Holland 4  history

Holland Meeslepend is a book about people and their connection with the legendary Terschellinger Sea Tug 'Holland', told in forty interviews. From the construction to the impending demolition and the difficult, but beautifully successful restoration. First, the men who, during stormy weather, sailed to a ship in distress and the stragglers, women and children. They all made the 'Holland' more than a ship – a concept, a boy's dream even. Then comes the story of those other rescuers, the men and women who saved the boat from demolition. In 1998 Rederij Doeksen sold the 'Holland' to an admirer of the ship, but even then the preservation, the intended restoration, was far from certain. That it did succeed has been the work of people who, with the persistence of a sea tugboat, managed to bring in the sponsors. And it is the work of the men with the golden, callous hands, who have volunteered to tackle the restoration and who now keep the 'Holland' sailing. But why are you doing all this, why are you getting carried away by such an old boat? That's the secret of the Holland.

Jan Heuff (1948) lives and works at Terschelling as a publisher and photographer. Recent books by his hand are 'Vaarwijzer Waddenzee' and 'Jhr. J.W.H. Rutgers van Rozenburg, the Terschellinger museum boat'. He was Editor-in-Chief of Terschelling Magazine for fifteen years.