Some More Skûtsje History

While I was researching the history of Nieuwe Zorg, I finally found her first registration details obscured by an apparent typographical error in a transcribed online spreadsheet. She was listed as having been built in 1901 instead of 1908. I emailed the webmaster of the site and pointed out the apparent error to him, and asked for confirmation that it actually is an error.

A few days later I received a reply from Frits Jansen, the webmaster of the site confirming that the date had been mis-typed when compiling the spreadsheet from the original ledger. He told me that it would soon be corrected on the website. Frits attached a photo of a spread of pages of the Sneek registration ledger showing De Nieuwe Zorg as the last entry.

I blew-up the high-resolution photo to show the details clearly: 831 | De Nieuwe Zorg | A. Vaandriks / Koudum | Roefschip / yaer | Gaastmeer / 1908.

On the facing page, the registration continues with her measurements all written-out in words. Her first measurement on 20 March 1909 gave her length as 16.33 metres and her beam as 3.43 metres. A later measurement is referenced with new registration number, G6496N. Under Notations, the final column, is an undated entry indicating the registration was cancelled.

The second registration number, G6496 matches that found in the details page for S831N. De Nieuwe Zorg's owner shown at the time of the second measurement on 25 June 1941 was Douwe Albert Visser of Stavoren. We have attempted to locate some mention of Douwe Albert Visser online, so far without success.

Among the things we have found so far is a photograph of the Wildschut boatyard in Gaastmeer, thought to have been taken in 1907, around the time when our skûtsje was being built. The three Wildschut brothers, Age, Jelle and Jetze are at the far left.

Also, we have found an undated photo captioned Age Vaandriks at work aboard his skûtsje. Age had De Nieue Zorg built by Wildschut in 1908, and later, in 1925 had a second skûtsje, Dankbaarheid built by Wolthuis in Sappemeer. Whether this is our Nieuwe Zorg or his later skûtsje, Dankbaarheid we don't yet know. In the photo Age appears to be sitting and enjoying a pipe.

One very interesting online discovery we made was an interactive page with a detailed drawing of a skûtsje with part names in both Dutch and Fryske. The link to the interactive page is here. This will be very useful to us as we head into restoring Nieuwe Zorg to full sailing trim.