Dutch and German Immigrants The Prins Family - Pier 21

In the early days, fishing was done with flat-bottomed boats they wereable to beach. Short trips were made of about a week in duration.Caught fish were kept alive in so called “buns” or salted and preserved inthat way. When they arrived at the beach, the fish were sold to thebuyers who took them from there to the outlying towns for distributionand re-sale. Later on when IJmuiden came into being, botters were usedand after that trawlers.Sometimes competition came from the catches of English fisherman whobrought their harvest in by freighter. This of course was not much to theliking of the local fishermen, as it tended to lower the prices. TheEgmonder people took matters into their own hands by throwing the'English' fish back into the sea. This act brought in the federal policeforce, the Marechaussee, trying to prevent this unlawful deed. Fightserupted and one of my great-grandfathers, Teunis Zwart, bashed one ofhis wooden shoes on the head of one of the policemen. He was convictedand spent three months in jail in the town of Breda.The first fish auction market was a private one, located close to theoriginal locks. Later on after the fishing harbour was dug, thegovernment run auction market was established there, and all thefishing boats moved into that harbour.Opa Prins, when he was an active fisherman, was master upon one of thetrawlers, owned by the grandfather of Uncle Dirk de Groot.Fishing with the dragnets was usually done from one side of the trawler.The other side was kept as a spare, in case there were repairs to be madeto the used net. After a fishing period of approximately four hours, thehaul was dumped into compartments on the ship’s deck, processed andsorted. The mate handled the steam winch to pull in the net. It was hisjob as well to insure a proper storing and icing of the catch.The warehouse at the Haringstraat was purchased when the Praxis hadplans to expand into the fishery with herring nets, but those plans werenever realized.Klaar still remembers the day my dad and mother came to theKennemerlaan to ask for permission to get married, as was the customthose days. This took place in the stateroom, my mother crying. Omawasn’t impressed but she did the answering. Apparently the answer wasyes and they got married.From his early childhood, Klaar spent time at Aunt Antje’s place having afull cousin Jack v d Kuil, as a playmate. One time, the v d Kuil familywas sitting around the kitchen table while Klaar hid under the table.