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HISTORY
Ebenhaëzer (Ebenezer in English) was registered in 1904 having
been built in the Croles shipyard in IJlst, (just outside Sneek,
Friesland) in the Netherlands. Now an auxiliary sailing barge she
is a 63ft (inc. fixed bow sprit) gaff sloop rigged, sailing barge (tjalk).
She was registered for ‘Binnenvaart’, or inland trade. She was
purchased by her current owners as Geertruida in 1992 in Friesland,
though she had also previously been re-named Butsekop and Vrouwe
Harmke. Her documentation was located in 2002 and it was discovered
that Geertruida was not her original/correct name. Consequently,
she was ceremoniously 'de-named' to her true name of Ebenhaëzer
(Ebenezer), by which she had been known for most of her life. It's
stated that her use was transporting bulk cargo, mainly in Friesland
(a northern province of Holland).
Around
1900 there were as many as thirty different types of tjalken in the
Netherlands, all of them being built and equipped for very specific
kinds of transport routes and waterways. “Ebenhaëzer” is a specimen
of a Frisian tjalk of the largest category: 15 to 20 meters long and
used for the transport of bulk cargo. The smaller type was 10-12
meters long and primarily used for the transport of mixed cargo in
small quantities on a regular basis, mostly once a week, between the
villages and market towns.
Her current
owner first viewed her in 1992 in Leeuwarden, the capital town of
Friesland. She was then sailed via Belgium & France to berth on the
Thames in early 1993. Several years later, she was sailed on to
Ireland from the East coast of England starting from Maldon on the
River Blackwater (Essex), via the Thames, Kennet & Avon Canal, River
Avon, Bristol Channel, Welsh coast (Milford Haven), St Georges
Channel, Dunmore East (Waterford – SE Coast of Ireland), Barrow,
Grand Canal, arriving on the River Shannon in 2000, where she is
currently based. |
