Motorzeilschip Hoop op Welzijn
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The Hoop op Welzijn was specially built for peat sailing and launched in 1922 in Hykersmilde (Drenthe) under the same name she still has today. The ship is a clipperaak and measures 25x5 metres. She is a typical example of a ship from the transition period from wood to iron and also from sailing to towing and motor sailing. You can see that from the sails, but she also has a side propeller, for example.
Although built for the shallow canals of Drenthe, the Hoop op Welzijn can still sail well anywhere. She was built as a so-called volume loader with little draught, but with a high deckhouse and a high pine tree (the side of the cargo hold), so she could carry quite a lot of cargo.
In the early years,...
The Hoop op Welzijn was specially built for peat sailing and launched in 1922 in Hykersmilde (Drenthe) under the same name she still has today. The ship is a clipperaak and measures 25x5 metres. She is a typical example of a ship from the transition period from wood to iron and also from sailing to towing and motor sailing. You can see that from the sails, but she also has a side propeller, for example.
Although built for the shallow canals of Drenthe, the Hoop op Welzijn can still sail well anywhere. She was built as a so-called volume loader with little draught, but with a high deckhouse and a high pine tree (the side of the cargo hold), so she could carry quite a lot of cargo.
In the first years, the ship was used for peat shipping on the big rivers. Later, she carried flax from Groningen to Flanders. As flax weighs little and the ship could carry quite a bit, she sailed with deck cargo; the cargo was stacked above the hatches and on some parts of the route, the Hoop op Welzijn was then towed.
In 'the butt of the ship', a 'printer's dent' can be seen. Around the war, Hoop op Welzijn probably sailed using an opduwer (a large motorised punt that pushed ships forward). In 1956, the ship was modernised. The mast deck was removed, the hatch cover was extended and a wheelhouse with a reclining steering gear was added. As propulsion, a side-screw installation with a Deutz engine was fitted above deck.
After serving as a munitions storage ship for a while in the 1960s and being laid up for a period as a discarded wreck, the ship was put back into service as the Hoop op Welzijn around 1976.
During the restoration, the original mast deck was restored, the wheelhouse was removed again and an auxiliary sail with a so-called 'Saxon rig' was fitted. The side propeller was retained and supplemented with an outboard work engine for safety. The aft and underwater hull are still original and many more original details can be discovered on the Hoop op Welzijn. This special ship shows the history of almost 100 years of Dutch inland navigation in a nutshell!