Memories of Wouter

7 January 2025

New Year’s Eve is a time to think back on things that have passed. We look back to the time when Wouter van Dusseldorp experienced his passion on the Egberdina.

Wouter and the Egberdina

Wouter was very attached to his Egberdina, a stevenaak built in 1882 in Kinderdijk. In the Zeilpost of 14 June 2018, he published an article from the Waterkampioen about the Helena, a bigger sister of Egberdina. The original article from the Waterkampioen could no longer be found by the editors. Can any of the readers perhaps help us? As a historical source, we did find an extensive article on Helena in Wikipedia.

Stevenaak Helena featured extensively in the Waterkampioen
14 June 2018

The Waterkampioen no. 6 of June features an extensive article on the stevenaak Helena. This vessel was built 1875 specifically for navigation on the Rhine. The 30-year-old German skipper Wilhelm Georg Fromm ordered it at Jonker’s yard in Kinderdijk. Now, at 143 years old, she is the oldest iron sailing barge in the Netherlands but she looks like she was newly built. A long restoration ensured that the old lady can last a long time again.
About 50 of this type of ship were built, all in Kinderdijk. In those days, the first steamboats sailed on the Rhine, but the stevenaak still mostly went ‘up’ sailing. Or pulled by horses. And she usually came back ‘steveling’: an old technique, moving the ship without sails or engine, depending on the principal that given time, a boat will soon move faster downstream than the river itself, allowing the skipper to steer it.
The origin of the stevenaak lay in the Samoureus (or Keulenaar) and the Dorstense aak. Both wooden sailing ships that also sailed on the Rhine. The stevenaken were the first iron riveted sailing ships.

In the 8-page article in the Waterkampioen, you will find lots of info on how they sailed on the Rhine, and on the history of the Helena. In 1978, it was offered to a wrecker. The latter did not get it over his heart to scrap the ship, and she ended up in private hands. Restoring the ship that way didn’t really work out either, until ship-restorer Bart Vermeer got his hands on the ship. By chance, he found the specification drawing of a sister ship in an old yard building owned by Jonker.
After that, the restoration took quite a while. It was beautifully fitted out as a day-trip ship. Today, the ship sails from Rotterdam under the flag of the Rotterdam Sailing Ship Foundation, which also manages the schooner Oosterschelde.
More info on the Helena can be found here.
There are still several stevenaken in service, mainly in charter shipping: Arbeid Adelt, Egberdina, La Bohème, Minerva, Tsjerk Hiddes, Victoria S and Aaltje Engelina. The stevenaak Antje recently lay restored in Den Helder’s museum harbour. Several still sail around as recreational vessels too, such as the Maria, Tijdloos, Geertje and Hooihandel 1.

Wouter published this story in the Marine Mail because he felt a close connection with the Egberdina and its history.
The original article in the Waterkampioen is not available digitally, but can be reviewed in the library of the Scheepvaartmuseum.

Wouter and the pondweed

Wouter hated the pondweed, which is remarkable because he had studied biology and was very concerned about nature. The pondweed increasingly hampered him and the rest of the charter boats, especially on the West shore of the Markermeer. The ecology of the Markermeer has been severely disturbed by all the reclamations (starting with the Afsluitdijk). The construction of the Markerwadden is a first large-scale attempt to restore the habitat, but it will not reverse the proliferation of pondweed. Despite his personal involvement and strong dislike, he continued to report journalistically in a factual and accurate manner.

With sailboat on excursion to pondweed
4 July 2018

An excursion to the pondweed can be made with the classic sailing ship the Egberdina next Sunday. It will be an informative trip, which, according to skipper Wouter van Dusseldorp, will give a good picture of the ecology of the Markermeer.
The Egberdina will have biologist Harm van der Geest on board on Sunday morning. He is doing specific research on the ecological functioning of the Markermeer with his department Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) at the University of Amsterdam.
There, pondweed is back in abundance at the moment. It causes a lot of inconvenience to recreational boating and is economically bad for Hoorn as a water sports city. But why is this pondweed there so massively these days? Why are the Marker Wadden being built and what do we want with the Markermeer? Van der Geest will shine his light on these questions, among others.
There will be room for discussion. The excursion is on Sunday morning 8 July from 9am to 12.30pm and costs 25 euros. Reservations are required: wouter@egberdina.nl or 06-51164509.

Read the entire article at source: NHD.

Wouter was, of course, just advertising this day trip with this publication, but the content was the issue very much off his chest. It was his initiative to invite Harm van der Geest for this.

Wouter and the future

The Schuttevaer interviewed Wouter in 2018 when he wanted to sell his Egberdina, among other things to get more time to write the Zeepost and Scheepspost. “I can also do that from Denmark or Scotland,” he concludes the interview. The article gives an insight into Wouter’s life and the plans, he was making. Unfortunately, he was only able to realise a small part of them.

Founder of news site Zeepost wants to write more
16 May 2018

Wouter van Dusseldorp has been a charter skipper for more than 30 years, including 20 years on the one-masted klipper barge Egberdina. He was also a board member of the BBZ and runs the news sites Zeepost and Scheepspost. Now he wants to sell the Egberdina to have more time to travel and write.
Wouter van Dusseldorp (1956) grew up in Friesland sailing on rafts, dinghies and Schakels. He became a sailing instructor at Watersport Twellegea and owned a tugboat with friends. After graduating as a biologist in 1984 and unable to find work, he was able to retrain as an ICT specialist, but he had not studied biology to sit inside.
In 1986, he bought the tjalk Goede Verwachting and started chartering with it. Aiming for day trips, Van Dusseldorp bought the Egberdina, built in 1882 as a pavilion-stevenaak, in 1996. ‘It is manageable. People leave in the evening and then I go home. I really like that. You can sometimes have a bad time with guests in the charter trade. Not that I have much experience with that, but then it is a tough job when you have a group for seven days.’

Read Heere Heeresma Jr’s in-depth interview in the paper or digital Schuttevaer, for Schuttevaer subscribers only.
Headline photo: © Heere Heeresma jr.