When we first thought seriously about buying a barge we, like all serious would-be-bargees made up a list of ‘must-haves’ and one was that we wanted an old, no, ‘historic’ barge. The original pamphlet published on the brokerage had a photo of her clearly showing her as a working vessel. The challenge now that we owned her was to find out a much as we could about her. We’ve been quite successful with this as detailed on other pages but it is worth detailing some of the sources we used. Perhaps you can use strategies like these to winnow out the history of your vessel.
Registration authorities
As a Dutch boat, registered on the Kadaster, getting the details of past owners is the (relatively) simple matter of writing to them and asking them. They charged us €16 for the search, which yielded all the past owners. Dutch friends also wrote to them and were able to get us copies of the original papers.
Dutch commercial boats are also weighed and measured and the Dutch Historic Boat Association (LVBHB) has created a database of all these measurements. Using their database, we were able to find measurements and other details about her commercial activities from 1916 up to and including her transfer to recreational use in 1994.
If there are registration authorities related to your barge, try and make contact.
Local associations and individuals
As foreigners, not able to read or speak Dutch, and without background in historical ships and searching, we have been fortunate to have experienced Dutch friends (Michel and Rebecca – mentioned frequently on this website) and a historian in the LVBHB, George Snijder, who has been invaluable in ferreting out various databases and documents. Try and find such local expertise, both associations and individuals and cultivate a relationship.
We were incredibly fortunate to be pointed to a book written by a local historian of commercial barging families in the area (Wormerveer) where our barge was registered. One entire chapter was devoted to the Verwer family, who commissioned the building of Catharina Elisabeth. Europeans are very keen in researching and maintaining records of their history and this can appear in books.
Museums
Museums will often have records or items related to historic boats. We have not yet visited the maritime museum in Rotterdam but this is likely to be a source of information for Catharina Elisabeth. However, a fleeting visit to the museum local to Wormerveer (at Zaandam) allowed us to find a model of Catharina (there are indications that they have two) and a longer visit may yield further material. So, look out for and visit museums and other historic repositories – you never know what you may find and there are professionals there who can offer further material.
In similar a similar vein, historical associations that document towns and industrial companies can provide a bounty of details, photos and other material that may incidentally contain material about your barge. In our case, the historic archives of the town of Alkmaar have provided many photos of Catharina Elisabeth and book on about the company that built her some details about her original commissioning.
The Internet
Google is your friend. Just searching on bits of information that have been surfaced in the kind of material above can lead to further sources of information. It’s detective work, requiring some patience and the ability to think laterally about what to search for and identify in search results. From this approach, we’ve found material on the family and oral histories recorded from relatives that flesh out Catharina Elisabeth’s original owners.
In Person
Last, and certainly not least, the phone book. Families involved with a barge often don’t move far. So, when we were looking to contact the Verwer family, having identified them as the family that originally owned Catharina Elisabeth, and that they lived in Wormerveer, simply writing to three addresses listed in the local phone book resulted in two replies from descendants of the original owners and, eventually, a meeting. Our meeting was fairly rushed and language was a barrier with the family member with the most information – but the contact was memorable. So, endeavour to make contact with previous owners.
