De Zeehond of Fiducie? Uitsluitsel over de identiteit en ondergang van de bekendste tjalk van Flevoland

Samenvatting

De Zeehond or Fiducie? New insights into the identity and date of foundering of Flevoland’s best known sailing barge shipwreck. This paper focuses on the late 19th-century wreck of a Groninger tjalk (sailing barge) that was discovered in the 1960s in the eastern part of Flevoland, near the city of Lelystad. During the excavation of the wreck (1972), two wooden battens were found that carried the inscriptions ’18 DE ZEEHOND 78’ and ‘W Venema 1878 A Koerts’. Soon it was concluded that the former carried the name and date of the ship and its construction, while the latter carried the names of the ship’s owners. Additional research revealed that the operators were identified as Willem Venema and Annegien Koerts from Hoogezand, Groningen. However, the archives failed to provide any information on a ship known as De Zeehond, whereas historical documents proved that Willem Venema did own a ship by the name of Fiducie. The current study answers the question whether the ship’s true name was De Zeehond or Fiducie, and provides new and more detailed insights into the ship’s career, date of foundering and crew history.