Middelburg Drydock

Middelburg Drydock is a former dry dock in Middelburg, Netherlands. The Dock chamber still exists.

Context

Middelburg Middelburg is the capital of Zeeland. From the 15th to the 17th century, it was also a very important commercial center. In the seventeenth century it got to play a prominent part in the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In the Caribbean it became successful with the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie (MCC). At the end of the 18th century, the Middelburg economy ground to a halt. In 1807 the MCC was liquidated, and restarted as a shipyard. As such she acquired the former shipyards of the WIC, MCC, and finally those of the VOC in 1818.

By that time, the French period had entirely ruined the Middelburg economy, leading to a drastic drop in population. The construction of a new harbor canal from Middelburg to Veere, completed in 1817 did little to re-establish the situation. Next, the location of Middelburg and nearby Vlissingen became problematic. They are on Walcheren, which was an island at the time. When railways were introduced, they replaced part of inland water transport. Without a connection to the railroad, Middelburg then gradually became an isolated city.

Port of Vlissingen By the mid-nineteenth century the importance and possibilities of railways for cargo transport were clear. Belgium wanted to construct a railway from Antwerp to Germany, the so-called Iron Rhine. The Netherlands feared this competition, because the Western Scheldt made Antwerp a much better harbor than the Dutch harbors. The government reacted with plans to improve the harbor of Vlissingen, on the Dutch side of the Westerschelde.

Vlissingen was situated on deep water, but it had only a minimal hinterland, because it was on an island. The 1860 a railway law made the funds available to create a railway from Vlissingen to the east, the Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway. Part of the works was the construction of the Sloedam, which was ordered in July 1866, and completed in June 1867. On 29 February 1872, the railway was opened. On 8 September 1872 the new Port of Vlissingen was opened.

The Port of Vlissingen was not an immediate success. One of the things that was thought to be missing was a modern dry dock, larger than the old Vlissingen Navy Drydock. The state was prepared to build this, but the Dutch Senate repudiated the plan in May 1873. In order to create the necessary facilities, the state then made another plan. In 1875 it made an agreement which would lead to the establishment of De Schelde Shipyard in the Port of Vlissingen. De Schelde also got the use of the former navy dry dock. The port itself was managed by the state, but could only become successful if shipping lines called at the port.

Canal through Walcheren From 1870 to 1873 the Canal through Walcheren was constructed in connection to the construction of the port at Vlissingen. It was one of the Dutch canals suitable for ocean-going ships. At first it was planned to stretch from Vlissingen to Middelburg. Later it was extended to Veere, using the bed of the Nieuwe Haven Canal of 1817. It got a shallower branch, the Arne Canal, to Arnemuiden.

The construction of the costly Canal through Walcheren might have been done to compensate Middelburg for the closure of the Sloe. A different reason might have been the hope that Middelburg merchants would use the new port, or that the economy of Middelburg would be re-established once it had a good connection to the sea. Anyway, in the late evening of 17 December 1873 the frigate Bato captain H. Kramer of 1,501 ton capacity, arrived in Vlissingen from Batavia. Without unloading, she continued to Middelburg with a draft of 6.6 m, and unloaded there in the afternoon of the 18th.

History

Van Zeijlen en Decker With the new port and canal, the Rotterdam Shipping Line Van Zeijlen & Decker saw opportunities in Middelburg. In 1874 it acquired the former VOC terrains from the MCC, and founded the shipyard Middelburgsch Welvaren. It also planned to operate its ships from Middelburg in the future, and moved its headquarters to Middelburg.

Plans for a dry dock Van Zeijlen en Decker almost immediately made plans for a dry dock in Middelburg. It planned to construct the dry dock in the stretch of the harbor between the (Dam Bridge) and (the Dam). The company then sent a request to the municipality to know whether the council was basically willing to let the company lease or otherwise use that terrain. The council confirmed this on 18 February 1874. On 18 June 1874 the council then treated a request by the company to have the terrain and a 50,000 guilder subsidy to establish the dry dock. On 13 July the council approved the request with 13 votes against 4.

Design During the design phase the initial plans for the dry dock had to be changed. Also, the terrain for the dry dock had to be significantly expanded. It became the first Dutch 'setup dock' . It was designed by J. Dirks, chief engineer of Rijkswaterstaat. The new plans were approved by G. van Diesen, chief engineer of Rijkswaterstaat in Zeeland. On 14 April 1875 the detailed plans were discussed and approved by the municipal council.

Construction Construction was tendered on 22 May 1875. There were three offers: L. Kalis Kz. from Sliedrecht for 261,860 guilders; Van de Velde from Papendrecht for 239,800 guilders; and B. Janse from Amsterdam for 199,890 guilders. B. Janse got the order, and had to complete it on 30 June 1876.

Already on 3 June the first materials for the dry dock were unloaded in Middelburg. Amongst these were 15 shiploads of brick, with which walls would be fixed or heightened. Another first step was the construction of a dam, do pumps could make the designated stretch of the harbor dry. Pile driving would come next. By 25 June the process of pumping the water out of the rear chamber was underway. On 30 July the principals had sent in a request for a permit to build a pumphouse with steam engine. By then the Dambrug had been removed completely, brickwork on the quay walls was underway, and the temporary dam was ready. On 17 September part of the quay and sewers near the old Dambrug collapsed over 30 meters, but this accident did not significantly delay the works.

The wall that enclosed the new dry dock was ready enough to place a commemorative stone on 23 September 1875. It was placed by Willem Lodewijk van Leeuwen and Cornelis de Decker Jz. This was also the moment that the dry dock got the official name (Prins Hendrik Drydock). On 18 November 1875 most of the pile driving below the dry dock had been completed.

By January 1876 the floor of the backward part of the dry dock was under construction. By then a very deep pit had been dug for pile driving below the prospective caisson door and Pumphouse. At the start of March brickwork was resumed. This time it was on the caisson lock, which also had to serve as a road. By then the floor of the dry dock itself was almost finished. Work then centered on the setup dock and the gate that separated it from the rest. On 27 April 1876 the steam pile driver drove the last pile into the ground. In late May the pumphouse was under construction, and several machines had already been placed. By 27 May construction was a bit ahead of schedule, and there were plans to dock Van Zeijlen en Decker's clipper Minister Fransen van de Putte on 15 June, which would net the contractor a premium of 1,000 guilders. On 12 June the removal of the Dok Bridge and its replacement by a double iron swing bridge with a wider opening was tendered. The order was won by B. Janse, for 30,800 guilders.

The opening ahead of schedule would not be achieved, but construction did make the original schedule. On 16 June the Ship Caisson was launched by Smit in Krimpen aan de Lek (or J. en K. Smit in Kinderdijk), and the dam had been partially removed. On 25 June the ship caisson arrived, towed by tugboat Reserve. It would be placed on the 26th, and next everything was prepared for the opening on 30 June 1876.

The opening, and docking of Minister Fransen van de Putte was a grand affair, with a historic tour of 86 persons with three historic and thematic wagons. Minister Fransen van de Putte was brought into the (back dock). Because of the hurry, the ship caisson did not fit well immediately, and the steam engine had some trouble. Therefore, the water could not be pumped high enough at first, and later the dock could not be made dry enough to lower the ship on the blocks. Nevertheless, this seems to have happened in the evening, and the complete dock was dry on 3 July.

Dock characteristics

Setup Drydock Middelburg Drydock was a Setup Drydock. The idea, and the application of steam power to realize it, was first proposed by Jan Blanken in 1796. A Setup Drydock consists of a deep forward chamber, and a significantly shallower backward chamber. The idea is that a ship first enters the forward chamber of the dry dock. The water in the dry dock is then pumped up so high that the ship can enter the shallower backward dock. Most of the water can then simply be removed from the backward dock by letting it flow out via the dry dock's ship door. The amount of water that has to be pumped out to set the ship on the blocks, is then much smaller, and the backward chamber is generally very dry.

Hellevoetsluis Dry Dock is also a Setup Drydock. However, in Hellevoetsluis it seems more of a feature of the dry dock than a regular part of its operation. At Hellevoetsluis both chambers of the dry dock could be used to dock ships. At Middelburg Drydock the backward dock was the real dry dock.

A nice feature was that at Middelburg, the backward chamber had a sewer which discharged in the direction of Veere. This discharged to a lower water level, so that the backward chamber could be made almost completely dry without pumping, even while the forward chamber had a water level equal to the canal.

The Caisson Door

A caisson door was used to close the dry dock. Such a ship caisson or bateau-porte was a French invention. By the time that Middelburg Drydock was under construction it was in general use in Dutch graving docks, and at some other places in the Netherlands.

Dimensions In about 1880, the dimensions of the dry dock were given as 115 m long with an average width of 21 m. The width of the caisson lock was 17.80 m. Depth below the canal level was 4.50 m, but it is not clear to which chamber this applied. The total length was also given as 125 m. The dry dock had a bend, but the dockfloor was straight.

Pumphouse The steam engine in the pumphouse was made by Smulders.

Service

First service Even while the first ship that was serviced, i.e. Minister Fransen van de Putte was still on the blocks, an accident happened to the dry dock. On 11 July 1876 water from the outside infiltrated below the pumphouse, leading to a cave in of the nearby quay. It turned out that the pumphouse then rested only on its foundation piles. By driving a screen of piles and inserting clay the damage was expected to be fixed for 7,000 guilders. Work on the ship in the dock did not suffer delayed. On 5 August 1876 Minister Fransen van de Putte was brought into the forward dock chamber, but after the ship caisson had been removed it got stuck on the remains of the dam which had been used during construction.