THE WATERWAYS OF HOLLAND.
“Jupiter, surveying earth from high
Beheld it in a lake of water lie.”
—OVID.
Holland, the land of dykes and ditches, is completely cut up into small
islands by its extensive system of canals, which cross and interlace
each other like the threads of some large fishing net. Owing to the
level condition of the country, the construction of a canal involves
but comparatively little labour and expense, and many of them are used
as substitutes for public highways, while in the winter, their frozen
surfaces offer convenient roads for skaters. The North Holland canal
was, until recently, the finest work of its kind in Europe, and was
built during the years 1819-23, at a cost of 950,000_l._ Since not only
the surface, but the beds of many of these canals are above the level
of the land, drainage is a matter of great importance, and is effected
by means of windmills working pumps.
Phillips[87] speaks of Holland as being intersected by innumerable
canals. “They may,” he says, “be compared in number and in size to our
public roads and highways, and as the latter with us are continually
full of coaches, chaises, waggons, carts, and horsemen, going to and
from the different cities, towns, and villages, so on the former, the
Hollanders, in their boats and pleasure barges, their _breckshuyts_ and
vessels of burden, are continually journeying and conveying commodities
for consumption or exportation, from the interior of the country to
the great cities and rivers. An inhabitant of Rotterdam may, by means
of these canals, breakfast at Delft or the Hague, dine at Leyden, and
sup at Amsterdam, or return home again before night. By them, also,
a most prodigious trade is carried on between Holland and every part
of France, Flanders, and Germany.” The same author declares that the
400 miles of inland navigation open in Holland in his time, yielded
an average income of about 625_l._ per mile, which he declares to be,
“almost beyond belief.” What would he have thought had he lived in our
time, and seen canals producing an income of 30,000_l._ to 40,000_l._
per mile?[88]
_The Haarlem Canal_ was constructed about fifty years ago, for the
purpose of draining the _Meer_ or lake of that name. This lake had
been formed by an inundation in the end of the sixteenth century, and
in the beginning of the eighteenth century it had covered an area of
45,000 acres. Seeing that the lake was gaining upon the land, it was
resolved to take effectual means for draining it. This course was
precipitated by two furious hurricanes, one in November 1836, which
drove the waters of the lake upon the city of Amsterdam, and another
in December of the same year, which submerged the lower parts of the
city of Leyden. The first step incidental to draining the lake—a work
which was undertaken by the Government in 1839—was to dig a canal
round about it for the reception of the water, and to accommodate the
great traffic which had hitherto been carried on by its means. This
canal was made 38 miles in length, 130 feet wide on the west side,
and 115 feet on the east side of the lake, and 9 feet deep. All the
inlets into the lake, were then closed by large earthen dams; and
various works were executed to facilitate the flow of water into the
sea. These preliminary works occupied till 1845. To give some idea of
the magnitude of the undertaking, it may be mentioned that the area of
water enclosed by the canal was rather more than 70 square miles, and
the average depth of the lake was 13 feet 1·44 inches. The water had no
natural outfall, being below the lowest possible point of sluiceage,
and, including rain water, springs, &c., during the time of drainage,
it was calculated that probably 1000 million tons would have to be
raised by mechanical means. After drainage, too, the site could only be
kept dry by mechanical power, so that the annual drainage might amount
to 54,000,000 tons, to be raised on an average 16 feet, and it might
happen that as much as 35,000,000 tons of that amount would have to be
raised in one month.
_The North Sea Canal_ was constructed for the purpose of facilitating
the navigation of the Zuyder Zee, which, by reason of its numerous
shallows, was very intricate and difficult, and in order that vessels
might avoid the Pampus—a bank that rises where the =Y= joins the
Zuyder Zee, and formerly compelled large vessels to load and unload a
part of their cargoes in the roads. These obstacles frequently detained
vessels for as much as three weeks.[89]
M’Cullough spoke of this canal as “the greatest work of its kind in
Holland, and probably in the world.”[90] It was begun in 1819, and
completed in 1825. The length of the canal is about 50½ miles; the
breadth at the surface, 124½ English feet, and at the bottom 30 feet,
while the depth is 20 feet 9 inches. It is a tide-level canal, and is
provided with two tide-locks at each end. Intermediately, there are two
sluices, with flood-gates. The locks and sluices are double. The canal
is crossed by about eighteen drawbridges. The cost of the undertaking
was about million sterling.
At the further end of the canal, at Niewdiep, a harbour was
constructed, which has been very much frequented by the shipping of
Amsterdam. About eighteen hours were formerly occupied in towing ships
from Niewdiep to Amsterdam.
_The Amsterdam Ship Canal._—The Amsterdam Ship Canal, designed by
Mr. Hawkshaw, and Heer J. Dirks, of Holland, is a gigantic example
of engineering compressed within a limited extent. The burgesses of
Amsterdam had spent millions in improving the access to that great
commercial port—first, on long previous operations in the Zuyder Zee,
and, subsequently, on the North Holland Ship Canal, which stretches
nearly due north from their city to the Helder, between which point and
the Texel Island opposite is the entrance from the North Sea, which was
then the only available channel for large vessels.
The exigiencies of their trade calling imperatively for further
improvements, the engineers furnished them with the design for a new
ship canal, which reduces the navigable distance to 15½ miles, on
a course about west from Amsterdam to the North Sea, available for
larger vessels than formerly entered the port—and has provided a new
harbour on the coast, with an area of 250 acres, bounded by breakwaters
formed of concrete blocks set in regular courses, with 853 feet of
entrance between the pier heads, and 26¼ feet minimum depth of water.
The width of the sea canal is 197 feet at the surface, and 88 feet at
the bottom; minimum depth, 23 feet; the locks are 59 feet wide, and of
proportionate length.
There are three locks or entrances at the north end of the canal from
the new harbour. Eastward, and below the city and wharves of Amsterdam,
there is an enormous dyke to shut out the Zuyder Zee, pierced with
three locks, besides sluices. These are built upon such a lake of mud
as to require nearly 10,000 piles in their foundation. Thus the canal
is approached by locks at each end, not for the purpose of locking up,
but for locking down, as the surface water of the canal has to be kept
twenty inches under low-water mark. To accomplish this, in addition to
the locks and sluices, that can only avail at low tides, pumping power
was required at the dyke, which bars out the Zuyder Zee. The three
large centrifugal pumps by Messrs. Eastons, Amos, and Anderson, were
constructed to lift together 440,000 gallons of water per minute. The
works on this canal took nearly ten years to complete. They included
the construction of branch canals to the several towns and ports on
the borders of the lakes, which, although of smaller sectional area,
exceeded the sea canal in their total extent. Mr. Vignoles, in his
Presidential Address to the Institution of Civil Engineers,[91] from
which most of the above particulars are taken, has stated that the
Amsterdam Ship Canal resembled the Suez Canal, in passing through large
muddy lakes, similar to Lake Menzaleh. (See Suez Canal).
The ship canals communicating with Rotterdam are described by a recent
writer[92] on the subject as follows:—
1. _The Voorne Canal_ running from Helvoetsluis through the island of
Voorne to the river Maas. The resolution of March 9th, 1880, resettled
the police regulations for this route; the maximum dimensions of
vessels using it being—length, 110; beam, 13·70; draught, 6 metres.
2. _The Niewe-waterweg_, or direct entrance from the North Sea to
the Maas, which is without sluices, and is cut through the Hoek van
Holland, thus forming a new outlet to the Maas.
Besides these approaches, there is another route to Rotterdam, to which
great attention has been paid of late years, but the railway bridge
across the river at Rotterdam causes a certain inconvenience to vessels
using it. Vessels coming from the sea by the Hollandschdiep, enter the
narrow passage of the Kil near the great Moerdyke railway bridge, and
passing Dordrecht, the Maas is reached above the Rotterdam railway
bridge. The Nieuwe-Haven, just above this bridge, is a most convenient
port for small steam-yachts visiting Rotterdam.
There are two other important ship canals, giving access from the river
Schelde to the inland waters of Holland:—
1. _The Walcheren Canal_, about seven miles long, from the new port of
Flushing to Veere, which place, formerly known as Campvere, was a free
port of the Scotch, who had a factory or trade station there for 300
years, from the year 1506. The maximum dimensions for vessels using
this canal are:—Length, 120; breadth, 19·75; and draught, 7·10 metres.
2. _The South Beveland Canal_, from the West Schelde at Hansweert
to the East Schelde at Wemeldinge, is five miles in length. The
regulations of this canal, fixed by the resolution of May 28th, 1880,
allow vessels of the following dimensions to use it, viz. length, 100;
breadth, 15·75; draught, 7·10 metres.
The former of these two canals is not much used, but there is a great
traffic of the large Rhine arks, and the inland steam barges and
sailing vessels of Holland, going to and from Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent,
and other towns of Belgium. The locks, like the others in the more
important canals, take in thirty to forty of these vessels at once, all
masters having to show their papers before passing. These ship canals
are all State property, and are under the management of the Minister
of the Waterstaat, Trade, and Industry. Many of the smaller inland
navigations are under State control, but others belong to the communes
through which they pass. The water-level, which is so all-important in
the Netherlands, is regulated by the Amsterdam mark, called the A.P.
(Amsterdamsche Peil).
The following navigations, with some others, are also regulated by
police rules, fixed by resolutions of the State:—
1. _The Afwaterings Kanaal_, from the Noordervaart and the Neeritter,
near Venlo, for vessels—length, 24; breadth, 3·70; draught, 1 metre.
The use of steam is forbidden.
2. _The canalised river Ijssel_, from the river Lek, opposite to
Ijsselmonde, to Gouda, whence there is canal communication with the
river Amstel, to Amsterdam, and also by the old Rhine, _viâ_ Leiden
and Haarlem, to Spaandam, to the North Sea Canal. There is a great
traffic in the former of these two routes, there being always a great
collection of craft at the sluices at Gouda, waiting their turns to
pass. Large and improved locks are said to be urgently required at this
place. The depth of water on this route is at least six feet.
3. _The Keulsche Vaart_, from Vreeswijk, on the river Lek, _viâ_
Utrecht, the Vecht, and Weesp, to the river Amstel and Amsterdam.
Vessels of a breadth of 7·50 metres, and draught of 2·10 metres, can
use the route. The sluices take in the very long Rhine craft. The pace
allowed for steamers is 130 metres a minute for those of 1·50 draught,
to 180 a minute for those of 1 metre draught.
4. _The Meppelerdiep_, Zwaartsluis to Meppel, for vessels of length,
60; breadth, 7·80; draught, 1·80 metres.
5. _The Drentsche, Hoofdvaart, and Kolonievaart_, from Meppel to Assen,
for vessels drawing 1·60 metres, between Paradijssluis and Veenebrug;
in other parts vessels of only 1·25 metres are allowed.
6. _The Willemsvaart_, from the town canal at Zwolle to the
river Ijssel, by the Katerveer, for vessels of the following
dimensions—length 100, breadth 11·80, and draught 3 metres.
7. _The Apeldoorn Canal_, from the Ijssel at the _sluis_ near
Dieren to the same river at Hattem, for vessels of the following
dimensions—length 30, breadth 5·90, and draught 1·56 metres.
8. _The Noordervaart_, between the Zuid Willemsvaart at _sluis_ No.
15 and the provincial canal at Beringen, in the commune Helden, for
vessels having a length of 51, a breadth of 6, and a draught of 1·50 to
1·65 metres.
9. _The Dokkum Canal_, from Dokkum (in Friesland) to Stroobos, and
the Casper Roblesdiep or Kolonelsdiep, being the inland route from
Friesland to Gröningen.
A deep-water canal communicates between Gröningen and Delfzijl, in the
estuary of the river Ems, whereby the inland navigation of Germany may
be entered, and, finally, the Baltic.
_The Elbing Highland Canals._—This system of canals, constructed
between the years 1844 and 1860, connects the group of lakes around
Mohrungen and Preussische Holland, at a height of about 328 feet above
the Baltic, with the Drausen Lake, whence flows the river Elbing,
emptying itself into the Frische Haff, on the Gulf of Dantzic. The
whole length of the canal navigation and branches is 123½ miles, of
which 28 miles is artificial, and the remainder lake and stream.
The Puniau lakes are situated at a distance of 10 miles from, and its
waters were originally at a level of 343 feet 9 inches (104·8 metres)
above, the Drausen lakes. When the canal was first constructed, the
water-level of the Puniau lake was lowered to the extent of 17 feet
5 inches, thereby reducing the difference in level between the two
lakes to 326 feet 4 inches. Commencing from the Drausen Lake, the
canal continues level for a length of 1¼ miles, and in the next 2·17
miles, rises a height of 45 feet 3 inches. This difference of level was
surmounted in the first instance, by five locks, which have recently
been abolished and replaced by an inclined plane. In the following 4·66
miles the remaining height of 281 feet is attained by four inclined
planes.
The cost of original construction was 212,325_l._ (4,246,500 marks),
and, assuming it to have been spent entirely upon the artificial
portion of the canal navigation, which is 28 miles in length, would
amount to 7,583_l._ per mile (94,376 marks per kilometre). Of this
outlay 70,000_l._ was expended on the four inclined planes, exclusive
of the earthwork, which latter cost 27,000_l._, or an average of
24,250_l_. for each incline. The total height surmounted by these five
locks and the four inclined planes being 326⅓ feet, the cost of each
foot of rise for the whole length of the canal amounts to
212,325_l._
───────────── = 650_l._ 12_s._
326·33_l._
The cost of maintenance of the whole system (including the lake
portion) of the canal and works between the years 1861 and 1875
averaged annually 27_l._ 2_s._ per mile for the lake portion, and
120_l._ 4_s._ per mile for the artificial canal portion.
The Dutch canals, like those of Belgium and Germany, provide
exceptionally low transport. The butter of Friesland is conveyed by
canals in small boats to the home markets, whence it is carried twice
a week to Harlingen and shipped to London and other large places of
consumption.
One of the most remarkable features in the landscape of Holland is
the large number of windmills that are everywhere to be seen. In one
province not more than 60 miles long, there are said to be more than
200 of these primitive appliances. The windmills are largely employed
in spring time to drain the water from the low lying lands and raise
it into the canals, but they are “contrived the double debt to pay” of
drainage and agricultural work.
The Dutch canals, which are for the most part elevated above the
surrounding country, in order that they may the better carry off the
water that inundates the land, are provided with strong dams or banks,
which it is the care of the inhabitants to keep in good order. A system
of militia was long maintained for the purpose of keeping the banks
in repair. The ringing of a bell, or some other signal, brought the
members of this force together, and, when the waters threatened danger,
every man was found at his post, ready to repair any possible damage to
the dykes. It is still the custom to assign to every family a certain
length of embankment, which they are required to maintain.
It is, of course, essential that a system of water communication so
complete and so important to the well-being of the country as that of
Holland should be subject to very strict regulation. There are two
principal sets of regulations—the first adopted on the 5th February,
1879, for the Government canals generally; and the second adopted on
the 6th August, 1880, applying specially to the North Holland Canal.
There is also a series of special regulations for the Walcheren Canal,
which communicates between Flushing and Veere. These regulations have
been translated into English, and may be easily acquired by any one who
desires to possess them.[93]
FOOTNOTES:
[87] ‘History of Inland Navigation.’
[88] The Suez Canal gives this return.
[89] M’Cullough’s ‘Commercial Dictionary,’ Art., Amsterdam.
[90] M’Cullough’s ‘Commercial Dictionary,’ Art., Canals.
[91] ‘Proceedings,’ vol. xxix., p. 289.
[92] Report of the Conference on Inland Navigation at the Society of
Arts, 1888.
[93] They are appended to a work which has recently been published,
entitled ‘On Dutch Waterways,’ by G. C. Davies.