Amsterdam, Zuider Zee, Nord-Hollandsch Kanaal - a fascinating short history of the area's navigation challenges

[LittleSister]

I had linked the following article in a post in another thread, but I think a wider audience here might appreciate it.

Amsterdam’s Difficult Route to Sea – MforAmsterdam Tours

 

[johnalison]

Very interesting, thanks. I have seen larger scale charts of the Zuider Zee and it certainly looks challenging. I was also impressed when I saw a model of a camel in the maritime museum in Amsterdam many years ago. It’s an interesting area generally, though there is a certain sadness about not being able to see it as it was in working order, so to speak.

 

[LittleSister]

Not mentioned in that article, but I've read and seen illustration of in an academic article, is that they also used numerous wooden barrels (of air) alongside ships to reduce draft.

The article I linked mention the Admiralty owned the camels, and they were also used by the Dutch East and West Indies companies, but there would have been a lot of other trading ships visiting Amsterdam, and it was presumably these that used the barrels.

Such technologies/practices are rarely confined to one location, and it seems highly unlikely that they wouldn't have been used elsewhere, too. There were plenty of other locations with draft challenges, plus ships had to effect their own repairs in remote locations in the ages of exploration and colonisation, and careening (then a common practice for ship repairs/de-fouling) would not always be available or provide enough time).