The oldest houseboat on the canals of Amsterdam is being removed after being left unable to pass under the low bridges around it.
The Dogger, built in 1865, is a former watership that transported drinking water to the city’s breweries. It is believed to have moved into the Prinsengracht canal in 1888.
The vessel is said by its owner, Jeroen Elsen, 55, to be uninsurable. One reason is that it cannot sail out of the canal for repairs as it is too tall for the bridges around it.
The Dogger’s bottom has not been out of the water in 134 years, when it should be take out every seven years. The rusty exterior of the boat suggests long-term neglect.
In 1996, it was saved from demolition after a radio report led to a public campaign of support. In recent years, the Dogger was hit by a tourist boat, leaving it taking on water that needs to be continuously pumped out.
The boat will be removed from the canal within days. Elsen said he could not risk the boat sinking in the Prinsengracht but he thought the move was a tragedy.
He told Het Parool: “We are talking about 96 tons of steel and concrete. If it sinks, it sinks to the middle of the moat, blocking the passage. Then I get big, big problems with my liability.”
Attempts to secure insurance had failed, he said. “They asked on the phone: ‘How long has the boat been out of place?’ I say: ‘1888.’ ‘1988?’ ‘No, 1888.’ Then the conversation was over. Uninsurable.”
Elsen said he understood that some people in the exclusive central area of Amsterdam around the Prinsengracht canal had complained that the boat was an eyesore. “Other people think it’s a beautiful boat. They think it’s terrible, just like me, that it disappears from this place,” he said.
To move the Dogger under the canal bridges, a large part of it will have to be dismantled. “The boat is, as it were, peeled off, undressed,” Elsen said. “This is archaeology. Some things go to landfill, other parts we keep because I think they are historically interesting.”
Lilian Huizinga, who lived in the boat between 1985 and 1992 with her sons and her then boyfriend, said: “People were already saying to me: are you going to live in that old corpse? But I really enjoyed being here. My sons and I wanted to say goodbye. They grew up here.”
