[Sidenote: II 270]
[Sidenote: II 271]
[Sidenote: III 115]
The vessels mentioned above are not, however, the only ones used for
the herring fisheries. Another very remarkable type still in use is the
“Bom”, a descendant of the “Egmonder Pink”. The “Bom”, built so that it
can be allowed to ground, has, like the “Pink”, a very strong bottom
and clinker built sides. Its length is double its beam. It carries two
masts (a large and a small); the rig is fore and aft and long, narrow
lee boards (about ⅓ as long as the vessel). The high tide lands the
“Bommen” on the beach whence, after they had been raised by jacks and
wooden rollers had been placed under them, horses drew them up on a
wooden floor laid on the strand.
The creation of the “Bommenhaven” (harbor for “Bommen”) at Scheveningen
makes grounding these craft unnecessary and, consequently, will cause
them to disappear, because it is more advantageous to use “luggers”.
There will be, therefore, no further reason for the existence of the
“Bommen” and the port built for their use will cause their extinction.
This port has also led, already, to the construction of a few
“Bommen” with keels, called _Loggerbommen_ or _Lelybommen_ which are
intermediate between the “lugger” and the “Bom”. The first of these
“Bommen” was launched in 1900, but it has not been imitated often as it
is scarcely better than a “lugger”. It is clinker built and has the bow
of the “Bom” with the stern of the “lugger”. The old and interesting
“Bom” is no longer built; it will belong soon to history, like the
“bush” and the “howker”, and with it will disappear the last vestige
of the “cog”. Since 1896, the number of these vessels has been already
reduced from 324 to 212.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Strength of the “Bomschuiten” Fleet, 1899 to 1905. |
+-------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| | 1899 | 1900 | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 |
| | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Scheveningen | 217 | 205 | 194 | 189 | 183 | 158 | 140 |
| Katwijk | 67 | 68 | 69 | 71 | 74 | 70 | 66 |
| Noordwijk | 15 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 |
| Egmond | 3 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Haarlem (Ymuiden) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -- |
| Maassluis | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Report on ocean | | | | | | | |
| fishing, 1905 | 303 | 289 | 279 | 271 | 268 | 239 | 211 |
| (p. 149). | | | | | | | |