The naval dockyard at Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1828 as described by sir John Barrow

Barrow visited in 1828 with his family the Netherlands, departing London in the autumn of 1828. He was able to visit some of the navy dock yards in the Netherlands. His description is quite useful while strange enough it’s hard to find such descriptions even in Dutch literature!

P. 100: “One of our first visits was to the dock-yard situated at the southern extremity of the quay, on the island of Kattenburg. It was in the dusk of the evening, and the guard was already set; but the officer on guard very civilly volunteered to wait on the admiral, who ordered that we should be immediately admitted. It has the advantage of a magnificent basin communicating with the Ai [Ronald: he is meaning the IJ], at the upper end of which, arranged in a straight line, are five slips for building ships of the line, with a series of roofs over each slip, but united so as to form one continued build-

p. 101: ing. Adjoining these were four other slips, roofed over, for the largest class of frigates; and in other parts of the yard were twelve smaller slips, also roofed, for sloops, schuyts, and other small craft. The larger roofs had each a gallery round them within, just under the pitch of the roof. On inquiring for what purpose these galleries were made, we were told that the only use made of them was to accommodate spectators to view the launch of the ship. There was but one ship of the line building, the Jupiter, of seventy-four guns.(1) She had a round stern, and was nearly ready; there were also two forty-four-gun frigates, and two twenty-gun sloops. On observing to our conductor that it appeared they had adopted all our late improvements, both here and at Rotterdam - round sterns, diagonal braces, filling in between the timbers, &c., - he said they could not follow a better example; and on asking him if he had ever seen an English dock-yard, he said he had worked in Deptford yard for several years. There was very little timber in the yard. It is mostly received from the forests of Brabant and Flanders, and is brought to Amsterdam ready squared, and sometimes fashioned, by which a great expense of carriage is saved. What other stores they might have, we could not learn; but the person who went round with us supposed they might be sufficient to enable them to send a ship to sea of each class. It was, in fact, too late to go through the magazine or store-house, which is a magnificent building at the entrance of the yard. By carefully pacing along it, we concluded that it

p. 102: could not be less than three hundred by one hundred and eighty feet, but we afterwards found, in one of the guide-books, that its dimensions are two hundred and twenty by two hundred ; and it is six, if not seven, stories high. An inscription informs us that it was built in the year 1656, and completed ready for use in nine months. In a line at the upper end of the yard, and close behind the largest of the roofed tiers of slips, is a long range of buildings, kept in very neat order, consisting of the officers’houses, and the different offices and workshops of the several trades, among which we noticed the block-maker’s, the joiner’s, the carver’s, the blacksmith’s, the house-carpenter’s, and many others, the whole line occupying a space of not less than a quarter of a mile. The number of men employed was stated to be about one thousand five hundred of all denominations, and that all the labour of the yard was done by hand, and mostly by task and job. There appeared to be no great exertion on the part of those who were at work. We observed twenty two men employed, two and two, in carrying a plank on their shoulders, and they moved with it just as we see the convicts sauntering along in Portsmouth dock-yard. Some small craft were on the stocks ; and a very beautiful yacht, daubed over with gold and blue paint, and carved with no mean workmanship, had just been finished for the use of King William. The only ship of war afloat was a frigate lying in the basin, housed over in the same manner as we see our ships in ordinary.”

Sources

Sir John Barrow. A family tour through South Holland; up the Rhine, and acrosse the Netherlands, to Ostend. London, 1831.

G.J.A. Raven. De kroon op het anker, 175 jaar Koninklijke Marine. Amsterdam, 1988.

A.J. Vermeulen. De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1813-1964.

Jaarboek Koninklijke Marine 1877.

Gedenkboek Koninklijk Instituut voor de Marine te Willemsoord 1854-1929.

Note

1. Wood built. On stocks 1825, launched 1833, renamed Kortenaer 3 September 1844, became later guard ship at Willemsoord and training ship for midshipmen. Stricken 21 April 1879. Dimensions 54,1 (between perpendiculars) x 14,70 x 12,30m with the draught fore 6,46, aft 7,12m, displacement 3000 tons, sail area 2327m2, with a crew numbered 450-650 men. The condition of her hull was 1 October 1877 after an inspection considered as unfavourable