THE “BOM”.

The vessels mentioned above are not, however, the only ones used for the herring fisheries. Another very remarkable type still in use is the “Bom”, a descendant of the “Egmonder Pink”. The “Bom”, built so that it can be allowed to ground, has, like the “Pink”, a very strong bottom and clinker built sides. Its length is double its beam. It carries two masts (a large and a small); the rig is fore and aft and long, narrow lee boards (about 1/3 as long as the vessel). The high tide lands the “Bommen” on the beach whence, after they had been raised by jacks and wooden rollers had been placed under them, horses drew them up on a wooden floor laid on the strand.

The creation of the “Bommenhaven” (harbor for “Bommen”) at Scheveningen makes grounding these craft unnecessary and, consequently, will cause them to disappear, because it is more advantageous to use “luggers”. There will be, therefore, no further reason for the existence of the “Bommen” and the port built for their use will cause their extinction.

This port has also led, already, to the construction of a few “Bommen” with keels, called Loggerbommen or Lelybommen which are intermediate between the “lugger” and the “Bom”. The first of these “Bommen” was launched in 1900, but it has not been imitated often as it is scarcely better than a “lugger”. It is clinker built and has the bow of the “Bom” with the stern of the “lugger”. The old and interesting “Bom” is no longer built; it will belong soon to history, like the “bush” and the “howker”, and with it will disappear the last vestige of the “cog”. Since 1896, the number of these vessels has been already reduced from 324 to 212.

Strength of the "Bomschuiten" Fleet, 1899 to 1905.
	1899	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905
Scheveningen	217	203	194	189	183	158	140
Katwijk	67	68	69	71	74	70	66
Noordwijk	15	15	15	10	10	10	5
Egmond	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
Haarlem (Ymuiden)	1	1	1	1	1	1	—
Maassluis	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Report on ocean fishing, 1905 (p. 149).	303	289	279	271	268	239	211