Het verjaagde water: Difference between revisions
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[[Category:Floods in the Netherlands]] |
[[Category:Floods in the Netherlands]] |
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[[Category:History of Zeeland]] |
[[Category:History of Zeeland]] |
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==External links== |
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJFAgwDdc5s Documentary about the inundation of Walcheren (in Dutch with English subtitles).] Includes interviews with people who lived in Walcheren during the events described in den Doolaard's novel, and footage of the reclamation works from [[Omroep Zeeland]]. |
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Revision as of 10:52, 22 November 2022
 Inside cover of the first English translation by June Barrows Mussey (Henry Hay), published as Roll back the sea by Simon and Schuster in 1948 | |
| Author | A. den Doolaard |
|---|---|
| Language | Dutch |
| Genre | Non-fiction novel |
| Publisher | N.V. Em. Querido Uitgeversmaatschappij, Amsterdam |
Publication date | 1947 |
| Publication place | Netherlands |
| Media type | Hardback |
| Pages | 526 pages |
Het verjaagde water (The chased water) is a 1947 non-fiction novel written by A. den Doolaard, which gives an account of the recovery works to repair dike breaches after the October 1944 Inundation of Walcheren as part of operations by The Allies of World War II during Operation Infatuate. Researchers from Delft University of Technology have found high levels of historical accuracy in den Doolaard's descriptions of the events that took place, the methods used to close the dikes and the key people involved. Den Doolaard assigned pseudonyms to most of the main characters and organisations.[1] The name A. den Doolaard is also a pseudonym, the author’s real name being Cornelis Johannes George Spoelstra Jr.[2]
Context
In October 1944, several dikes surrounding the Dutch island of Walcheren were bombed by the Allies at strategic locations including Westkapelle, Vlissingen, and Fort Rammekens in order to deliberately flood the island. Whilst the bombings achieved the immediate military objective of forcing a retreat of the occupying forces of Nazi Germany, who had used Walcheren to control the Western Scheldt and access to The Port of Antwerp, the consequences of the devastating flood caused by the breaches had profound effects on the local population.[3][4]
The novel describes the subsequent efforts to repair the breaches in the dikes and reclaim Walcheren from the sea. The works were completed by a number of Dutch contractors, including some with appropriate previous experience from the Zuiderzee works.[5]
Difficulties in commencing the rehabilitation works included the fact that many dredgers were still located in areas of the occupied Netherlands, and around 25% of the Dutch dredging fleet had been confiscated and transported to Germany.[6] Works at the main breach locations were divided up between four contractors[7] as shown in the table below.
| Dike breach site | Contractor |
|---|---|
| The Nolledijk | Bos en Kalis |
| Westkapelle | Hollandse Aanneming Maatschappij (HAM) |
| Veere | Adriaan Volker |
| Rammekens | Van Hattum en Blankevoort |
By October 1945, the contractors and Rijkswaterstaat had managed to assemble a fleet of 14 suction dredgers and bucket dredgers, 135 barges, 61 tugboats, 73 landing craft, 19 floating cranes, 52 bulldozers and draglines along with motor vehicles and other equipment.[8] Difficulties in sourcing adequate materials and the sheer scale of the works during an emergency wartime situation led to innovative use of improvised materials and equipment, such as the Phoenix caissons used in the closure of the dike gaps, which had previously been used as Mulberry harbours during the Allied invasion of Normandy.[9] Den Doolaard describes the initial reluctance of some of the contractors to use these units, however so successful was their implementation that similar units would later be used on the closure of the Brielse Maasdam in 1950 and the Braakman in 1952.[7]
Den Doolaard drew on his experiences as a liaison officer with the Dienst Droogmaking Walcheren (Directorate for Reclamation of Walcheren) to write the novel.[10][11]
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Editions
The original Dutch edition of Het verjaagde water appeared in 1947, published by Em. Querido's Uitgeverij in Amsterdam. It was reprinted in 1958 by the same publisher. An updated edition with annotations by Professor K. d'Angremond and GJ Schiereck was published by Delft Academic Press in 2001. The book has also been translated into Hungarian.[12]
An English translation entitled Roll back the sea by June Barrows Mussey, with original illustrations by Cees Bantzinger, was published in New York in 1948 by Simon and Schuster and in London and Melbourne in 1949 by Heinemann (publisher).[13]
Content
Both the original 1947 publication and the subsequent 1948 English translation by Barrows Mussey consist of five books and twenty-five chapters. The table below gives the title of each chapter, from both the Dutch and English versions.
| Book (Chapter) | 1947 Dutch edition (Het verjaagde water) | 1948 English translation (Roll back the sea) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (1) | De watertovenaars | The water wizards |
| 1 (2) | Zuidzee en Noordzee | South Sea and North Sea |
| 1 (3) | Het water komt | The water comes |
| 1 (4) | De preek | The sermon |
| 1 (5) | Het spookeiland | The ghost islands |
| 1 (6) | Doen of niet doen? | To do or not to do |
| 2 (7) | Wie een boot heeft, heeft de wereld | The man that has a boat has the world |
| 2 (8) | Van Hummel's zwarte boekje | Van Hummel's little black book |
| 2 (9) | Anton Hijnssen gaat uit roeien | Anton Hynssen goes rowing |
| 2 (10) | Van Hummel's zwarte boekje (ii) | Van Hummel's little black book II |
| 2 (11) | De baggervloot vaart uit | The dredging fleet puts out |
| 2 (12) | De rijswerkers | The fascine workers |
| 3 (13) | Walcheren omhoog | Up with Walcheren! |
| 3 (14) | Klei tegen water | Clay against water |
| 3 (15) | Kraan zeven | Crane 7 |
| 3 (16) | Beton tegen klei | Concrete against clay |
| 3 (17) | Anton Hijnssen verovert Vlissingen | Anton Hynssen conquers Flushing |
| 4 (18) | Westkapelle | Westkapelle |
| 4 (19) | De scharesliep | The joker with the idea |
| 4 (20) | De brug over de afgrond | The bridge over the chasm |
| 5 (21) | De vuist van de reus | The giant's fist |
| 5 (22) | Het water loopt weg | The water runs away |
| 5 (23) | Het boze gat van Rammekens | The wicked gap at Rammekens. |
| 5 (24) | Phoenix | Phoenix |
| 5 (25) | De eeuwige strijd | The everlasting battle |
Barrows Mussey's 1948 English translation uses literal translations of each chapter from the original Dutch, with the exception of chapter 19 which uses The joker with the idea as a translation of the Dutch term de scharesliep, a term used to describe a peddler tradesperson who sharpens knives. Den Doolaard uses scharesliep in its pejorative sense, used to describe a peculiar person.[14] The chapter title refers to the character Berend Bonkelaar's use of the term to express his incredulity at a particular method put forward for carrying out the dike repair works by an officer of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
In chapters 9 and 17, Anton Hijnssen's surname is translated as Hynssen, with the Dutch IJ (digraph) being anglicised to Y.[15]
Historical accuracy
For the 2001 reissue of the book, professor Kees D'Angremond and his colleague Gerrit-Jan Schiereck from Delft University of Technology undertook eight years of research around the characters in the book and the events described in it, with two of their graduate students investigating the accuracy of den Doolaard's representation of the technical aspects of the Walcheren reclamation.[16] Their findings were included as annotations in the book and confirmed the high levels of accuracy in den Doolaard's descriptions of the people, events and technical aspects of the hydraulic engineering methods implemented, including the use of caissons, Phoenix breakwaters and torpedo nets.[17]
The true identities of many of the characters in the novel were revealed, including den Doolard's depiction of protagonists such as the distinguished civil engineer and professor, Pieter Philippus Jansen[18] (represented by the character Van Hummel), many senior Rijkswaterstaat officials, the charismatic dredging boss Berend Bonkelaar (den Doolaard's psuedonym for J.J. 'Kobus' Kalis, a founding director of the Boskalis company),[19] and Klaas Otterkop, the pseudonym of fascine mattress construction foreman Gerrit Visser of Gebroeders Van Oord, who supervised the installation of 36 fascine mattresses over a total area of 52,700 square metres during the work.[7]
Bibliography
- Het verjaagde water (1947) Netherlands: Em. Querido's Uitgeverij, Amsterdam.
- --- (1958) Em. Querido's Uitgeverij, Amsterdam.
- --- (2001) VSSD/Delft Academic Press, with new research and annotations by Prof. ir. K. d'Angremond and ir. G.J. Schiereck.
- Roll back the sea (1948) United States: Simon and Schuster, New York, translated by Barrows Mussey.
See also
- Netherlands in World War II
- Operation Infatuate
- Flood control in the Netherlands
- Rijkswaterstaat
- Henry Hay (writer)
References
- ^ den Doolaard, A.; d' Angremond, K.; Schiereck, G.J (2001). Het verjaagde water [Roll back the sea] (PDF) (in Dutch). Delft: VSSD/Delft Academic Press. ISBN 9789065624116.
- ^ Dronken van het leven : A. den Doolaard, zwerver, schrijver, journalist / Hans Olink. – Amsterdam : Atlas, 2011. – 431 p. ISBN 978-90-450-1369-5
- ^ van Gent, T. (2005). The Allied Assault on Walcheren, 1944 in: C. Steenman-Markusse, and A. van Herk (eds.), Building Liberty: Canada and World Peace, 1945-2005. ISBN 9789077922057. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ Goodlet, K.W. (2013). " "Reduced to the banks of mud from which they were reclaimed": The province of Zeeland, war and reconstruction, 1940-1945, in: Can. J. of Netherlandic Studies/Rev. can. d'études néerlandaises 34.2" (PDF). Canadian Association for the Advancement of Netherlandic Studies/Association canadienne pour l'avancement des études néerlandaises. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ Bouwens, B.; Sluyterman, K. (2010). Verdiept verleden: Een eeuw Koninklijke Boskalis Westminster en de Nederlandse baggerindustrie [Deepened past: A century of Royal Boskalis Westminster and the Dutch dredging industry] (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Boom. ISBN 9789085069492.
- ^ Vandersmissen, H. (1995). 60 jaar Vereniging Centrale Baggerbedrijf [60 years of the Central Dredging Companies Association] (in Dutch). Leidschendam.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c Korteweg, J. (2018). Breaking new ground. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans. p. 184. ISBN 9789460039676.
- ^ Bos, W. (1974). Van baggerbeugel tot sleepzuiger. Een overzicht van de ontwikkeling in de Nederlandse baggerindustrie [From dredging bracket to trailing suction dredger. An overview of the development in the Dutch dredging industry] (in Dutch). Sliedrecht.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Ferguson, H.A. (1991). Dialoog met de Nordzee. 2000 jaar Deltawerken [Dialogue with the North Sea. 2000 years of Delta works.] (in Dutch). Hippolytushoef. p. 112-113.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Website dedicated to den Doolaard describing his experiences at Walcheren and the writing of the novel (in Dutch)". Retrieved 18 November 2022.
- ^ "Archive report by the Zeeuws Archief, the Regional Historical Archive of Zeeland (in Dutch)". Retrieved 18 November 2022.
- ^ "Het verjaagde water by A. den Doolaard". WorldCat. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
- ^ "Roll back the sea by A. den Doolaard, translated by Barrows Mussey". WorldCat. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
- ^ "scharesliep (Dutch) meaning". Wordsense Dictionary. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ "Y (klinker / medeklinker)". Genootschap Onze Taal (in Dutch). Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ "Delft University of Technology interview with Prof. ir. K. D'Angremond (in Dutch)". 6 December 2001. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
- ^ Bleyi, R.H.J. (1998). Het verjaagde water, de getijbeweging op Walcheren en de caissonsluitingen in 1945/1946 (Het verjaagde water, the tidal movement on Walcheren and the caisson closures in 1945/1946) (Masters Thesis). Delft University of Technology.
- ^ Jansen., P. Ph. (1946). "De droogmaking van Walcheren. De strijd bij Rammekens" [The reclamation at Walcheren. The battle at Rammekens.]. De Ingenieur (in Dutch). 58 (15).
- ^ d'Angremond (2004), "Het verjaagde water: roman of geschiedenisboek? (Het verjaagde water: novel or history book?)", Nehalennia, 145, Nehalennia, vol. 145, pp. 20-28: 20–28, ISSN 0168-7131
External links
Documentary about the inundation of Walcheren (in Dutch with English subtitles). Includes interviews with people who lived in Walcheren during the events described in den Doolaard's novel, and footage of the reclamation works from Omroep Zeeland.