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Here are the previous posts in this series, showing the removal and disposal of the wreck of the RORO Baltic Ace, which sank after a collision in December 2012.
After more than two years underwater, this is how things appear.
Many thanks for these photos to Jan Oosterboer via Fred Trooster.
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.
Janga Bork is NOT a Dutch fishing vessel, although the unusual (?) hull brings it to the top of this post. The “L” prefix on the hull identifies it as Danish.
By the way, the aggressive newish spell checker always tries to change my preferred spelling of “sixth boro” to “sixth bork.” You may have seen some “typos” I missed. I’m very happy to learn that Bork is in fact the name of lovely Danish seaside town that I must visit one of these years.
For (slightly dated) info on Dutch society and fish, click here. For a thought-provoking op-ed piece by Paul Greenberg on the plight of US fishing industry, click here. The “UK” on the trawler below, Sursum Cordo, identifies it as registered in Urk. Fishing vessels from all over –see Stellendam below–bring their catch to Ijmuiden, just outside Amsterdam.
Huge trawlers like Cornelis Vrolijk‘s Carolien . . . of Scheveningen–operate out of here as well.
Here’s sister ship Scombrus.
Smaller trawlers Seagull and Flamingo are sculptural.
The “Z” on Flamingo stands for Zeebruge in Belgium.
In a Den Helder drydock, it’s Grietje Hendrika by the top sign and St. Antonius (Belgian) in raised metal letters below.
No surprise Dr. Maarten Luther is German.
In the town of Haarlem, the fish merchant is one of the more recently built buildings.
In the same square, this take on “blind justice” is a refreshing leap backwards.
Noord Hinder lightship . . . just over a half century old . . . reminds me of this lightship lost in the South American jungle.
Another restored Dutch steam vessel Hydrograaf has a name that reveals the mission for which it was launched over a century ago.
I have more, but for now . . . as the Dutch say . . . Stop.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
(Doubleclick enlarges fotos.) With a favorable weather window, tomorrow nightfall may find Wanderbird out the Narrows and at sea, bound for Puerto Rico. But midday today, she was
anchored off Piermont, off the old Camp Shanks. More Camp Shanks later.
Captain Rick Miles came calling ashore in the skiff.
At daybreak Paolo and Pitsik bade farewell to Atlantic Basin as
we left the Basin–where Clipper City and Cape Race remained–and
steamed upriver past a very sleepy version of the so-called “city that never sleeps.” This morning I had doubts about that moniker. And with an icy blast coming out of the north, sleeping in would not be such a terrible option, but
for me, the ride up to Piermont–in a wheelhouse listening to yarns from Culebra to Greenland and smelling soup savors wafted up from the galley–it was sweet.
Thanks to Captains Rick and Karen for the chance to steam upriver a few hours. Here’s their site.
For folks who want numbers: Wanderbird‘s Industrie engine generates 510 hp, consuming a gallon a mile while cruising at 500 rpm and spinning a 8″ shaft and a 62″ four-bladed prop.
A great picture book about the hundreds of very similar North Sea trawlers, check out Arie van der Veer’s Van Zijtrawler naar Hektrawler (From Side Trawler to Stern Trawler). It has hundreds of fotos. An English-language article with pics on this category of trawler can be seen here.
Check out this blog from Labrador for more info on the Canadian husky above named Pitsik (scroll to August 18, 2010) AND the schooner Issuma (scroll to August 10), currently on Lake Ontario and written about here last month. Here’s another Issuma post. For pics of Wanderbird in the Caribbean, check out these by David Blitzer, whom I met on the trip to Piermont. See info on David’s show at 350 Bleeker Street here.
Fair winds, Wanderbird.
No . . I’ve been tied up with spring cleaning . . . really. But the blog needs to break out. Here’s Davis Sea pushing up the Rondout past Petersburg and Hackensack.
And all the rest here from Paul Strubeck’s lens/flickr account, and all take between 60 and 110 miles north of the sixth boro. Cheyenne,
and a government boat, Wire.
And as I post this, here downriver, it FEELS like a thaw, like a hint of spring in January.
Many thanks to Paul Strubeck for these fotos. Paul works on Cornell.
The google map below has two points marked; all fotos above were taken between those points.
Back home in the sixth boro! I would have liked to stay longer in New England, wanted to see much more of the places around the Merrimack where I spent almost 15 years, but . . . nose away from the perfumes of fish and brine, eyes away from of beautiful colors of the salt marsh and onto the bright hues and hieroglyphics of large ships’ hull. (Hmm . . . has Bowsprite been doodling art shapes on this hull?)
Here my new language is familiar, like . . . uh . .
well . . . Amy C McAllister to starboard escorting
(exactly . . it was on the tip of my tongue) Sealand Michigan out to sea while
Marjorie B. McAllister shadows to port.
Sealand Michigan, full frontally resembles a seabird, not unlike
the one that glides alongbehind as she passes Romer Shoal Light.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Two unrelated notes: I have many more fotos from the Trip to Gloucester and beyond to post in days to come.
Sealand . . . besides being the name of the original container company established in 1960 by Malcolm McClean, also just happens to be the name of a micro-nation in the North Sea. See here and here.
And, if you need an antidote to the blues, go see the movie called Pirate Radio. Here’s a trailer with some good upbeat music. There once was a Dutch pirate radio on Veronica here and another on Silvretta here. And many many more.
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