Discover the fishing boat Botter, wooden model of this traditional Dutch ship. These boats sailed for centuries on the shallow coastal waters of the Zuiderzee Sea. The crew, usually between 2 and 4 men, used to keep the catches alive in a nursery located in the center of the ship. The Zuiderzee was a large inland sea to the north of the Netherlands.
The completion in 1932 of a large dam divided it into two, creating a large inland saltwater lake called Ijsselmeeer and adding the rest of the old inland sea to the Frisian Sea.
After this division no new Botters were built, and the wood and the sails were replaced by steel and motor propulsion. An association for Botter preservation keeps several of them in their original state.