Ijsselaak

Unique ship model of the IJsselaak “DE VROUW DINA”

Dimensions: 52 x 14 x 49 cm.
Scale: 1:25
Not an antique.
SOLD

Sandbarge in bright colours.

This is one of the many sandbarges, dredging sand in the rivers Lek, Hollandsche IJssel and Maas at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The bargemen of such ships were usually self employed and dredged the sand by means of a linen bag on a long stick. This kind of dredging, named “beugelen” was a ponderous and difficult job, especially in cold wether. The sand was sold to traders. Later they also bought sand directly from a dredging machine and sold it with some profit.

Usually these skippers lived on land but somethimes their live in poverty forced them to live on their barge. Then they lived in the small accommodation under the low foredeck.
The ships of the IJsselarea had bright colours. On a beautiful Dutch day with white clouds in a blue sky a free man could enjoy it immensely to look at his own ship. In spite of their hard live obviously they did not fail to notice this joy