1916 Construction

Dedemsvaart is a busy place, on the border between the peat colonies of Overijssel en Drenthe. Peat is brought in and loaded into barges and tjalks, to be sailed across the Zuyderzee and across the main rivers. It is brought to the factories and bakeries in the west, and brickworks in the south.

The Catharina is being built at J. Mol’s shipyard in Dedemsvaart. She will be one of the last sailing cargo ships. R. Snippe, the first skipper, names her “Linquenda”, meaning ‘I shall have to leave her’. It is a promise that the ship will outlast the skipper. This occurs sooner than expected: Snippe goes bankrupt and has to sell his ship in 1919.