The etymology here is “rotte” and “dam,” and as a silly kid, I used to call it “rotten dam,” since silly kids make fun of their heritage. Rotte, though, is an old name for a waterway in the Rhine-Maas delta. It is truly a complex port, and thanks to my parents, one where I can speak the language, unlike the case in even more complex ports like Singapore and Shanghai. In one area of the port, depths can accommodate vessels with drafts of up to 78 feet! Early on, an important commodity was fish, and fishing boats are still present. “SCH” on the vessel below identifies it as based in Scheveningen, a port to the northwest of R’dam with a name that’s a veritable shibboleth.
OD signifies Ouddorp, or “old village.” Here are the codes.
The bow symbol says it all. Ouddorp is a small village in the delta.
I’m thinking we’re looking at an old and new version of Maarten-Jacob.
Whenever you take a photo of a vessel in a port, it really is just a moment in time. All these vessels shared this port one day in late June, but now . . .
Wylde Swan, former steam ship
they’re all either “on the fishing grounds” around Scotland, as is true of Wylde Swan and Sandettie and
Alida,
or fisheries research vessels (l to r) Tridens, Isis, Zirfaea, and Arca.
Yes, that vessel is called Isis, and has been since 1983.
Here’s Oceaan II . . . between jobs.
And finally Oleg Strashnov, heavy lifting crane ship, with lift capacity of 5000 tons! It’s also headed into the North Sea for wind farm support.
Of course, many previous posts have been devoted to the port of greater Rotterdam, like here, here, here, and here. Of course, there are many more.
Again, many thanks to Jan Oosterboer via Fred Trooster for these photos.
tugster: a waterblog 
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July 9, 2015 at 11:31 am
walt
Tanker Afrodite is on her way to Rotterdam due: 7/13/15 6:00 (UTC)!
She left the Baltics a couple of days ago
I’d make picture, but…..
July 10, 2015 at 5:37 am
Daniel Meeter
Melody’s paternal grandmother was Myrtle Grinwis. Myrtle’s father Jan Grinwis had immigrated from Ouddorp to South Dakota. There are still Grinwisses in Ouddorp. They are all descended from Thomas Greenwich, a British (Puritan) wool merchant who in transit from Flanders to the UK was shipwrecked off the island, landed, and stayed. You’re right about the incredible variety of the port of Rotterdam. A wonderful variation on the old Dutch Navy, so different than the Royal Navy. De-centralized, bluff-bowed, slower ships and boats that did as much commercial work as fighting work, a fleet for merchants instead of monarchs.