A strange attraction
The port of Amsterdam always had a problem with its access from the North sea. In the Dutch golden age of the 17th century the Zuiderzee was shallow even for the merchant ships of the VOC and WIC coming heavily loaded from Asia or the Caribbean. Ship camels were used to help these heavy ships up the Zuiderzee into Amsterdam. Otherwise the cargo had to be unloaded onto smaller ships off the Reede of Texel to get into Amsterdam.
Ships leaving Sail Amsterdam by the lock in Ijmuiden
The construction of the Noordhollands Kanaal between Amsterdam and Nieuwediep, later Den Helder, starting in 1819 brought some improvement. In the original design the width of this long canal was 37.60 m at the top, and 10 m in the canal bed at a depth of 5.70 m. The smallest lock at Nieuwediep limiting the dimensions of the ships between 1823 and 1860 was 53.30 m long and 14.10 m wide.
The lock f 1896
However, the canal had serious draw-backs. The many bridges and locks made the long passage very time consuming. In the beginning, when ships were pulled by horses along the canal it took around two days to pass through. Soon the size of the ships increased and the depth of the canal became insufficient. Although some improvements were done between 1856 and 1876 and a new lock of 110 m long was opened in 1864, a more permanent solution had to be found. Starting in 1864 a new canal was constructed which connected Amsterdam with the North Sea west of town. In 1876 the Northsea canal to Ijmuiden was opened and the longer Noordhollandsch Kanaal up north became obsolete.
Freighter in the lock of 1896
Initially two locks of 110 m long were built at the mouth of the canal in 1876 with a width of 20 m resp. 8 m and a depth of 8 resp. 3.5 m. They were soon too small for the increasing size of ships and already in 1896 a new lock of 225 by 25 by 10 m was opened. All these old locks still exist. However, even the new lock was caught by development. This time, the planners thought big. The next lock, which opened in 1929, at its time with 400 by 50 by 15 m was the world’s largest.
The sliding gate of the lock of 1929
A popular science magazine wrote in 1930:
“BIGGEST CANAL LOCK OPENED IN HOLLAND
The world's largest canal lock, a quarter of a mile long and capable of raising the biggest ships, was opened recently at Ijmuiden, Holland. It marks the ocean end of the North Sea canal, which enables
ocean liners to reach Amsterdam. Despite its great size, the lock can be filled with water in twelve minutes. Its three gates, which weigh nearly 1,500 tons apiece, roll into place on rails. Measuring 1,312 feet long by 164 feet wide, it dwarfs all other structures of the kind. Its closest competitor, now under construction at Bremerhaven, Germany, will be 1,155 feet long.
Freighter entering the lock of 1929
The locks in Ijmuiden are a popular spot for boat spotting. There is usually a crowd of people in easy chairs seated next to their cars who wait for the next ship to pass. When I came to Ijmuiden for the first time in 2006 there were basically no barriers between the on-lookers and the rim at the side of the lock’s basin. Only the area where the ships were actually moored while being lifted had signs to keep off. The rounded, metal upper edge of the retaining wall of the lock would be slippery when wet, so practically permanent under dutch weather conditions. Still, some people sat right on the rim, fishing with their kids, even upon approach of a behemoth of a ship for which the lock was just wide enough. The big lock does not have the usual double gates swinging open and close but one big sliding door at each end which disappears in a shaft perpendicular to the basin when open. One guy was actually standing on the end of the gate when it opened and smoked his cigar.
I don’t know whether somebody actually fell in and was squashed between the wall and a moored ship, but all the locks now are protected from the tourists by high fences and barbed wire. A close encounter with the water in the lock is finally made impossible.
Fishing from the rim of the lock wall
Closely watching a big tanker getting into the lock of 1929
On July 5th 2004 at 10:45 am a strange accident happened in the lock of 1896. A barge folded in half lengthwise and partially sank. Nobody was hurt. The vessel was on its third trip with a load. It turned out that the ship had been constructed far too weak for the load allowed and the inspection of the waterways had not recalculated the construction. It is worth to look in the link below to see the picture of the wreck. Another accident happened in the morning April 23rd, 2016. The big Ro-ro carrier CITY OF ROME collided with the seaward gate of the big lock in IJmuiden because the vessel couldn’t stop on time. The gate suffered a 3-meter breach, but they continued to use it until the regular maintenance was due.
The basins of the locks of 1929 and 2021
The lock of 1929 served its purpose for a long time. However, the size of ships has increased. The biggest container ships now have a length of 400 m and can carry up to 24.000 containers, although they hardly never do. There were several oil tankers which reached a length of up to 458 m, however, they were all scrapped. Therefore the authorities decided that a new, bigger lock was needed for the north sea canal. The new lock will be ready to use end of the year. The new sealock was squeezed in between the enormous north lock and the smaller older locks. It is 500 m long, 70 meters wide and 18 m deep.
The bridges across the old locks of 1876
The gates of the two big locks also serve as road, bicycle and foot path to cross the canal. The closed side always serves as road connection while the other is open. Since the old locks have conventional swinging gates, the road uses scenic rotating red steel bridges at both ends of the locks. Depending on which gate is open the route from one side of the canal to the other can turn into a long zigzag path. At this moment some of the bridges are removed for renovation and the gates serving as road are only open for cars and pedestrians.
The big pumping station
Besides its use as a shipping lane the Canal also serves water management. Since most of Noord Holland is below sea level, surface water has to be collected and constantly removed to the sea via the canal. When the water level in the sea is lower than in the canal the water can just flow away. Otherwise it has to be pumped out by the largest pumping station in Europe. 3 billion cubic meters of water leave the canal that way each year or 95.000 liter every second. The canal has become vital for the groundwater management of the Western Netherlands.
The steel works
The construction of the canal led to the founding of a new town, Ijmuiden. Due to its location at the mouth of the canal it soon became an important port in its own right and an industrial location. In 1918 a steel mill was constructed next to the entrance to the canal. Until 1996 it was run under the name of Koninklijke Nederlandse Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken (KNHS), since that time it follows the rules of capitalism and changes names regularly. At the moment it is called Tata steel. First iron was produced, later steel and also Aluminium. Ijmuiden was chosen since it allowed the import and export by sea, since the Netherlands could not rely om own resources of coal and ore. Two harbors were built. The outer harbor allows access of big bulk carriers right to the steel mill without having to use the locks.
Big bulk carriers unloading at the dock of the steel mill
Environmental issues become more and more critical for plants like this. The steel plant in Ijmuiden has to deal with numerous complaints about poisonous emissions. Employees and residents in the surroundings complain about health problems. GP’s in the area clearly have more patients suffering from tightness, headache, nausea and chest pain. The concentration of cancerous compounds in the towns around the plant is 50% higher then elsewhere in the Netherlands. The frequency of skin cancer in these places is between 14 and 57% higher than in the rest of the Netherlands, lung cancer is 25% more frequent. The dutch RIVM, the public health institute, refuses to draw a connection between the steel plant and the health situation. Former employees have sued the owners on grounds of cases of lung cancer caused by asbestos. The owners deny any responsibility. However, you don’t need a lot of research to realize that the air quality around the plant is poor. When I visited a couple of weeks ago an acid sulfur stench hung in the air and even on the photos you can see the plant behind a blueish haze.
Blue haze in the air around the steel mill
A plant like that attracts other enterprises which take advantage of byproducts. Coal tar can be used by chemical works, coke oven gas was used in the site's power plant and in nearby municipalities and to produce fertilizer. Eventually also a cement factory joined the bunch. Its enormous plant lines the cycle path and road leading towards the locks.
The cement factory
On the other side of the canal a conventional harbor was built. An enormous ferry leaves from here to Newcastle. It dwarfs the houses of the town by at least four floors and is visible from almost everywhere. The port is also used by cruise ships. It is probably much cheaper to move the guests from here by bus to Amsterdam for sightseeing than to pay the fees for locks, canal and port in Amsterdam. The rest of the port is mainly used as fishing harbor.
During the German occupation in WWII Ijmuiden was declared a fortress. Houses were torn down to provide a free shooting range and bunkers being part of the Atlantic wall were built into the dunes behind the beach to prevent an invasion from the sea.
Bunkers of the atlantic wall in Ijmuiden with a cruise ship in the port in the background
As access point to the Channel the port was the base for an armada of speedboats designed to fire torpedoes at allied ships passing by. These boats, being able to travel at a speed of 65 km/h for 1500 km, were built from wood and very fragile. They needed protection from the increasing air raids. Therefore, since 1941 Ijmuiden harbor had a big boat shelter with a 2 m reinforced concrete roof. Hwever, the increasing destructive force of the bombs needed a stronger bunker.
The big speed boat bunker
Therefore in 1943 the Germans started to built a new, stronger bunker with a roof of reinforced concrete 4 m thick. The bunker had space for 12 boats and additionally another 4 docks for repairs.
Open day at the speed boat bunker
The construction of the bunker was delayed by the constant air raids. Damages which occurred from bombs hitting before the ceiling was finished can be seen inside the bunker. Finally, in 1944 the roof was finished. Meanwhile the allies had developed new bombs. The “tallboys” were bombs of 5 kiloton and the idea was to let them explode right next to the outside wall of the bunker to destroy the foundations leading to the collapse of the supporting walls. These tactics indeed led to the destruction of the older speed boat bunker before the new one was finished. The speed boats now were spread out in the port to minimize damage.
The inside of the speed boat bunker
The new bunker still exists. It is on the ground of Cebo, a company storing and selling minerals and can be visited on special occasions. On the walls of the then new bunker the damage done by tallboys still can be seen.
The basins for the speed boats were never dug out and filled with water
The torpedoes to arm the speed boats were stored in a separate bunker a distance away from the boat shed. Also this bunker still exists and serves as a practice room fr musicians. The rails of the narrow gauge railway used to bring the torpedoes to the boats still lead into the entrance.
The torpedo bunker
In 1944 a new secret bomb called the Disney swish was used. Its name was inspired by a propaganda cartoon by Walt Disney. The bomb was accelerated by a solid fuel rocket engine, which gave it an impact speed of 1590 km/h - much higher than the speed caused by gravitation of an ordinary bomb. In 1944 a Disney swish hit the new, unfinished bunker in Ijmuiden. It penetrated the 4 m reinforced concrete roof, left a neat hole in the underlying ceiling and ended up stuck in the ground. Without exploding.
Damages by the Disney swish in the ceiling of the bunker
After they learned that the allies now had bombs which were able to enter even the new bunker, the works were stopped and the bunker was never finished.
Fish restaurant in the port of Ijmuiden
When I first visited Ijmuiden the town center was in a deplorable state. The old town houses were in bad repair, some were boarded up. The scars left by the war were still visible. Abandoned railroad tracks led into a town of deserted streets. In the meantime a lot of the town center has been reconstructed. New attractive residential buildings have filled the scars left from the war. But in addition the town has become something like a tourist attraction.
View from the dunes separating the popular beach from the steel mill
South and north of the mouth of the canals are beaches. A beach and vacation park with a marina has been built at the southern end of the port. It is crowned by a pretty lighthouse on a hill with a couple of old cottages. To separate the northern beach from the steel plant, a kind of dam has been piled up. You can lie on the beach and ignore the industrial site behind you. If the wind blows in the right direction and drives the cancerous smell inland.
The lighthouse of Ijmuiden
The coastal dunes south of Ijmuiden have been declared national park Kennemmerland. Hiking and bicycle trails across the dunes lead to empty stretches of beach. The stench and noise of the industrial landscape seems to be far away. But from the beach you can see all the ships from and to the locks.
Sailing vessel moving towards the locks
Sources:
"Biggest Canal Lock Opened in Holland.' Popular Science Monthly, September 1930, p. 29.
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