On Dutch Waterways. The cruise of the S.S. Atalanta on the rivers & canals of Holland & the North of Belgium

Chapter I

'AGE I. Introductory i II. III. IV. Across the North Sea to Ymuiden Ymuiden : the North Sea Canal Ymuiden to Amsterdam I 2 3 34 At Amsterdam V. 45 The Zuyder Zee and Hoorn Hoorn to Enkhuisen 63 VI. VII. VIII. 8o Enkhuisen 87 IX. The Island of Urk 98 SCHOKLAND AND KAMPEN X. n5 A Change of Route — Zwolle Urk again — Stavoren ... \26 XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. 134 147 Hindeloopen Medemblik Twisk . . . i6o I7i Texel Stream and Nieuwe DiEr 1 CONTENTS. PAGE 196 CHAPTER North Holland Canal, Alkmaar Purmerend to Haarlem XVII. XVIII. 209 Haarlem to Gouwsluis Boskoop to Gouda XIX 224 XX. 233 XXI. At Rotterdam 239 XXII. XXIII. XXIV. The Hague and Scheveningen Dort and Wemeldinge 248 257 To Antwerp 270 XXV XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. Antwerp and Termonde Termonde to Ghent 278 287 Ghent to Terneuzen and Flushing A Kermis at Souberg ... 306 3i5 XXIX.

XXX. Middleburg, Veere, and Zierickzee Flushing. The End of the Cruise 325 339 Appendix ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Entrance to Urk Harbour Sluices at Ymuiden Frontispiece 3i Zaandam 37 Group of Tjalks, Amsterdam At Amsterdam 53 5 5 Yacht Harbour, Amsterdam The Port of Hoorn 58 69 Hoorn Harbour Hoorn ... 74 93 Schuyt on Zuyder Zee Urk Islanders IOO 104 Urk Harbour Kampen Bridge Gate at Kampen Our Pilot io7 U9 I24 132 Stavoren 137 Stavoren Lock Hi Medemblik Harbour Medemblik i6i i63 Medemblik Church Farm at Twisk 1 66 173 Villa, Twisk .. U5 ILLUSTRATIONS. X PAGE Dogs and Cart ... ... ... ... 1S1 Tjalk on Canal ... ... ... 200 PURMEREND ... ... ... 20y, 2IO Spaarndam Lock ... ... ... 213 Mill at Haarlem ... ... ... 217 Haarlem ... ... ... ... 218 Gate at Haarlem ... ... ... 219 a^t Rotterdam ... ... ... 242 Mill at Rotterdam ... ... ... 246 Fishing Boats — Scheveningen ... ... 256 Dordrecht ... ... ... 259, 261 Group at Wemeldinge ... ... 268 On the Schelde ... ... ... ... 281 Sas Du Gand ... ... ... 307 Schuyts avT Sas Du Gand ... ... ... 308 aA.t Tern.euzen ... ... ... 309 Ships at Terneuzen .. ... ... 310 Souberg Village ... ... ... 318 Group at Souberg ... ... ... 319 mlddleburg town-hall ... ... 326 aA.T MlDDLEBURG ... ... ... ... 327 Quay at Middleburg ... ... ... 329 Veere Town-Hall ... ... ... 332 Town-Hall, Zierickzee ... ... 335 Water-Gate at Zierickzee ... ... ... 337 The Atalanta in Veere Lock ... ... WATERWAYS.

CHAPTER I.

introductory. ■ ssr-'JB-- TAKE it that pleasure-loving Englishmen jfe like to hear or read about the holiday jlifalJBFX'* eAxperiences of their countrymen. If a y^^^Bfe^ man possessed of any hobby rides it hard, |IP^"-:'-g|r and derives enjoyment from it, he is al- JSjjfcTB most sure of gaining a sympathetic audience. jR More particularly is this the case if the hobby fe is an out-of-door one — yachting, sporting, or natural history, leading a man into rural scenes, country life, or on sea, river, or lake. It matters not much whether the ground be new or old, or the subject-matter novel, or well-worn. Indeed, it is almost impossible to find new grounds for holiday exploration, or to do any thing that has not been done before. But this is no reason for keeping silence if one has an enjoyable holi day eAxperience to recount, and can tell one's tale with simplicity.

At all events, I myself thoroughly enjoy books so written and with such an object, and I have excellent reason for supposing that other men are simi larly constituted, since — if the personal allusion may be pardoned — I have written many books which have met with a friendly reception for no other reason, as far as I could see, than that they were simple records of very simple personal amusements. I therefore feel no great fear of condemnation for the intrusion of another holiday history upon the public, nor, after a recent snub, shall I offer any apology for the egoism which necessarily attends the relation in the first person singular of one's own doings. It may point a moral if I relate how this snub occurred. I had been requested by the editor of a high-class periodical to write an article upon a certain congenial subject which I was anxious to treat well.

So I said to myself, said I, I will condense into this article all the information I possess or can crib. I will polish up my sentences, round my periods, select my adjectives, and generally go in my level best for a superior style and a cultured article. So I did. But, alas ! my article was, after much kindly consideration, rejected, on the ground that there was too little personal incident, that I had destroyed my individuality, and that, to speak plainly, it was stale fish, and not fresh. Thus A PROJECTED CRUISE. 3 ended all my aspirations after a nobler and a better style, and I come back perforce to a recital of the doings of myself, my friends, and our good ship, and "I," "we," " my," and " ours : " must often be written. I shall not attempt to give any very valuable information, or essay any wise reflections, or do anything but give an account of the cruise of the good ship " Atalanta " on the waterways of Holland and the North of Belgium, during her hire by three friends bound on a well-earned holiday.

Now that foreign travel is so easy and cheap, few men, I think, attain the age of thirty-six without having been abroad, at all events, for a few days. That I was an exception is due partly to the exigencies of professional duties, and partly to an absorbing love for yachting and sailing, which confined me in my short holidays to home waters. But a year's ill-health necessitated a longer holiday and a greater change, and in casting about for a scheme which should have as little rail and hotel work, and as much water and change of scene as possible, I remembered an oft-projected cruise, talked over in winter evenings with kindred spirits, but abandoned when the summer's work interposed its difficulties. This was a cruise to that hollow land won from the waves by man's labour, and intersected by rivers and canals, and to which it was said our favourite Norfolk Broad district bore some resemblance on a small scale.

No country within easy reach of England is so foreign in its appearance, in its costumes, and in its manners. Its buildings are more quaint than those of most other countries. Its waterways are its chief highways, a matter of great interest to yachtsmen ; its past history is of ex treme interest, whether one looks to its physical struggle with the waves, or to its equally persistent and noble struggle against human tyranny. The saying that " God made the country, man made the town," is only partially true, even in the sense of the proverb, of a land where man has had to wrest the very land he lives on from the sea. As he built towns, so did he make his land, so did he gain a resting place for the sole of his foot. In the dry hollows— dry but by contrast — of this land, he lives, conscious all the while that he owes the safety of his house, his flocks and herds, and even his life, to the massive dykes which hold up the outer waters far above his head.

A very large portion ofthe country is out ofthe tourist route, and here the ancient, distinctive costumes are worn with as much pride as of yore, while the habits of the people are as primitive. There was thus every induce ment to cruise in one's own floating hotel on the water- HIRING A YACHT. 5 ways of such a distinctive land, and our subsequent experience proved the pleasant wisdom of our choice. It was not an easy thing, however, to obtain accurate information as to the best route to follow, the depth of water, size of locks, accessibility of interesting places, pilots, charts, and other matters necessary to be known. We found plenty of travelled friends who could tell us of the best hotels, or where they had badly cooked beef steaks, or where the best cas's chant ants were situate, but none who knew the waterways.

The few books published by prior voyagers were not much help, as they did not descend to small details. Indeed, the most in teresting of all — Havard's " Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee" — was rather misleading, through his exaggerated idea of the perils of his voyage in one of the local smacks or tjalks, than which no safer vessel for the purpose could possibly be. So we had pretty much to take our chance and trust to circumstances. In fact we sailed with a roving com mission, having simply a general idea of the direction we intended to take. The first thing to do was to get a suitable yacht. My first idea was to have one of our Norfolk pleasure wherries towed across. If this could be managed, it Would be difficult to find a more comfortable craft for the purpose. They have great accommodation, are of light draught, are easily managed, and sail faster and closer to the wind than any Dutch vessel can, I found that a tug could tow a wherry across to Flushing, in fair summer weather, in nine or ten hours, and as in the early summer the east-coast tugs are not busy, and, in fact, lie idle for days and weeks at a time, I imagined that they would be glad to undertake the job for say twenty pounds there and back ; but I have always found that yachtsmen are expected to pay heavily for their sport.

As a shore loafer at Harwich once told me, gentlemen ought not to go yachting unless they can afford to pay for it ; his idea of what I ought to pay being the modest sum of two pounds ten shillings for the loan of a rusty anchor, worth at the outside five shillings, for two days. He did not get it. So when I was asked the sum of forty-five pounds for towing a wherry across to Flushing and back, I gave up the scheme, and looked out for a steam yacht. None were to be had on the other side, therefore we had to have one big enough to cross the North Sea in, yet of li^ht draught to enable us to navigate the canals. The nearest approach to our requirements was the " Atalanta," of Lowestoft, a smart looking, nearly new vessel of some sixty feet in length, by ten feet beam, and drawing five feet of water.

THE ATALANTA. 7 The draught was a trifle too great for the smaller canals and rivers, and, as will afterwards appear, we were stopped on two occasions for want of water. A foot less draught would have taken us everywhere, but, on the other hand, the sea passage would be more risky, unless the launch were taken, say from Dover to Calais or Ostend, a voyage which a very small steam yacht would do in safety in fine and settled weather. The gross registered tonnage of the " Atalanta " was twenty-three tons, and at first, in the pride of our hearts, we proclaimed her as such, but when we found that the lock and other dues were calculated upon the tonnage, we sank our pride, and called her sixteen tons only, which was the net registered tonnage after deducting engineroom. The accommodation on board consisted of — forward, the forecastle, in which two of the crew slept, and which was also the cooking galley ; and the main saloon, twelve feet long, which was our dining and living room, and the bedroom of one of us at night.

The engine and boiler were of course amidships ; and aft of these were a lava tory, and a ladies' cabin, where two of us slept, and where the berths were a little too short for my length of limb ; and an after cabin, where the engineer and the pilot slept. There was good headroom everywhere, which was no end of a comfort. At the age of twenty I did not mind living and dressing in a cabin the size of a cupboard, but now my back is not so supple, and I like to stand upright while putting on my garments. I do not glory in the discomfort of roughing it in small yachts as I used to do, although I can still go through a good deal, provided the yacht is a sailing one. The only apologies for the lack of sport about a steam yacht are its speed and com fort. If it lacks either of these it is an atrocity.

It was a stipulation in our hire of the " Atalanta," that she was to be surveyed by the Board of Trade, and her machinery be approved of before we started, a test which she satisfactorily passed. This is a precaution which hirers of steam yachts "bound foreign" should always adopt. If anything happens to the machinery on an English cruise it is sufficiently vexatious, but abroad it is much more serious, and it would be a sorry ending to a holiday to be hung up for the greater part of it in some out-of-the-way place waiting for repairs. As I mean this book to be of some use to those who may follow in our footsteps, it is necessary to say that the cost of hire for a month was £^o, and that we had to pay insurance (which on ,£1,200, the value of the vessel, was £9 3s., the insurers always charging full rate on a hired boat, pre suming no doubt that a hirer does not take so much care of the vessel as if she were his own).

THE CREW. 9 Then we had to pay the wages of the men, which came to, weekly : skipper, 35s., engineer, 35s., and deck hand, 30s., the men finding themselves The pilots whom we had to engage from time to time cost us five shillings a day and their keep. We found it more convenient that the pilots should mess with the crew, to whom we allowed eighteenpence a day for their keep. Then there were some small items for oil and waste, harbour and lock dues, and of course the cost of our own keep, all of which, as it happened, we managed to estimate beforehand within a pound or two of the actual total. There was room on the "Atalanta" for four passengers ; three were easily found, but the fourth was not procured. Many a nice fellow would have liked to join us if considerations of cost or of time had not intervened, and as in a joint cruise like this it is absolutely necessary that each man should be thoroughly nice and obliging, we remained content with three — Blake, who by virtue of his having been at sea for some years was elected our captain ; Dendy, a brother professional, who by virtue of his linguistic attainments was appointed the interpreter ; and the writer, who had nothing to do but keep the log, take photographs, and look after the morals of the other two.

There are so many tourist photographers nowadays — c one sees the neat leather case and tripod on every rail way platform, and in every hotel— that it will interest many to hear what my outfit consisted of. My camera was the half-plate size, most useful to tourists, made by McKellen, and was a model of lightness and compactness, having side and vertical swings, rising front, reversing back, turntable for tripod top, and a tripod very light, rigid and portable. For lenses, I had a Dallmeyer's single landscape lens, a Ross's portable symmetrical, and a Ross's rapid symmetrical, the latter fitted with an instan taneous shutter by Sands and Hunter. In addition I took a cheaper form of camera as a duplicate apparatus in case of accident. For plates, I took twelve dozen special instantaneous ones in grooved boxes, half of which turned out to be very good, and the rest anything but good.

As a matter of course the best subjects were taken on the worst plates, to my subsequent grief when developing. This will be the place to explain that if any buildings out of the perpendicular are noticed in the illustrations to this book, it is not the fault of the artist, but ofthe buildings. It was the exception, not the rule, to find a perpendicular wall in that country of leaning towers and reeling houses. I took special care to keep my camera upright, and in cases where there were masts of vessels, it was best to take them as one's gau^e of uprightness. PROVISIONING. 11 The troublesome process of provisioning need not be described, as every man will please himself with regard to what he takes. We filled all our tanks with Lowestoft water, knowing that none so good would be procurable in Holland ; and we took an immense store of mineral waters which we need not have done, as these are better procurable abroad.

More particularly would I recommend the Minerva water, which was palatable enough to drink solus with meals, and was very cheap. Indeed, one day I washed in a bottle of it, the fresh water in our tanks beingat a low ebb.

Chapter II

across the north sea to ymuiden. N accordance with a superstition of mine, that it is lucky to start for a sea cruise on a t Sunday, we had fixed to start on the night I, of Sunday, the 23rd of May. We chose thus early in the season because of the fear (well founded, it afterwards appeared) that the canals being mostly stagnant, and receiving the drainage of the towns, would in their neighbourhoods, be odoriferous of anything but eau de Cologne ; also be cause there is generally a greater depth of water in the earlier months of the year. With the fine weather we were subsequently favoured with, the long days of June were undeniably the pleasantest time at which to take a holiday in Holland waterways ; but we find that an early vacation has this drawback, that it is over before the home year takes on its holiday aspect, and when August approaches, and the heat of confinement in offices in narrow streets is unendurable, when there are blue skies DIRTY WEATHER. 13 and cool breezes outside, one feels rather as if one had really had no holiday at all, and to want another one.

Local considerations apart, it is better to take one's rest towards the end of the summer than at the beginning. But it is too bad to grumble. Although I write these lines on a hot, close August evening (because I have promised to get this book done by a certain time, and the night is my only time for such pleasurable work), and although outside in my garden there is a comfortable hammock where I should otherwise be reclining, watching the stars come faintly out as the glow of the sunset fades, yet I must ply my pen cheerfully and gratefully, for I am well again. Yes, that undesirable feeling of ill health, which made life last year a burden for the first and only time, has gone, and in its place there is the buoyancy of one-and-twenty, and the strength of forty — in a word, my Dutch cruise has cured me.

But I must hark back to the start. As the time arrived, we anxiously regarded the weather, which for weeks had been in a most unsettled state. The glass had been going up and down " like a fiddler's elbow ; " cyclones had been roaming on the loose about Europe and in England ; and especially on the North Sea there had been very dirty weather, which seemed in no hurry to clear. Two or three days before the 23rd May, we WA TER WA YS. 14 were much in the dumps, for fairly fine weather was necessary for the crossing over to Ymuiden, 102 nautical miles over the turbulent North Sea. On the Saturday it was wild and stormy-looking, with the wind veering and backing half round the compass, and the spindrift clouds careering overhead across the sky at a great rate. "We may be hung up in Lowestoft harbour for a fortnight," said the skipper by way of consolation, as he looked at a heavy bank of clouds to windward, from which smaller pieces detached themselves to scud away on the wings of the wind.

" But the sea is fining down, and the nights have been much finer than the days," we replied ; " we shall get across to-morrow night;" and we went to look at the barometer, which, confound it ! was still falling. We really felt we should like to tamper with it, like the sexton, whose rector had commanded that the thermo meter in the church must on Sundays be maintained at a certain height, and found the easiest way to do so was to warm the thermometer, which thus contradicted the shiverings of the doubting parson. Sunday morning woke fine and still, with a calm sea, but hazy with symptoms of a fog, which kept us uneasy during morning service at Kirkley Church. We spent a lazy but somewhat fidgetty afternoon, loungiag on the yacht in the harbour. L O WE STO FT HARBOUR. 15 Lowestoft is an interesting place even on a quiet Sun day.

There is not overmuch quiet though, for there appear to be several detachments of the Salvation Army and Salvation Navy, which are powerful of lung and un melodious of song. Then friends passing along the pier would stop and deliver themselves of uncomfortable sen timents, such as, " You don't mean to say that you are going to risk your lives in that thing. She is too long and narrow : too fine in the bows : she rolls tremendously. I shall be awfully anxious about you. Send me a post card if [not when] you get there safely," and so on. About five o'clock, however, Dendy hove in sight on the shore, and soon he and his traps were on board, so I had someone to talk to. Blake, the captain, was to come by a train a few minutes before eight, and we were to start at nine sharp. Presently, while Dendy and I went ashore to tea, the engineer came on board and lit the fires, so that we had the satisfaction of seeing the "black pennant" hoisted, or, in plain English, the trail of smoke from the funnel which indicates the approach of " getting under way."

We were all ready, steam was up, the train had arrived, but there was no captain. A glance at the time table showed that the Sunday train started a little earlier than on week days, and it needed no great effort of imagina- WATERWAYS. 16 tion to picture Blake unconscious of this, and, as the fact was, sipping another glass of port, waiting for a train which had gone. The telegraph office was not open, so there was nothing to do but to wait in patience until shortly before eleven, when Blake and the skipper, who was also his private henchman, tumbled on board in a great hurry, and a towering rage with themselves. A loud whistle announced to the small crowd of friends on the fishing pier, who had kindly come to see us off", that we were at last about to start, the ropes were thrown off; the lifeboat jolly hoisted on the davits (the little one, which belonged to my own yacht, being already on board), and we glided gently out of the harbour, followed by shouts of good wishes and fatherly advice, on to the calm and gently heaving sea.

" The night is made for us," said the captain, " and it will keep fine until the morning," a remark which shows how easy it is to prophesy what one wishes to happen. We ran for a mile or so to the southward, and then crossed the sands as soon as there was depth enough. Then the course was set straight for Egmont, according to the deviation card showing the variation of the com pass due to the " Atalanta" being an iron ship. The log, a patent revolving machine, which marked on a dial the number of knots we ran, was thrown over- OFF TO SEA. 17 board, and towed at the end os twenty fathoms of line, and the cruise was fairly begun. The lights of Lowestoft town, doubled in the smooth sea, were the first to disappear, then the high and more powerful lights of the lighthouses, and we were out in the open sea with no light in sight save the still bright stars in the clear sky, and the swaying stars in the mirroring water.

There is an indefinable charm in being at sea on a fine night, intensified when the craft which bears one is a small one, which we now felt to the utmost, and disposing ourselves into the most comfortable attitudes, we prepared to enjoy it. The engineer in his hot den, and the man at the wheel, glancing from the bright circle of the binnacle to the circling darkness, were the only two workers, On either side of us our side lights threw faint red and green reflections on the water, and around us we could see at intervals red and green lights of some passing vessel, for we were now crossing the track of the coasting traders. Then as we got further out into the clearer and bluer water, it became strikingly phosphorescent. As the bows met and parted the swell, they seemed to be diving into a living translucent green, fairy like and unsupporting : then the surge on either side hurled over a mass of white shining crystals and brightly incandescent fountains, which melted together and joined the foaming, molten L> silver of the screw commotion, and subsided into a creamy glistening wake astern.

Then, as the breeze sprung up a little, and wavelets formed on the swell, they flung their sparkling crests into the night, so that the sea was tremu lous with light. Truly it was a lovely sight. Often as we have se^n it, it is ever new and magical. But I had not slept well the previous night, so I soon turned in and lay down in the little after cabin. But what horror was this ? That demon of a screw was whirring and thumping around, shaking the floor under your feet, and making the bed vibrate in a most uncom fortable fashion. Oh, confound that screw ! It is driving round in my own interior now, particularly when the yacht lifts her stern to the wave. Surely I am proof against sea-sickness. Neither a lively tossing nor a rolling calm has ever made me feel qualmish in a sailing yacht, but this screw !

Will it or will it not make me feel queer ? Is that a premonitory symptom, or is it not ? Is sea sickness really as bad as people say it is ? Shall I go on deck — shall I ? — but fortunately I fell asleep before my doubts were solved. But ere long I was rudely awakened by a violent jerk, and found that the yacht was heeling over like a sailino boat in a breeze, and on putting my head above the com panion, I found that the foresail and staysail were set to CROSSING THE NORTH SEA. 19 a smart breeze, which had sprung up, bringing a little sea with it, enough to make the yacht lively, and dance up and down a bit. There was also a driving rain, which, however, only made matters more exhilarating; so, putting on my oilies, I went on deck, where all the others were assembled, similarly clad, and holding on as best they might.

It was then between one and two o'clock, and having got beyond the coasting vessels, and not yet reached the North Sea fishing fleet, there was no light of any vessel in sight, and we were alone on the sea. After a time this grew monotonous and sleepy, so I went below again ; but hardly was I asleep when I heard a shrill long-sounding whistle, and felt that we were only going half speed. What's up now ? was the thought during the hurried scramble up the ladder. The answer was a disagreeable one. The wind was gone, the sea was calm, but there was a fog so dense that I could not see the funnel from the stern. Groping my way forward to the wheel, I met the forecabin lot, and learned from the crew that we had had rather a narrow shave. A large full-rigged ship had, without any warning or sound of fog horn, passed us so close that we could have flung a stone on to her stern.

She had loomed up " like a town," her sails towering above us being the first sign of her presence. As our funnel barely came up to her stern, she would have been an awkward thing to have come in collision with, and as long as the fog lasted we all of us kept a sharp look out, and the whistle was sounded with great regularity and power every few minutes. Our own lights, though burning brightly, looked no better than two dim-coloured moons from the short distance of our bows, and would be quite invisible thirty yards away. The fog, too, played strange tricks with our eyes. We would see a shape loom up, and ere one could cry, " a ship is on the starboard bow," it had disappeared. The bright phosphorescence of the surge at our bow, and the boil of the screw astern were dazzling to eyes straining to pierce the misty circle, which hemmed us in so closely all around.