Pascaarte, van de Zuijderzee, Vliestroom, Vlie, en Amelandergat…

Very rare chart of the Dutch Zuiderzee, here in its rare 5th state (o f6). Showing the coastlines along the Dutch inner sea.
Two compass roses indicate north to the left and a large decorative inset with the region of the Pampus and Amsterdam.
After the Dutch V.O.CC ships parted from from the IJ of Amsterdam they arribved in the shallow waters of Pampus, there was a broad channel towards the island of Urk. The former island of Schokland (now poldered in) was an important refuge, providing needed shelter during storms. From there on there were two trajectories towards the North Sea. The eastern route was between Vlieland and Terschelling, the western route was between Den Helder and Texel. It could take days for the ships to reach open North Sea water — the channels were hard to navigate during unfavorable winds.

Pampus (an old word meaning thick mush) was the name given to a soft mud treshold east of Amsterdam and north of Muiden, where the IJ exited into the Zuiderzee. This tidal channel continually silted up with meters deep soft sludge, hindering ships to and from Amsterdam’s harbor. Even at high tide it barely had a depth of 3 m (10 ft). In the 17th century there were no efficient dredging tools available to remedy that situation. Pampus is now the name of an artificial island north of Muiden with a fort on it, constructed between 1887 and 1895 to protect the Pampus channel, part of a defense line called Stelling van Amsterdam.

During the colonial world trade large ships were often unable to pass — due to low tide or unfavorable winds — and needed to wait in queue for weeks and even months. This gave rise to the Dutch expression “voor Pampus liggen” (lie in front of Pampus), meaning to be unable to move, to be knocked out cold. More and more the really big ships were loaded and unloaded at Texel, their wares, guns and crews transported with smaller vessels. This came at a high cost in time, tools, manpower and money. The lighter ships could then — just — pass Pampus at high tide for maintenance at Amsterdam’s wharfs.

Decorative title cartouche completes this lovely and rarely seen sea chart. The vignet of the Colom publishing house to the left.

Reference: Spiegel der Zuiderzee Z8.5, the 5th state of 6; cf. Koeman IV, J. Col 1 [3]