THE KRAAK.
The “Kraak” is a strongly built boat, with no sheer, with full and rounded bow and stern, belonging to the smack group. This vessel, of the size of a small “hoy”, belongs to the region limited by the broken line Amsterdam, Naarden, Nigtevecht, Haarlem, Zaandam and Amsterdam, this last city being considered as its place of origin. This very old type of boat is already to be seen in the engravings of the beginning of the XVIIth century, but there they are called “Lichter”.
It is for this reason that WITSEN speaks of the “Amsterdamsche binnenlichters”, as being “een plomb gebouwd zonder zeil of mast overdekt met hooge ronde luiken” (a heavily built boat, without masts or sails, covered by high round hatches).
They were generally poled and had no masts; and carried a small deckhouse aft.
An engraving of a “lichter” of the XVIIth century, also bears this distich:
“Te lichten menich schip bequaem
Daar af voert dit schip zijnen naem.”
(The name of this boat comes to it because it is able to raise many another).
Later, larger “Lichters” were built, known as “Lichter” of Nigtevecht, Brouwershaven, Wieringen, etc.
All have the same massive form raised a little forward and aft. A few carry a “statie”. The waist of the boat is always straight. The larger size involved the necessity of a rig, and the “Lichters” so rigged were called “Kraken”, a name which has nothing in common with that of the Spanish caracks.
An engraving which shows a ferry-boat running between Amsterdam and Haarlem, gives an idea of the precursor of the “Kraak”. There must also be counted among the “Kraken”, the “IJker”, with a smooth hull, of which the more recent name undoubtedly designates the same kind of vessel. It is well again to remark that the old “Turfijker” has nothing to do with this “IJker”, with a smooth hull, which it resembles only in name.
At Haarlem, the “Kraak” is called “Haarlemmerpont”. This vessel is a little less bluff and the stern is less full.
The Netherlands, cut up by innumerable rivers and streams in every direction, have been, from the most distant times, the country “par excellence” of ferries and other vessels for carrying man and beast to and fro.