Context In the middle of the eighteenth century, the
Nieuwe Maas, the main connection between Rotterdam and the sea, began to silt up. By the early nineteenth century, there were multiple waterways from Rotterdam to the sea: • A short shallow route from Rotterdam past
Maassluis over the
Nieuwe Maas and
Het Scheur • A short shallow route from Rotterdam past
Brielle over the
Nieuwe Maas and
Brielse Maas • A relatively short, but shallow route from Rotterdam over the
Nieuwe Maas and
Oude Maas to
Oud-Beijerland, and then through the
Spui and Haringvliet to the sea. • A relatively short, but shallow route from Rotterdam eastwards over the
Nieuwe Maas, then over the
Noord to Dordrecht and then to the
Hollands Diep, and to the sea either via the
Haringvliet or the
Grevelingen • The longest route, i.e. from Rotterdam over the
Nieuwe Maas and
Oude Maas to the
Dordtse Kil near
Dordrecht, and then as the previous As the short routes silted up, they remained suitable only for ships that had a draft of somewhat over 3 m. In general, this forced ocean-going ships to take the longest route, i.e. the huge detour over the Haringvliet, Hollands Diep, Dordtsche Kil and Oude Maas to reach the last stretch of the Nieuwe Maas before Rotterdam. It meant that for ships, Dordrecht was closer to the sea than Rotterdam. The consequences of the situation were bad. The detours over Dordrecht not only made the road to sea about three times as long, it also required different winds and multiple tides to sail the zigzag route, which led to even more delay. Even on the long route, ships with a draft of slightly over 20 feet could not be brought before the city without transloading part of the cargo. A further complication was that it often forced ships to sail the Haringvliet under dangerous conditions. The transloading process was very costly. Its necessity was specifically related to some shallow parts on the long route. These were later mentioned as: De Beer, De Lint, De Krap, and the Vissersgat. These made that ships had to transload at
's-Gravendeel, or even outside the
Dordtsche Kil on the
Hollands Diep. Most of the big ships that American shipping lines used were even completely loaded and unloaded at 's-Gravendeel.
Construction The first plans for a ship canal through Voorne dated from the early 17th century. Such a canal would grant easier access to Rotterdam, but could also provide a secure connection between the naval base at Hellevoetsluis and the admiralty shipyard in Rotterdam. The final plan that was conceived by
Job Seaburne May. In 1815 he became commander of the Naval department of the Meuse, and its base, the Rijkswerf Rotterdam. As such he had a professional interest to create the canal. In his original design, the canal would end at the wet dock of Hellevoetluis, and be wide enough to allow ships of the line to retreat inland to Rotterdam. Already in 1823 it was known that the canal would start at the Nieuwe Haven of Hellevoetsluis, i.e. just east of the fortress. It signaled that the commercial interest prevailed over the military interest, even though the latter was still served by the canal. According to the plan, the Nieuwe Haven would be slightly realigned to the east. It is now the Koopvaardijhaven. On 18 March 1826 the plan to dig a canal from the Nieuwe Haven at Hellevoetsluis till the
Nieuwe Sluis (literally the new lock, the later hamlet Nieuwesluis) in the
Nieuwe Maas was approved by the king. The orders for the construction of the canal were given over a couple of years. The construction of the canal itself was tendered in 6 parts on 7 April 1827. Construction of the locks was tendered on 3 May. On 5 July, the second part of the construction of the canal had to be tendered again. On 6 September construction of the harbors on the seaside of the locks was tendered. Construction of the raft bridges across the canal was tendered much later, i.e. in August 1828, and was repeated on 18 September. In June 1829 the construction of a brick watermill and several other drainage facilities for the surrounding
polders was tendered. This had to be repeated on 23 July. On 8 October 1829, the construction of
dolphins and
pile moorings in the canal was tendered. This had to be repeated on 19 November. Finally, on 28 October 1830 delivery of the sand required for the tow paths was tendered. The Voorne Canal was dug from 1827 to 1829. It started at Nieuwesluis, a since disappeared hamlet just north of
Heenvliet, see 1850 map. From there it went to the southwest, and ended just east of Hellevoetsluis. On 8 November 1830 the canal was opened for shipping. In May 1831 the regulations for the canal were published.
Cost The cost of the Voorne Canal was 132,800
GBP. At the time, this amounted to about 1,600,000
guilders. The relatively small scale of the project is shown by comparing this to the estimated cost of the North Sea Canal, which was 27,630,000 guilders. A Dutch florin ( or guilder) at the time was equivalent in value to "nearly
gold dollars" (US), so nearly 0.657 grams of gold.
Early use The canal was an immediate success, not in the least because of the
Belgian Revolution which had started in August 1830. This diverted a lot of maritime traffic from Antwerp to Rotterdam, especially that to the Dutch overseas colonies. In the first 6 weeks after the opening over 200 ships used it. In the first months of 1831 over 500 ships used it, some of them fully loaded with a draft of 15–17 feet. On 1 May the frigate
Le Heros Captain B.C. ten Ham arrived in Hellevoetsluis from Batavia, and succeeded in reaching Rotterdam before the news of her arrival at Hellevoetsluis had reached the city. In October 1831 the use of the canal for the navy was demonstrated. At 11:30 am the war frigate
Ceres left the Rijkswerf Rotterdam, towed by the royal steamyacht
De Leeuw, and was in the Nieuwesluis lock at 4:30 pm. On the morrow, favorable circumstances allowed 18 horses to draw
Ceres through the canal in two hours. The table shows some figures about traffic on the canal. These have to be carefully interpreted. Loaded ships would come in over the canal, and use the Nieuwe Maas on the return trip, because they were not loaded. This is a phenomenon also observed on the
Noordhollandsch Kanaal. The climate also played a big role, with waters often being closed by ice for months. From 1832 to 1836 these numbers show no significant growth. The year 1833 was very bad due to the blockade of the Dutch coast by the French and English navies. The Nieuwe Waterweg was started in 1866, and opened in 1872, but it would take far longer than expected for it to get the intended depth. Meanwhile the 1857 advice to immediately improve the locks of the Voorne Canal had not been heeded, and this turned out badly. Of course the somewhat shallower ships quickly went to use the Nieuwe Waterweg as soon as it became suitable for them. For the really big ships however, a sufficient draft failed to materialize in the Nieuwe Waterweg. In 1879 the canal authorities started to let ships pass the locks with open gates, so larger ships could pass. Of course this could only be done when the tide led to an equal water level at both sides of the lock. It also led to infusion of salt water, and was somewhat dangerous. In 1883 further improvements to the Nieuwe Waterweg again led to a reduction of traffic on the canal. In 1885 traffic on the canal became insignificant.
Characteristics in 1880 In about 1880 the canal was described as having a total length of 10.6 km, and being closed by a
lock at both ends. The minimum width was 37 m at the canal level, and 11 m at the bottom. The minimal depth was 6.10 m below
NAP, while the canal level varied between 0.30 m above NAP and 0.70 m below NAP. The sides of the canal had an inclination well below 2:1 (27 degrees). Both banks had a 4 m wide
tow path at 0.42 m above NAP. Above these were the canal dikes, which reached till 2.20-2.75 m above the normal canal level. Along the canal there were four 90 m long basins with a bottom width of 41 m. Both locks had an equivalent lock chamber with a useful length of 70.71 m and an opening of 13.78 m wide. The sills were at 6.10 m below NAP. However, if the tide was at a level that was equal to that on the inside of a lock, ships with a length of up to 110 m could pass. The lock on the Hellevoetsluis also served to prevent the introduction of salt water into the polders. The use of the Nieuwesluis lock prevented saltier water from the canal from entering the Nieuwe Maas.
Backwater Hellevoetsluis The almost total elimination of shipping on the canal by the final success of the Nieuwe Waterweg in about 1883 was of course disastrous for Hellevoetsluis. What remained was the naval base with its monitors, which often lay in the canal on the seaside of the lock. Some inland shipping also remained. By the early 1890s this amounted to about 4,000 vessels for inland navigation. Amongst these were multiple inland shipping lines to Zeeland, which had very few railways. For the above reasons, the canal was not abandoned after it lost its use for ocean-going shipping. Another probable reason is that it was an insurance policy if the Nieuwe Waterweg failed for any reason. In 1910 the lock of Nieuwesluis was renovated.
Characteristics in 1965 Before the 1966 closure, the canal had a normal level between NAP and 0.50 m below NAP, with a maximum of 0.10 m above NAP. The water that the polders discharged on the canal, was regularly discharged in southern direction by the sluice function of the Hellevoetsluis lock, which could function as such at ebb. If a storm pushed up the sea at Hellevoetsluis, the excess water of the polders would be discharged through the Nieuwesluis lock. However, this was undesirable, because the canal water contained more salt than the Brielse Maas. Therefore the Nieuwesluis lock often discharged southward to lower the salt level in the canal. The closure of the Haringvliet in 1970 meant that the sluice function of the Hellevoetsluis lock had to be replaced with a
pumping station.
Closure In June 1950 the first version of the
Hartel Canal was opened. It ran from the Oude Maas just north of
Spijkenisse to a point just east of Nieuwesluis. By 1959 there were new plans that proposed a more southern route of the Hartel Canal. These included the elimination of Nieuwesluis and Blankenburg. The municipality of Heenvliet objected to the plans. In June 1961, the government decided the matter. The Hartel Canal would get a new location south of Nieuwesluis. The manor
D'Oliphant, which stood near the hamlet was rebuilt in Rotterdam. The agricultural lobby now seized the opportunity, and proposed to construct a dam in the canal south of the Hartel Canal. This would make it possible to decrease the water level in the canal by about three meters. The result would be a ground water level more favorable for agriculture, and less infusion of salt water. It would also allow the replacement of up to 8 water mills that discharged on the canal by a single big, but cheaper water mill that pumped the canal water to the Haringvliet. In 1965 the
Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management decided to close down the Voorne Canal. It was hardly used anymore, but would cost a lot to maintain. In 1966 a dam was laid across the canal northwest of Heenvliet and south of Nieuwesluis and its lock. The lock was subsequently demolished.
After closure After
World War II, the old fortress town Helvoet first expanded to the north in the direction of
Nieuw-Helvoet. In 1965-1967 a new plan for Hellevoetsluis projected a new town center at the hamlet
Oostdijk. There were plans to close the canal south of it, and replace it with a new discharge canal, but in the end the southern part of the canal was preserved. == References ==