The Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries - Dutch Fleet-8

[Anatol]

PEAT TRANSPORTATION (Turfvaart).
A peat canal is an excavated waterway constructed to transport peat from the extraction site (usually a peat bog) to the market (usually a city). The peat was transported by a peat ship or peat barge . The word «turfvaart» therefore also refers to the traffic caused by the peat ships. Peat extraction in the Netherlands dates back to the Middle Ages and was an important fuel for industry and households. The main peat extraction areas were the Holland-Utrecht Low Peatlands, eastern Groningen, eastern Frisia, Drenthe , the northern part of Overijssel and western Brabant. [ 1 ] Peat barges were used to transport the peat to the customers. Canals were dug in all these areas for extraction and transport, such as the peat canals in Groningen, the Opsterlandse Compagnonsvaart in Friesland, the Hoogeveense Vaart and the Drentsche Hoofdvaart in Drenth . The peat ships were small in size and could carry between 10 and 30 tons of peat. The canals were initially narrow, with a bottom width of five meters and a depth of only one meter. Later, the canals became larger; in the late 18th century, the Drentse Hoofdvaart was constructed with a bottom width of 8.7 meters and a depth of 1.1 meters. The locks were given a passage width of 4.8 meters or wider. The construction of these canals was usually in the hands of one or more peat cutters. Shipping traffic was very intensive; in Balkbrug at the Dedemsvaart , about 7,256 ships passed in 1830, in 1850 even 15,280. Especially in the beginning, these were almost exclusively peat ships. The peat ships often brought back city manure as return cargo for the tenant farms on the estates that sprang up along the peat canals. In places like Zwartsluis and Roosendaal, peat was transferred to larger ships for transport to cities in Holland and Flanders . Zwartsluis was located on the route from Drenthe across the Zuiderzee to Amsterdam, and in 1776 the large lock was rebuilt here for 100,000 guilders. [ 1 ] The money for this came from private individuals who were granted the right to levy tolls on all ships passing through the lock.

In the margin of the MS.
In the early sixteenth century, people began searching for new areas to extract peat, particularly in the northern Netherlands. This peat had to be transported to other parts of the country, which was mostly done via the Zuiderzee. To this end, ships had to be adapted to navigate within the cities with large loads. Consequently, the peat trade had a significant impact on Dutch freight shipping.
On the stamps design on Ms is based on etchings by Gerrit Groenewegen (1754–1826), a Rotterdam artist best known for his seascapes and masterful ship etchings. Between 1786 and 1801, he created a series of 84 etchings, each a detailed depiction of a contemporary vessel.
Nederland 2025, (1,1,1,1,1) Ms; Source: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turfvaart.