There should certainly be mentioned as part of the movable outfit, the drag nets used for catching herring, anchovy, sole and smelt. They are used in all the large fishing ports of the Zuiderzee. These nets are dragged between any two boats whatever.
Along the Frisian coast, fishing is carried on mainly with fixed apparatus; this is particularly the case to the North of Makkum. This way of fishing requires only small boats (24 to 30 traps per boat). Eel and herring traps are used for this purpose. It is probable also that the old Kubboot owes its name to a fishing instrument called “Kub”, a wicker basket shaped like a funnel, nearly closed at the lower end where, however, a small opening is left. Following this opening is a small silk net in which an opening allows the eels to pass which are piled up in the basket.
Fishing in the Zuiderzee is of a special sort because a large number of Zuiderzee fishermen frequent the North Sea while others devote themselves to fishing in the rivers; those who spend the entire year on the Zuiderzee itself, are the fewest in number. The first use large “Blazers”, “Schokkers” and “Botters”; the second take the “Gondels”, “Lemmeraken”, “Punters”, etc., and the last use “Kwakken”, “Kubbooten” and “Haringschuiten”.
Besides those just mentioned, there are a whole series of chance fishermen using all sorts of boats. Hence it is very difficult to give the exact number of boats in use for fishing and the figures in the above tables are only round totals in so far, at least, as they relate to the Zuiderzee.
THE “WATERSCHIP”.
The vessel called “Waterschip”, used for towing the Zeekameelen (a sort of floating dock) through the Pampus, has long been known. The “Waterschip” was, at the beginning, a simple Marken “Botter”. As has been seen already, the “Zeekameelen” date from 1691. They were built later with a stronger stem and sternpost and with a deckhouse abaft the mast. These vessels become thus still more separated from the old “Botters”.
The towing of the ships of the East India Company, which belonged at first to two private societies (the Big and the Little Societies), was granted by contract, subsequently to 1741, to the more important society which gave to its “Waterscheepjes”, as a distinguishing mark, a plate of tin fastened to the stem. This measure did not suffice, however, to keep off the competitors. It was ordered, in 1783, that the Admiralty arms should be painted on the sails of the accepted vessels, just as letters are painted on the sails of fishing boats at the present time.
Under the French domination, when navigation was reduced to a forced suspension, the “Waterschepen” went so to pieces that, in 1824, of the 18 which were still in existence, 6 were broken up. The remainder were sold in 1827, after the opening of the North Holland Canal. (LE COMTE, p. 38.)
These “Waterschepen” must not be confounded with those used for carrying sea water and of which a few engravings are reproduced in the collection. These boats, with scarcely an exception, belong to the group of “smacks”.