Hurdegaryp: peculiar ship

Posted by Illuci (Hurdegaryp, Netherlands) on 25 February 2008 in Art & Design.

Directly North West of Hurdegaryp you can find a wooden sculpture in the shape of a ship, sawn in two over its length. The right half (on the picture) is fixed on the ground, the left half (on the picture) moves up and down with the water level of the narrow canal where it is located (so you see this level is a little bit below normal today). The sculpture is a tribute to the skippers from older times who passed the place with their ships full of cargo (peat, hay, potatoes, and other countryside products), often their wives and teenage children towed the ships and when they could afford it they used a rented horse; mostly they couldn't for the competition was fierce and the capitalist business people wanted to have transportation costs as low as possible. Two miles from here a statue for those brave towing women can be seen. Cold comfort, 150-100 years later!

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