Dutch-Colonies-L Archives

Archiver > Dutch-Colonies > 2002-03 > 1016152370


From: Cor Snabel <>
Subject: [D-Col] Obsolete occupations - Beachcomber
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 01:32:50 +0100


Dear friends,

As a boy during my school holidays in autumn, my friends and I used to
camp in bunkers from W.W.II on the beach and in the dunes. During and
after storms we walked along the coastline and tried to find driftwood
for our (smoky) camp fire and were always looking for other items which
washed ashore. We never found anything valuable, but being a beachcomber
was an adventure in itself.

Regards,
Cor Snabel
The Netherlands

------------------------------------------------

Beachcomber (strandjutter)

Combing the beach started out of pure poverty. Unemployment and low
wages made people roam the beaches to find anything useful and driftwood
was used for the stove or for building houses.
Since the Middle Ages it was the law that the goods, which washed ashore
were handed over to the local authority, the landowner or the Mayor.
In 1529 Charles V enacted a law in which a person, who kept his findings
to himself, was to be considered a thief. But these laws were useless;
nobody could check the entire coastline and traditions about
beachcombing were very hard to change.

If an abandoned ship washed ashore the authorities had to react very
fast, because the beachcombers always wandered around the beaches
especially during stormy weather, even at night. Plundering of those
ships happened all the time; a ship’s cargo was a very rich catch for
the poor inhabitants of the coastal areas.
People even started to make big fires on the beach in order to mislead
the ships.
In 1767 the VOC-ship “Vrouwe Elisabeth Dorothea” stranded on the coast
of Holland and an eyewitness stated, that a rapacious mob was involved
in plundering the rich ship. As a result of that incident a wreck-master
was appointed in 1769 in every village along the coast and he and his
helpers had to watch the entire coastline, especially during storms and
even at night.
Nowadays the local Mayor is the wreck-master and policemen are his
helpers, because beachcombing still exists.


This thread: