Another cruise to Vlieland

Time for a more lighthearted message after all the serious subjects of the past months. We left the turbulent world for what it was and sailed to the isle of Vlieland once again.

After the rain and wind of the past months, a period of better weather was predicted for the second half of June. And certainly, after all the obligations of the first months of 2024, it was now time to take a break. We had cleaned our boat Manokwari earlier on and I had done a lot of work following battery trouble - they turned out to be life-expired. The boat now has a solar panel and two new batteries, a combination that appears to handle even the consumption of the fridge in warm weather.

On our way

We packed our luggage and groceries and stepped on board planning to go to the Wadden Sea, an area of mudflats and creeks inside the chain of islands in the north. As usual it takes some getting used to the small space and the unyielding mattresses, and the first nights were a bit cold. The day after stepping aboard we left for Kornwerderzand and Harlingen, against a weak northeast wind. Unfortunately that meant using the engine - this trip we had a lot of headwind.

sunset after a rainy day in Harlingen

In the lock near Kornwerderzand I heard a heart-rending squeaking emanating from the engine compartment, of which I soon found the cause: a stretched V-belt. Since we were to be in Harlingen for an extra day, I was able to remedy the problem. The weather was a bit wet that day... Unfortunately, the engine dynamo was stuck in its bolts and I had to buy extra tools to unstick it, but that was soon solved. A car materials store turned out to have a V-belt of the right size and the problem was a thing of the past.

route to Vlieland, Harlingen-Blauwe Slenk

route to Vlieland through the sea entrance

On Saturday we departed to Vlieland on the ebb. Unfortunately, there was another contrary wind: northwest, in rough wind against tide conditions. We were particularly bothered by conditions in the Blauwe Slenk (an important stretch of fairway that runs west, see chart #1), with a fairly stubborn sea slamming us about. We motored slowly with the tide, and soon it became quieter, although the wind had increased to a force 5. We set sail and went quietly with the tide into the sea entrance. 

image taken in the sea entrance on a previous trip to Vlieland

When you approach Vlieland, you always have to go around the uninhabited isle of Richel to open sea, where it can become pretty rough. Not this time, however, and soon we entered the channel along the beach towards the roadstead and the harbour.

Vlieland

The harbour turned out to be well filled up. It was unexpectedly busy, perhaps because of the nice weather, but nevertheless we found a good place somewhere in the back, where we'd stay for three days whilst the weather suddenly turned into summer. Those days were spent walking, cycling and thoroughly cleaning the deck, which was covered with detritus of spiders and birds. That is because our home port on the IJsselmeer is ridden with insects. Wild nature, we might say, or free-flying bird and spider food...

shooting exercise by NL air force

During a walk in our favorite nature reserve on the west side of the island, peace was disturbed by fighter-bombers having target practice on the Vliehors shooting range. This is suddenly busy with exercising activity due to all tension in the world and the noise is terrific. The peace dividend of past decades is apparently now gone after Putin's brutal assault on Ukraine, two years ago. If you want peace, prepare for war, as the saying goes.

fresh water pond on Vlieland

someone built a sand castle on the beach, complete with a moat

The walks on Vlieland also took us to a wooded area near the harbour where we had never been before. Here you will still find quiet forest trails with - in the increasing summer heat - the smell of resin from the pines. On the bike we also went further away on the island, finding quiet ponds in the dune area where water fowl rest.

The Witches' House

Not a place we visited, but the title of a book. Before we left I ordered a book from a fellow author in the Leiden region, to take with me as reading material. Jacqueline Zirkzee, another member of an author's association I am a member of, has several historical novels to her name. The Witches' House (regrettably still only available in Dutch as Het Heksenhuis) is about the witch hunt in Bamberg, Germany, which has cost the lives of hundreds of people suspected of witchcraft.

An accusation of witchcraft was the prelude to terrible persecution. Refusing to confess was seen as suspicious and led to torture, and confessing under the most terrible torment meant that the torture stopped, but still you were burned at the stake. The logic of this escapes us nowadays, but the witch hunters apparently saw it differently.

The author describes the chilling persecution not only with a great deal of historical accuracy, but she also manages to convey the sense of the uncertainty of people who directly or indirectly experienced the consequences of the witch hunt. The second part of the story is about the flight of the main characters to escape the witch hunters, and all the obstacles and dangers of traveling in the 17th century. It is a fascinating story that I could not put away - you are, as it were, immersed in the lives of ordinary people in times long past. Recommended if you understand Dutch.

She has one title in English, which is available as an e-book: The Book of Isolde, under her pseudonym J.J.Circe.

Homeward bound

At the start of the home journey I saw a small boat in the distance at the fairway approach buoy of Vlieland. On approach it turned out to be a small open boat with a single occupant. So I went to take a look, after all you are in the open sea. But soon it turned out to be a false alarm: it was a fisherman who had tied his boat with a line on the buoy (which is actually forbidden). He appreciated my coming to have a look and said he was was fine.

During the trip to Kornwerderzand we had to dodge the ferries to Vlieland and Terschelling. The boat to Terschelling now to my surprise is sailing once again through a narrow fairway that was totally silted up a few years ago. Things often change on the Wadden Sea, something I described in two of my earlier books: The Cargo and Two Fathoms Deep.

We sailed quite well on the route to Harlingen, but for the last part through the narrow fairway from Harlingen to Kornwerderzand I doused the sails. It is actually too narrow there and with the wind right astern you are constantly required to trim your sails, because the channel weaves around a bit, distracting your attention from the other shipping.

Kornwerderzand

After locking inside at Kornwerderzand we tied up to a jetty on the inside to spend the night. That has its advantages and disadvantages, because the dense vegetation behind the jetty is a breeding ground for tiny flies and midges, which are floating in thick clouds above the breakwater and also come on board. Moreover, it was very hot that day. Nevertheless, we spent the evening and night in peace, as the only vessel at the jetty. In the morning there was a cormorant on the concrete frame of the spare lock doors, which was extensively scratching and preening itself. Apparently it had unwanted stowaways in its feathers...

Manokwari tied up at Kornwerderzand

The last day trip home started quietly. There was a weak southwest wind, which we again motored straight into. Peacefully having your coffee on the water also has its advantages! I decided to change course west to the opposite shore 10 miles off, because the wind was forecast to increase and possibly veer west. This would offer us some lee and a course advantage (call it tactical sailing!). And the forecast was right: at some stage I could set sail, turning south an hour later. Shortly afterwards it really started to blow and I even had to reef down to keep the boat in hand. After a few hours our home port of Andijk came into view and we could find our berth again.

A Surinamese doctor during the Occupation

A Surinamese scientist in German-occupied Holland

Sources: Leiden University website and an article by Audry Wajwakana in De Ware Tijd.

A road, a school and the Medical Science Institute of Paramaribo were named after Professor Paul Christiaan Flu (1884-1945). His name and life story will not be familiar. He was a brilliant Surinamese scientist, who made great contributions to tropical medicine.

Mariska de Jong of the Ma Jong Foundation wants to change this. “Paul Flu was a great man, who we may have let inadvertently slip into obscurity. He deserves better,” she says to the Surinamese newspaper De Ware Tijd, and: “It has taken far too long before it was realised. In 2024 we find that the development of the water supply which he initiated hasn’t kept pace with the growth of the city of Paramaribo and its population. That’s a great pity.”

Paul Christiaan Flu, who came from a prosperous Surinamese family, in his sixteenth year attended Medical School in Paramaribo, and later when he was 22, received his doctor’s degree at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands before continuing his studies in Paris and Hamburg. Subsequently, he returned to his homeland, then the Colony of Suriname, for three years as its Medical Officer. He became head of the recently established Laboratory of Bacteriology and Pathology, where he himself conducted research and taught his profession. In those days he also researched the Surinamese populace which was plagued by tropical disease.

Paul Christiaan Flu

Doctor Flu was one of the organisers of an expedition to the Surinamese district of Groningen, where a clinic was established for people suffering of framboesia, a tropical infection that often results in raspberry-like skin ulcerations. The well educated Dr Flu had a hunch that this disease should be easily curable and tried an experimental treatment with salvarsan, a predecessor of antibiotics. Within three weeks, all his patients were cured and the clinic could close its doors.

In the towns, rubber plantations and gold mines of Suriname, living conditions for working people were extremely bad. Dominant and often lethal diseases at the time were yellow fever, malaria, bilharzia, filaria and leishmaniasis. Dr Flu quickly realised the solution went two ways: prevention and treatment.

Due to his knowledge of bacteria and parasites he knew the cause must be stagnant water, which was a source of many diseases contributing to the high death rate in Paramaribo. Dr Flu not only looked into medication, but also into the causes, and accordingly advised the Colonial authorities. One of his suggestions was to create a public water supply in Paramaribo, to enable the great number of open water cisterns to be removed from the contamination chain. Eventually it would take until 1933 before a mains water supply was created from the Para River to Paramaribo.

The ground breaking work of Dr Flu wasn’t just noted in Paramaribo, but also in the Netherlands. In 1911 he was knighted at age 27. Shortly afterwards he left for the (then) Netherlands Indies, to continue his work of tropical medicine there.

In 1921, the Leiden University recalled Dr Flu home, to become a lecturer in Tropical Medicine and the Director of the newly created Institute associated with the University. The peak of his career came in the second half of the 1930s. In 1936 he received a honorary doctorate from his ‘alma mater’, the University of Utrecht. Two years on, he was made the Rector of the University of Leiden, a function he would fill for a year, as was the custom in those days.

The war years 1940-1945

At the start of the German occupation of Holland in 1940, several colleagues of Professor Flu in Leiden openly refuted German meddling with the university. Well-known is Professor Cleveringa’s protest oration of November 1940, after his Jewish colleagues had been sacked. This didn’t leave Professor Flu unmoved, as can be read in his memoirs. The breaking point came in 1942, when the Law professor Roelof Kranenburg was sacked by the Germans. That caused 58 out of 93 of the professors in Leiden to resign, including Paul Flu.

Professor Flu and other prominent academicians were arrested and interned in the hostage camp of Sint-Michielsgestel. Flu was sent home after a while due to his weak health – just before the war he had contracted a progressive heart condition due to a laboratory accident. His freedom would be short-lived though, as he was arrested again in January 1944. Unknown to him was the fact that his son Dr Hans Flu, a young GP in Leiden, had just been foully shot by the German Sicherheitsdienst. At the time, Paul Flu was detained in the crowded Ortskommandantur in Leiden, with 34 other detainees before being carted off to the concentration camp at Vught in the south of the country.

Camp Vught

The reason for all this was the shooting by the Resistance of a Dutch collaborator in the centre of Leiden, the previous day. The Germans had the nasty habit of taking reprisals – they habitually shot three prominent Dutchmen in retaliation of every Nazi shot by the Resistance, and taking dozens of hostages.

Camp Vught

After a month, Professor Flu was released from Camp Vught and returned to Leiden. But more than the physical hardship he had to endure, Flu was broken by the death of his son. He became depressed and lost the will to live. About his time in Vught he wrote that the hardship he had endured left him completely indifferent. And after his release, he only lived for his grandchildren, who had lost their father.

On September 17th, 1945, the University of Leiden celebrated its re-opening. Paul Christiaan Flu probably couldn’t take part because he was too weak. Three months later he passed away, only 61 years old. The Academy may have survived the violence of the occupying forces, but had lost one of its most prominent scientists.

Posthumous honour

The story of Paul Flu deserves more attention, as he is an example to every student of the University. On Remembrance Day, May 4th 2024, he was remembered in the central Academy Hall of the University. One of the speakers was Gin Sanches, who has researched the life of Paul Flu.

It isn’t just Mariska de Jong and Gin Sanches who are trying to revive the memory of Paul Flu. There are historians such as Wilfred Lionarons, andover 10 years ago, Luciën Karg made a documentary film about the scientific achievement of Paul Flu, which can be seen on Youtube. 

Another historian, Eric Kastelein, together with the Directors of the Paramaribo University Hospital, in 2022 realised a memorial inscription next to the bust of Paul Flu in the entrance of the hospital. “There has already been done some preliminary work,” Mariska de Jong says. She adds that the Ma Jong Foundation and a local Surinamese foundation In Leiden have obtained permission from the descendants of Paul Flu to tell his story. She plans to do this together with other organisations in the Netherlands and in Suriname and calls upon everyone who can contribute to contact her to realise a great remembrance ceremony next year. “At any rate I am happy that the University has cooperated in allowing my colleague Gin Sanches to tell his story during Remembrance Day,” she says.

Recently she has set up a new training for funeral attendants in Suriname, where part of the training refers to cultural history of the country’s population. Recently her students were given an excursion to the University Hospital and the Medical Science Institute of Paramaribo to tell the story of the Surinamese professor who made such an impact upon tropical medicine. His name is only mentioned on a small plaque in the entrance of the Institute, but she feels it should be more prominent. “If we realise the contribution made to Leiden by Paul Flu, perhaps Leiden should do something for Suriname in return,” she says. Perhaps by creating a remembrance corner in the Institute, and an exchange program between the University of Leiden and the Medical Science Institute in Paramaribo.

Remembrance Day and the follow-up

May 4th is the Dutch Remembrance Day for WW2 victims. On that day we also honoured the memory of Paul Christiaan Flu, both in Leiden and in Paramaribo. I was privileged to attend the remembrance ceremony of Paul Flu at the University, and being present at laying a wreath in his honour at the War Memorial in central Leiden by Edwina Watson, another Surinamese friend.

laying a wreath

The next Saturday (May 11th) I gave a lecture about Paul Christiaan Flu and wartime Holland, speaking to a small company of mainly Surinamese people, most of whose forebears haven’t experienced WW2 and the German occupation. Here is a summary.

Until recently, like many Dutch people, I didn’t know the name of Paul Christiaan Flu. It was only due to my recent involvement with the Surinamese community, following publication of my latest book. Paul Flu and his son Hans were both victims of the German occupation between 1940 and 1945. During the war years there were only a few Surinamese in Holland. One of them was author Anton de Kom, who died in a concentration camp. But there were more Surinamese war victims, most of them servicemen or sailors who perished during enemy action. On the monument on the river bank in Paramaribo they are also honoured.

What is my connection with WW2 and the German occupation? I am the son of a Resistance man, Theo Polet, who at a young age started collecting intelligence which through a teacher at his school he passed on to the Allies. After he moved to Amsterdam in 1943, he joined the Resistance and experienced the horrors of the Occupation at close quarters: the persecution and the razzias claiming the lives of fellow Resistance men and also, some of his Jewish friends.

I took a leaf or two out of my father’s war diary to give the audience an idea what life was like in occupied Holland, putting the dismal fate of the Flu family into perspective. My father was a Resistance man concerned with subversive action against the Germans such as spying and sabotage. But he was very much opposed to the liquidation actions of some Resistance groups against prominent Nazis and collaborators, more so because they resulted in reprisals by the Nazis against innocent civilians. Reprisals that also made Paul Flu and his son Hans a victim.

A short story

Short stories aren't quite my thing, but some time ago I had a request for one. The Andijk marina, where I keep my boat, asked for a short story to put into their 2024 magazine. Since they sell quite a number of my books in their yachting shop, I could hardly refuse. Several of their people play a role in the (fictitious) tale. The story was translated into German as well, by someone who does the translation every year.

The IJsselmeer is the huge inland sea created by the sea barrier between the provinces of North Holland and Friesland. It is about 20 miles across and looks deceptively like a large lake, but in a wind, a short vicious four foot sea is whipped up in no time. Anything can happen in such conditions. It should be added that Jan and Bas, who work at the marina, are volunteers on the Andijk lifeboat, which isn't there for nothing.

***

 

A LEE SHORE

The man who walked his dog along the windsurfing beach on the western IJsselmeer shore, near the nature reserve between Andijk and Medemblik early on Saturday morning, saw a white and red object lying on the beach. It turned out to be a lifebuoy, an old-fashioned white and red one, a length of faded and frayed line attached, marked with the words Driftwood - Hindeloopen. Probably blown off a boat, he thought. He whistled to call his dog and didn’t pay further attention to it, until after returning home he turned on the news and heard that a small sailboat was missing with the name Driftwood, with Hindeloopen as its home port. He decided to retrieve the buoy and take to the nearby marina of Andijk. They might know what to do with it.

The harbour shop was open and Corine, who was busy unpacking the boxes with spares delivered the day before, took the buoy. ‘At the windsurfing beach? Funny there should be a buoy out there. It must have washed up last night, it has blown quite a bit. But thanks for the effort, I will ask our boys if they can shed any light upon it.’

Over coffee that morning she showed the buoy to Jan and Bas, the marina attendants. ‘A passer-by brought this in. He said he found it at the windsurfing beach.’

the picturesque little town of Hindeloopen, Friesland

 

They were yawning a bit, bleary-eyed after the lifeboat call the previous night. They had been out until well after midnight following a sailboat being reported missing, together with the Hindeloopen and Enkhuizen lifeboats. ‘Driftwood? I think it must be off that boat we searched for,’ Jan said. ‘They sent a helicopter this morning to take another look, but because of the rain they can't see much now.’ 

The missing boat had set off the previous afternoon in good weather, an old red daysailer about six or seven metres in length. By evening the northeast wind had increased to a force six, followed by rain showers from the south. The owner of the boat had not come home. He did not answer his phone and being worried, his wife had called the harbourmaster in Hindeloopen. The harbourmaster finally called in the Coast Guard, who alarmed the lifeboat service. The lifeboats had been searching in the rain all evening, and finally after dark had continued using radar and searchlights, but to no avail.

The rain drew away during the day. A weak sun came out and the search was continued with the helicopter, but still without any luck. The boat was and remained missing. On VHF channel 1, all pleasure craft were asked to look for red wreckage, or perhaps a mast protruding from the water. 

rough conditions on the IJsselmeer

 

That afternoon, children walked to the watch tower over the muddy forest path skirting the nature reserve next to the windsurfing beach. Half hidden between the trees across the shallow creek next to the path something red was visible. Something was pointing up from the bushes that looked like a mast with white tatters attached.

Shortly afterwards, the harbour office was called by the police asking if they were missing a boat. A red wreck had been spotted in the bird reserve next to the windsurfing beach, but they could not reach it.

‘A red wreck?’ asked Carola, the manager, who took the call from the police. ‘Last night a red boat went missing from Hindeloopen, but that is faraway across the water, twenty miles from here. I will ask our people to take a look.’ She called Bas, who was busy with the crane, launching a boat. ‘Bas, the police called saying that a red boat was sighted in the nature reserve next to the windsurfing beach. Is there a red boat missing from the harbour?’

‘I think everyone is accounted for. A red boat, you said? Maybe it's that boat we searched for yesterday.’

‘Isn't that miles away in Friesland? But you can never know, and the boat seems to have quite a bit of damage. The police can't get there. Can you take a look, because it doesn't belong there anyway.’

‘Is there nobody on board?’

‘They didn't think so.’ 

The windsurfing beach and approximate position of the wreck in the nature reserve. The marina is about a mile away to the southeast. Photo edited from a source on the marina website.

 

Bas and Jan took the harbour launch and motored past the windsurfing beach to the nature reserve. With some difficulty they crossed the shallows partly blocking the entrance, and after some cruising back and forth among the loudly protesting geese, they found a red boat with torn sails entangled in the branches of the willows standing halfway in the water there. On the stern was the name Driftwood. The cabin entrance was open and inside they saw a man lying on his stomach, on the cabin floor.

They looked at each other hollow-eyed. ‘That doesn't look good.’

‘I will bring the boat alongside so you can step on board.’

Jan stepped into the gangway of the damaged boat and dived inside. He checked the man and felt a weak pulse. He was unconscious and icy cold to the touch, apparently hypothermic. He put his head out the companionway. ‘Bas, he is still alive. Will you call 112 for an ambulance at the windsurfing beach? Then we will see if we can get him out.’

After the phone call, Bas tied up the boat alongside and got on board. Apart from a bad head wound, the man seemed to have no other injuries, so joining forces they turned him on his back and moved him outside to the cockpit floor. They had quite a job to lift him from there into the launch, but in the end they succeeded and took the patient to the windsurfing beach, where the police and an ambulance were waiting. 

the 'Vooroever' nature reserve seen from the IJsselmeer

 

Two weeks later a tall lean man with a bandage around his head appeared in the harbour shop, with a bunch of flowers and a large cream cake. He was the owner of the boat that had been found in the nature reserve, and now had been salvaged and put on shore behind the harbour office.

Over coffee, he told that he had been caught by the strong wind and received a blow from the boom while reefing the mainsail. He could not explain how he had ended up in the nature reserve on the lee shore, right across a twenty mile stretch of open water. Apparently the boat had found its own way in the darkness. The centreboard must have been pushed up, allowing the boat to be set over the shallows and finish up between the trees lining the creek.

Remarkable things can happen on the IJsselmeer.

Ted Polet 2023

 

 

A different angle on Beverwijk

A remarkable walk through Beverwijk

Beverwijk is an historic town near the Dutch coast, just to the north of the present-day canal linking Amsterdam to the sea at IJmuiden.

 

On April 13, 2024, a town excursion took place in Beverwijk, starting from the 14th Century Great Church past various historical places, ending at the Kennemerland Museum. In the Great Church there are several mourning boards and funerary chapels of families associated with the colonial past, as explained by Jan Kramer, who investigated the history of the church. Wim Goedegebuur then played the 18th Century Müller organ, which was donated by Anna Elisabeth Geelvinck, owner of the Scheybeek country estate and three plantations in Suriname.

the 14th Century Great Church of Beverwijk

From the Great Church we walked past the Lutheran church De Swaen, led by local historian Fred Schweitzer and Jan Kramer. In 1771-1778 this address was owned by Susanne Lespinasse, the patroness of Susanna Dumion (1713-1818), a Surinamese woman who was later freed from slavery by her owner, and died at the respectable age of 105 years! Her grave was recently rediscovered by Mariska de Jong in Haarlem. Susanne and her housekeeper Susanna undoubtedly spent the summers in Beverwijk during this period. 

We then visited the locations of long-gone houses where Claes van IJperen used to live, a man who played a part in the start of the Dutch slave trade. We continued past the country houses of Akerendam, Scheybeek and Duijnwijk, all of which have a colonial background and were owned by families associated with slavery. Jan Lapro, the last owner of Duijnwijk, returned to the Netherlands with three 'slave girls' from the East Indies, who had been given him by a local sultan. He gave the ladies their freedom at the notary before sending them home by ship. Evidently that was also possible at that time!

the Scheybeek mansion

At the Kennemerland Museum, who were so kind to provide us with a location for the afternoon programme, we were offered lunch by Mariska de Jong. Next, Fred Schweitzer and I each gave a lecture. Fred mainly focused on a city map from the 17th century with detailed information about Beverwijk and some well-known inhabitants, following which I spoke of the relationship of Beverwijk with the slave trade and Surinamese slavery. Finally, the guests made a tour of the museum and the exhibition of the Surinamese Maroon culture, opened one week previously.

A summary of my lecture is below.

Beverwijk and its slavery past

Surinamese and Caribbean slavery was a system of human exploitation on an industrial scale: in Suriname alone it affected 220,000 people over a period of 200 years. The slave owners were a numerical minority and did not view those people as persons, but merely as a means of production. On the plantations, the victims were literally worked to death, having an average life expectancy of 8 years. 

Nowadays we look with horror at the unabashed drive for profit of those days, at the cost of thousands of unfortunates. The astonishing thing is its occurrence during the Enlightenment, in which humankind, reason and civilization became mainstream thinking.

Fort Elmina, conquered by the Dutch after Claes van IJperen had tipped off the Dutch authorities that it was weakly defended by the Portuguese. This became a major centre of the slave trade.

Beverwijk was more connected with slavery than you might think. During the 17th and 18th centuries, many rich country estates around Beverwijk were owned by Amsterdam families with interests in slavery. And here are some other examples:

Claes van IJperen, before he became mayor of Beverwijk, was the Director General of the Gold Coast for the West India Company, and closely involved in the start of the Dutch slave trade in 1637.

A young man named Gerrit Pater left Beverwijk for Suriname in 1705. In 1710 he married a planter’s daughter, who possibly brought him a starting capital. He died in 1744 as a colonial magistrate, owning three plantations. He was the richest man in the colony and half of Suriname was in his debt, which says something of the spending habits of the planters...

Surinamese plantations owned by Gerrit Pater

The connection between Amsterdam and Beverwijk

The stench of the rich city of Amsterdam must have been unbearable, especially in the summer heat, because at the time, the pretty canals we admire nowadays were open sewers. Compared to the city, in those days the tidal headwaters of the Wijkermeer were an idyllic place out in the country. So in summer, the rich town residents sought refuge in their mansions situated between the dunes and the Wijkermeer. 

The deep tidal inlet from the Zuyderzee, with the Wijkermeer as its headwaters and Amsterdam at its mouth.

 

Wijkermeer, painting by Solomon Ruysdael showing the tower of the Great Church of Beverwijk in the distance.

Originally, Amsterdam wealth came from European trade such as iron, timber and grain carried from the Baltic, Scottish wool traded against Dutch roof pantiles, and salt carried in from Portugal. Only decades later the colonial trade of the Dutch East India Company and the West India Company played their respective parts. Much later still in the 17th century, the Society of Suriname was founded.

Let us have a look at the latter two.

The West India Company (1621)

The WIC was founded in 1621, authorised by the States General and financed by public and private capital. The WIC was intended to give the Spanish and Portuguese colonies a headache by privateering - legalised piracy by ships manned by the Company and Dutch soldiers. And as early as 1623 the WIC investigated the slave trade from Angola, following the Portuguese example. In 1630 the WIC conquered Portuguese Brazil, which was a Dutch colony until 1654. In 1637 the WIC took the West African fort São Jorge da Mina from the Portuguese, in which Claes van IJperen from Beverwijk, then Director-General of the Gold Coast for the WIC, played a leading role.

After the Peace of Münster of 1648, the end of the 80 Years’ War with Spain, privateering comes to an end. The WIC’s attention then shifts to the trade in colonial products and the slave trade to the Americas. They have contracts with slave traders in the West Indies. In 1674 the WIC goes bankrupt, but it makes a restart. Gradually it will play a role in governing the new colony of Suriname in addition to Curaçao and other islands, and later the Company becomes a shareholder in the Society of Suriname.

The Society of Suriname (1683)

The Society was founded in 1683, with the WIC, the city of Amsterdam and Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck as shareholders. The latter is an adventurer, a former soldier and a real battleaxe, who buys his share with money borrowed in Amsterdam. The Society is a colonial exploitation company charged with the administration and defense of the Colony. Suriname supplies must be routed through Amsterdam, an awkward regulation inspired by the import and export dues levied by the city.

Many members of the Amsterdam elite were directors of the Suriname Society with secondary interests in plantations. 

the 18th Century Mariënbosch plantation house, Suriname

Mansions and rich families

During the 17th and 18th centuries, many of the rich country estates on the shores of the Wijkermeer were owned by Amsterdam families with colonial interests. I will mention a few of their names: Bicker, Geelvinck, Boreel, Coymans, Pels, Trip and Sautijn. Those families formed a restricted clan, many of whom had lucrative colonial board positions. The estates also often changed ownership within their own "bubble" through inheritance, intermarriage and mutual sales.

The Scheybeek estate was the property of members of the rich Geelvinck family for a long time. They already were involved with the WIC in 1621. Over a century later, Anna Elisabeth Geelvinck was the owner of Scheybeek for almost 20 years. She had inherited the Surinamese plantations Boxel, Het Yland and Sinabo & Gelre from her husband Lucas Pels. The beautiful Müller organ of the Great Church of Beverwijk was donated by Anna Elisabeth Geelvinck. 

Surinamese plantations owned by Anna Elisabeth Geelvinck

Over the years, we also see well-known family names as owners of the Akerendam mansion, each with important colonial connections: Bicker, Geelvinck, Pels, Boreel and Sautijn.

The original Westerhout country house was built around 1627 by Balthasar Coymans (1555-1634). The Coymans family has a long history of slave trade. Marriage and inheritance created relationships with the Boreel and Geelvinck families, both with interests in the WIC and the Suriname Society.

Let's look at the Coymans family.

The Coymans family

Balthasar Coymans II, together with his brother Joan Coymans (who both died in 1657) extended the scope of the Coymans trading house originally founded by their father Balthasar I (1555-1634). They originally traded gold, Swedish iron, pitch, linen and spices. Their cousin Isaac Coymans (1622-1673) was Chief Merchant at Elmina for a while and actively involved in the slave trade from about 1653. 

Soon, the Coymans company acted as brokers in the slave trade via Curaçao. Their Cádiz (Spain) branch contracted the WIC as a supplier, because the Spaniards were not allowed to trade in Africa as a result of the Tordesillas treaty of 1494, which divided the world between Spain and Portugal. 

funerary board dedicated to Balthasar Coymans II, a slave trader buried in the Great Church of Beverwijk

Sophia Trip, the widow of Joan Coymans and sister-in-law to Balthasar II, led the commercial empire between 1657 and 1670. Her sons Balthasar III and Jan then took over. Isabella Coymans (1647-1705), owner of the Westerhout estate and married to Jacob Boreel, was their cousin.

Old money and investors

Many country estates on the Wijkermeer were originally established before 1650 with capital earned from European trade. Only later in the 17th century did the slave trade and the plantation economy enter the picture. The later owners of those country estates were often connected with the WIC and the Suriname Society, and thus earned a percentage of the slave trade returns. They developed the country houses and their associated gardens with funds, the origin of which is doubtful. 

Location of 17th Century mansions along the shore of the Wijkermeer. The hazy contours show how this expanse of water had shrunk by 1850.

Around 1750 so-called negotiations were created, investment funds from which the Surinamese planters could negotiate loans. Those planters borrowed crazily to pay for their extravagant lifestyle. Due to these negotiations, the money flow became less transparent, which raises questions about their investors. How much did they know about the human exploitation in the colony? Or did they know and look away all the same? In the end, these investors lost almost all their money which I think served them well...

I sometimes compare this with the investors in Shell Oil. Did they know what was being perpetrated by Shell in Nigeria? Shell is still being sued for the pollution and the injustices done.

Conclusion

Shouldn’t we enjoy the beauty anymore of all those historical monuments? That would take things a little too far. But perhaps we should sometimes remember the dark side of all that splendour.

Akerendam mansion situated in Beverwijk