoped-for revival of shipbuilding arts. An on-site ropemaking shed produces all the rope needed, and shipcarvers have produced 200-300 Renaissanceperiod carvings and statues for the vessel. What happens when the Batavia is completed in two years? "We build another vessel," says Batavia staffer Optie Beu rs. "What is happening here has tapped into Dutch national pride, what we call 'the orange feeling' (a reference to SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992
William of Orange). We will continue that." The next project proposed is a replica of the Zeven Provincien, the ship of the Netherlands' 17th-century naval hero Admiral Michie) de Ruyter. Under sail on the IJsselmeer on my third day, out of Lelystad and bound for the former island ofUrk, this Dutch feeling for the traditional took on a delightfully practical expression. There is barely a motor launch or speedboat in sight. Sailboats of all sizes surround us, a great many of them gaff-rigged vessels-from small leisure craft to large charter vessels. Conversions from freighters to charter vesselshavekeptmanyofthesebeautiful, blunt-ended, leeboard vessels afloat. Approaching Urk by sea, the centuries-old, steepled fishing village still appears separate from the now joining northern po Ider. Modem fishing vessels hem the harbor but ashore the narrow cobble streets lined with small brick fishermen's cottages retain an old-world charm. The kitchens of seafood restaurants scent the air with a salt and freshwater catch of sole, plaice, cod, haddock and other varieties. One of these buildings houses the Fishing Museum, where the mayor of Urk regaled us and treated our group to Urker fare: a toast of port and whole pickled herring.
For a thousand years the people ofU rk have fished, and this small museum gem records the transition in Urk's fishing techniques and vessels over the centuriesfrom single-masted "schokkers" to "botters" to modern steel cutters. It also recounts the dramatic Urker struggle to preserve lifeways threatened when the Zuider Zee became a Jake. Defying the odds, the resourceful U rkers went on to build one of the largest North Sea fishing fleets and make their town home to the second largest fish auction in Western Europe. Passage to Urk can be made from ports all over the IJ sselmeer. Kampen is a good starting point. This medieval town on the IJssel river was once the most important Hansa trading port, at a time when Amsterdam was a mere fishing village. Kampen has beautifully preserved its old merchant town character in both form and use. Storekeepers often occupy the same buildings as their predecessors of 500 years past. The town's riverfront is active today as the host to over 30 traditionalstyle charter vessels and residents here plan to soon build a Dutch cog replica to celebrate their Hanseatic history. The maritime finds ofFievoland are a small part of what can be discovered throughout the Netherlands. My trip was a short one, but enough to give a sense of how Dutch communities strive to allow the past to exist alongside a modem, purposeful present. It was good to feel the Dutch love for their country and history. Like the Urk fishermen who forged from their past a new future, the Dutch don ' t leave their roots behind. • Travel arranged courtesy of the Harrier Foundationand KIM-Roya/Dutch Airlines.
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