#zuiderzee

A grab bucket dumping clay in the Zuiderzee to create a dike for land reclamation. Still from a documentary by Joris Ivens.

Arts et métiers graphiques. May 15, 1931.

Zuiderzee - Maurice Sys , 1918.

Dutch , 1880-1972

Moodboard: traditional men’s costume from Urk, the Netherlands. Urk is a former island and fishing was the islanders’ main source of income. 

❊ Some details about the costume ❊

i. Earring(s): Fishermen wear one, or two, gold earrings. This came about not just for decorative purposes but because fishing was dangerous and dying at sea was not uncommon. What was formerly known as the Zuiderzee (the Southern sea) is a body of water enclosed by land on three sides. The inhabitants of the villages in & around the Zuiderzee, like Urk, were also very religious; so when a fisherman would wash up to shore, whatever shore that was, his earring(s) would be able to cover the cost of his burial. Any tattoos might’ve told more of which village he came from, and with some luck, and his jewellery and buttons covering the expenses, the fisherman would find his final resting place in his own village.

ii. Necktie: Men wear a rolled up black silken cloth around their neck. When a man goes out fishing, he wears a red cloth. If a man is married, he wears his wedding ring around the rolled up cloth. This is because a man’s hands were bound to get dirty and wearing a ring just wasn’t very practical with the daily work that was to be done.

iii. Sweater: When fishing, the men wore a marine blue sweater, knitted with a pattern unique to Urk, so as to distinguish themselves from fishermen from other places.

iv. Trousers & silver buttons: The pattern of the trousers consist of 26 parts, in a 17th century sailor style. The silver buttons (de “broekstukken”) often show a biblical scene. 

Hendrik Pieter Koekkoek - Muiden Harbour, Zuider Zee, Holland - 1870

Muiden  is a city and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It lies at the mouth of the Vecht and is in an area called the Vechtstreek. The first known reference to Muiden is from 953 when Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, granted the settlement and its toll rights to Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht. It was called Amuda, meaning "mouth of the (river) A". "A" was the old name for the Vecht river.

The Zuiderzee old spelling Zuyderzee was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km (60 miles) inland and at most 50 km (30 miles) wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 metres (13–16 feet) and a coastline of about 300 km (200 miles). It covered 5,000 km2 (1,900 sq mi). Its name means "southern sea" in Dutch, indicating that the name originates in Friesland, to the north of the Zuiderzee  In the 20th century the majority of the Zuiderzee was closed off from the North Sea (leaving the mouth of the inlet to become part of the Wadden Sea) and the salt water inlet changed into a fresh water lake called the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake) after the river that drains into it, and by means of drainage and polders, an area of some 1,500 km2 (580 sq mi) was reclaimed as land. This land eventually became the province of Flevoland, with a population of nearly 400,000 (2011).

In classical times there was already a body of water in this location, called Lacus Flevo by Roman authors. It was much smaller than its later forms and its connection to the main sea was much narrower; it may have been a complex of lakes and marshes and channels, rather than one lake. Over time these lakes gradually eroded their soft peat shores and spread (a process known as waterwolf). Some part of this area of water was later called the Vlie; it probably flowed into the sea through what is now the Vliestroom channel between the islands of Vlieland and Terschelling.