The tendency, already noticed in the XVIIth and at the beginning of the XVIIIth century, to build larger and fuller vessels (VAN YK, p 348), became still more marked in the XIXth century. It is thus that the “Snijboonen” and “Sompen” are seen to increase in size and that birth is given to the Praam of which the size and load can be compared with those of the Hoy.
The “Pram” has retained, however, the slender bow and stern as also the characteristic line of the bends. (LE COMTE, p. 23.) All of these vessels have the “draai-over-boord” often accompanied with a poop deck. Hence these “Pramen” are totally separated from the vessels of the “Semaque” (hoy) group met with in Friesland and Groningen. They have nothing to do with the Groninger Aardappelpraam or with the Groninger Slijkpraam, or with the Friesche Praam which belong to the “Hoy” group. The name of Praam which is met with in Overijssel only at the end of the XVIIIth or beginning of the XIXth century is not purely Dutch. The Marquis DE TOLIN says, for example (p. 175), that Napoleon caused to be built for his Boulogne fleet a few “prams”, flat bottomed vessels, 37 m. long, 8 m. wide and drawing about 2.50 m. They were rigged with three masts and were armed with cannon. (DE BONNEFOUX and PARIS; Dictionnaire de Marine à Voiles, anno 1847, p. 59.) Twenty “Prams” of this kind are said to have been built. They had nothing in common, however, with our “Pramen” unless it were that both vessels were flat bottomed. The Marquis DE TOLIN describes the Dutch “Praam” in his book (p. 144); but this description lacks precision, because the “Overijsselsche” and “Friesche Pramen” are grouped together.
The “Friesche praam” (pram of Friesland) is merely a small hoy with rather slight sheer and provided with a “statie”; while the other is a flat bottomed vessel with “draai-over-boord” and never with a “statie”.
LE COMTE (p. 29) says that the first of these vessels were built only in the province of Drenthe, at Meppel and Hoogeveen, and he too groups the hoy with the “Friesche pram”. So he writes (p. 14), for example, that the “hoys” sometimes have movable washboards when they load above the gunwales, whereas this is especially characteristic of the “Friesche pramen”.
Meanwhile, the Pram is often spoken of in Holland, although no vessel bearing that name, or one resembling the Overijsselsche Praam, is found there. This name is used then to designate vessels in general.
The big “Overijsselsche Praam”, as it is known to-day, dates only from the second half of the XIXth century and its increase in size is due solely to the improvement of existing canals and to the opening to traffic of new navigable highways, nearly all dating from the same period. In this way, the “Drentsche Hoofdvaart” was only connected with Groningen by the construction of the Noord Willemsvaart in 1858-1862; (see Gedenkboek Koninklijk Instituut van Ingenieurs, p. 31). The Hoogeveensche vaart, dug in 1623 as an “Echtens nieuwe grift”, was only extended eastward and improved between 1850 and 1860 and the Meppelerdiep was improved only in 1860 and 1882.
The final junction of Friesland and Groningen by water is also of recent date; communication was had formerly only by sea. The inland communication between these provinces was still very primitive until the beginning of the XIXth century. It was only after 1851 that improvement was spoken of, and in 1864, the Gaarkeuken lock was rebuilt, at the boundary between the two provinces, with a width, of 6 metres and a neat length of 26 metres. The Stadskanaal, started in 1766 or 1767 was only finished in 1858.
It was also only in the XIXth century that the improvement of the junction between Overijssel and Friesland, accomplished by the removal of the high peat bogs, was begun, and the junction of the northern with the southern provinces of the Netherlands was brought about in 1820 by the opening of the “Willemsvaart” (which connects the Yssel with the Zwartewater). A water supply canal had really been built from Zwolle toward Yssel as far back as the XIVth century, and improvement of this canal, so as to make it navigable had really been begun in 1480, but the reciprocal jealousy of the cities of Yssel stopped these works. (Dr. H. BLINK, vol. II, p. 282.) Up to the first half of the XIXth century, water communications between the northern provinces were had under these conditions, by way of the Zuyder Zee, communications for which vessels of the hoy group were, at first used exclusively. The “Potten” and the “Pujen”, like the “Sompen” and “Peggen”, were unable to stand the high seas (WITSEN, p. 170.) and only the “Prams”, which appeared later, were able by reason of their size and strength to take the open sea, and soon to spread over all our country.