Pleasure boats or Yachts have been described so often and so many different types have been used as such that they could be passed by in silence. Let it suffice to mention the Tjotter, which is spread throughout Friesland, and the Friesch Bootje. The “Tjotter” is a full, short and broad craft of elegant lines and steady on the water. It has a great deal of sheer, is fore-and-aft rigged (bazaantuig) and is generally very well finished.
THE “LAADBAK” AND THE “ZOLDERSCHUIT”.
The Laadbak and the Zolderschuit are so well known that nothing more will be done than to refer to the drawings given of these two vessels.
THE “ONDERLEGGER”.
It is worth while to point out still another very serviceable boat which has always been much in use. It is the Onderlegger of which an engraving is given by WITSEN (p. 175) and which was used for heaving vessels down for repairs, for pulling piles out of the ground, for hoisting in masts, etc. It was 60 feet long, 16 feet broad, and 6½ feet deep and carried two capstans.
THE “BOVENLANDERS”.
The craft frequenting our upper rivers are called Bovenlanders. They are totally different from the types met with so far. They are all relatively long and narrow, flat-bottomed and draw but little water. It may be said, as a general rule, that the “Bovenlanders” appear where the tidal rivers end. They have been in existence since the most distant times although they are rarely ever seen in the engravings. If they were not often mentioned, it was doubtless because they were not considered as being worth a description, or, perhaps again, because they were not sufficiently known. WITSEN mentions only the following vessels (p. 170-171) of which he says textually:
“A) The Overlanders, which come to us from the Upper Rhine, are vessels with high sides, heavy and rather unfinished. Whole families live on them.