Shipmasters from the West Frisian Islands in Baltic Shipping, 1737–1800

Chapter 10 Shipmasters from the West Frisian Islands in Baltic Shipping, 1737–1800 Maarten Draper and Jerem van Duijl 1 Introduction The people of the West Frisian Islands, also known as the Dutch Wadden Islands, have a long and rich maritime past. Since their settlement on the islands, the inhabitants of Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog have turned to the sea for a living. In local historiography, it is traditionally stressed that most inhabitants had a tough life working in the agricultural sector, which was plagued all too often by coastal flooding and storms.1 Small- scale fishing was therefore an indispensable part of the local economy.2 Many of these farmers and fishermen also found part-time employment as seamen to add to their income; others were fully employed in the maritime sector.3 During the sixteenth century, the mariners of these islands facilitated and benefitted from the rise of Amsterdam as trade hub, and in the subsequent period, which is known as the ‘Dutch Golden Age’, the merchant marine of the West Frisian Islands thrived thanks to its connection to the vibrant metropolis on the banks of the Amstel.4 The West Frisian Islands were positioned con- veniently on important shipping routes connecting Amsterdam to the North Sea. The shipmasters from these islands profited from this advantage by pro- viding important services to the Dutch whaling industry and the Dutch Baltic trade, especially in the grain trade, commonly referred to as “the mother of all trades”.5 During the eighteenth century, the Dutch Republic lost its dominant position in international trade. Between 1737 and 1799, the total number of annual passages through the Sound increased from about 3,000 to about 9,500. Between 1,000 and 2,000 passages departed from or were destined to Amsterdam.6 In 1 Allan, Het eiland Ameland, 55–57; Schoorl, De convexe kustboog, 888–889. 2 Van Leunen, Terschelling en de visserij, 54; Vermeulen, Op zoek, 132. 3 Schoorl, De convexe kustboog, 1, 794. 4 Schoorl, De convexe kustboog, 1, 786; Dekker, “De Amelander walvisvaart,” 212. 5 Van Tielhof, The “mother of all trades”, 1–5. 6 Bang and Korst, Tabeller over skibsfart 1. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/9789004371781_012 Shipmasters from the West Frisian Islands 189 general, the number of ships arriving in Dutch ports and the size of the Dutch merchant fleet remained stable between 1700 and 1780.7 Consequently, the number of Dutch ships passing the Sound largely remained constant during the eighteenth century, whereas the share of ships from other countries increased.8 However, this relative but not absolute decline corresponds only to the Dutch Republic as a whole. The structure of Dutch Baltic trade changed. The traditional center of the trade, Amsterdam, lost its grip on Baltic trade, whereas other ports, such as Rotterdam, expanded their commercial relations with the Baltic region. In the eighteenth century, the Dutch Republic’s maritime trade and shipping were two separate but closely related sectors of the economy. Therefore, structural changes in Dutch Baltic trade had an impact on the supply of maritime transport services. Some places faced a period of relapsing Baltic shipping, while others flourished. For example, Lemmer and Dokkum, in the Dutch province of Friesland, succeeded in getting more involved in Baltic maritime transport.9 Jonathan Israel suggests that an actual decrease of Dutch maritime trade was camouflaged by increased activity of small ships from Friesland and the West Frisian Islands.10 This seems to be in contradiction with the declining number of passages of shipmasters from these islands through the Sound during the eighteenth century. In the opening decades of that century, shipmasters domiciled in Terschelling and Ameland made more than 100 passages annually. This number steadily declined, until nothing was left of their partici- pation in Baltic maritime transport at the end of the eighteenth century.11 In local historiography, the eighteenth century is described as a period of severe economic tribulations, mainly caused by the decline of the shipping sector.12 For example, the number of inhabitants of Terschelling dropped from about 2,650 in 1732, to about 2,000 in 1743, to approximately 1,800 at the end of the eighteenth century.13 The question then arises: What caused the decline of Baltic maritime transport of shipmasters from the West Frisian Islands during the eighteenth century? This article aims to give answers to this question by relating the specialization of shipmasters from the West Frisian Islands to structural 7 De Vries and Van der Woude, The first modern economy, 492. 8 Bang and Korst, Tabeller. 9 Faber, “Friesland,” 20. 10 Israel, The Dutch Republic, 1000. 11 Bang and Korst, Tabeller; Schoorl, De convexe kustboog, 1, 794. 12 Allan, Het eiland Ameland, 52–57. Vermeulen, Op zoek, 224. 13 Schoorl, De convexe kustboog, 1, 895..

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