Discover the Hoge Berg

The harbour of Oudeschild was constructed shortly after 1780. It was intended for small sailing vessels: fishing boats, pilot boats and small cargo ships. Before the harbour was built, the small sailing ships moored on the Wadden Sea beaches. Loading and unloading cargo was pretty tricky there and in this was much easier in the harbour. Above all, the harbour provided protection during storms. The large seagoing vessels didn’t need a harbour and anchored on the Texel Roads.

Den Berger

Leendert den Berger had to campaign for a long time for the construction of a harbour on Texel. The influential merchant traders from Amsterdam were adamantly against it as they didn’t wish Oudeschild to grow into a trading town. But Leendert won his plea. Bonds were offered in order to raise the money for the construction of the harbour. In this way, wealthy inhabitants of Texel could make their own contributions.

The location

When the harbour was constructed, the village of Oudeschild was somewhat smaller than it is now. The harbour was dug out on the north eastern side of the original village. Den Berger made use of a pool which had formed during an earlier breach of the dyke. Cargo and passengers had to travel through the village to other places on Texel, as the Schilderweg did not yet exist in those days.

Refuge

The harbour proved its function as a refuge soon after its opening. During a heavy storm, many sailing boats sought refuge in the new harbour. It turned out that the spacious harbour had been well calculated. Even a large ‘lighter’ (inland barge) could enter the harbour in full sail and, once inside, could navigate under sail to a mooring.

Skilsloot extended

During the construction of the harbour, the trade in Texel drinking water for seagoing vessels was still important. For this reason, the Skilsloot was extended after the opening of the harbour. Small barges carrying barrels of water were then able to transport them from the Hoge Berg right up to the harbour.

Napoleon

During the French occupation, Napoleon’s strategists decided that south eastern Texel had to be better defended against possible enemy invasions. The emperor himself wrote in 1811 his ‘nôte sur l’Ile de Texel’, in which he gave orders for fortification, including surrounding the harbour of Oudeschild with a high wall, complete with bastions, artillery and a fort moat. Due to insufficient funds, this plan was postponed. After the fall of Napoleon at Waterloo the plans were never realized.

Sanding up...

In the course of the nineteenth century, economic business on Texel hugely decreased. The opening of the Great North Holland Canal in 1824 was disastrous for the Texel Roads as outer harbour of Amsterdam. From then on, ships could be transported to the trading city via the canal. Oudeschild became a common fishing village on the Zuiderzee and the catch was all too often meagre. In these hard times, the western part of the harbour sanded up. There was no money available for dredging works and eventually this part of the harbour became completely filled in. Later, grain houses and a shipyard would appear on this new quayside.

...and digging out

Developments in the fishing industry and the rise of the ferry service to Texel made it necessary for an extra harbour basin to be dug out of the western part of the original harbour. An extra working harbour was built for the fast-growing fleet of North Sea fishing vessels, a dry dock and the cargo ships transporting agricultural products from Texel. The two yachting marinas were constructed in two phases. This has all resulted in the harbour now being seven times the size it was in Den Berger’s day. It continues to be the décor for numerous activities and also still functions as a harbour for small-scale shipping.