FISHING BOATS
Man has been given to fishing from the most remote times, even though in primitive ways. Hence fishing boats will also be seen to have existed from the earliest times; furthermore, as man thinks of his own maintenance first before dreaming of trade, fishing boats are older than merchant ships and it is perfectly natural to conclude that the latter issue from the former. So, the “Koggenschip” (cog) is nothing but a transformation of what will be called later an “Egmonder Pink” or better, a “Pink” of large size.
As fish were taken at the beginning only for local needs, the fishing boats were small. Distant expeditions were not undertaken, the preservation of fish being unknown in those days. Some old writers even maintain that the herring fishery only appeared at Zierikzee in the XIIth century (in 1163 according to WITSEN, p. 431). Hence it may be said that the beginnings of our ocean fisheries date only from the century mentioned. No great revolution took place until 1384, when Willem Beukelsz of Biervliet invented the salting and barrelling of herrings. This invention caused such a stir that, a hundred years after the death of Willem Beukelszoon, the Emperor Charles V still visited his tomb at Biervliet (1556).
Distant voyages became possible from this moment because the herring could be preserved. The first great herring net was made at Hoorn in 1416, and smooth planking for the boats made its appearance at Zierikzee, the centre of the herring fishery. A relation certainly exists between these two events. The packing of herring gave fishing such a start that a new commerce was the result which, in its turn, brought forth more and more numerous demands requiring a perpected plant.
THE “EGMONDER PINK”.
The old clinker built “Egmonder Pink”, formerly the largest fishing boat (35 feet long, 12 feet wide and 3 feet deep) became too small, just as soon as herring nets, constantly increasing in size and weight, began to come into use.