Rederij Doeksen

Rederij Doeksen was established in 1908 by Gerrit Doeksen and his elder sons. This tugcompany was founded to salvage ships along the northen coast of the Netherlands between Den Helder near the Northsea coast and the small island of Rottum near the German border and the Ems river. Also, ships were owned that sucked shells in the Waddenzee, a strech of sea in the northen part of the Netherlands between the shore and some small and larger islands in the Northsea. This sea is unique in the world, because it dries up largely every day in tidal changes, making it possible to walk to some of the islands instead of taking the ferry. This 'wadlopen' or Wad Walking takes the whole day and is very popular with Dutch holidaymakers. The shells were sucked up by the ships from the sea to be used in the chalk industry. This was a part of the company untill july 1975, when this industry did not need shells anymore and it was discontinued. From 1923, Doeksen is also running the passenger services between Harlingen, it's base in the province of Friesland in the northern part of the Netherlands, to Terschelling and Vlieland, two of the islands. At that moment the stocks of the NV Terschellinger Stoomboot Maatschappij (Steamship Company of Terschelling) were taken over, including their three passengerferries Minister Kraus, Prinses Juliana en Vlieland.

At that time, the crossing to the islands would take up to 3 hours, and there was only a normal connection to the island of Terschelling. Passengers for the other island Vlieland had to change boats at full sea, near a part of shallow water named the Vlieree, a hazardous undertaking. This connection to Vlieland originated from 1907, when a company named Alkmaar Packet took over an irregular service and the first small motorship Vlieland took passengers from Vlieland to the Vlieree, where they could change to the larger boats. This connection stayed alive untill 1962 in winter, although in the summermonths, a true connection between Harlingen and Vlieland was establised from 1938 onwards. Speed was a very important issue for the company, as stated in a picture postcard from the 1930's about the 'fastest passengership in Europe in her class'. This was about the salvaging-tug Holland. This tug could speed up to the astonashing 15 knots, and a passengersalon had been added to the poopdeck so she could be used for passenger-traffic to Terschelling during the summermonths when she was not working as a tug. After the second worldwar, tourism stated to become more important for the small islands of Vlieland en Terschelling, so a new large tug was ordered, the new Holland that replaced the older ship. This ship was able to carry 700 passengers, although she was still also used as a tug off-season. Also, some new passengerships were built

In 1973, Doeksen introduced a twin-hulled catamaran, the first Koegelwieck. This ship was significantly faster and in fact she was the first ship of this kind in the Netherlands. The passengerfleet kept modernizing and ships grew larger when the tourism trade really started off. At this moment, Doeksen uses five passengerferries and one freightferry. Thje passengerferries are Friesland, Vlieland, Midsland, Koegelwieck and Tiger, the latter two being the fastships, the catamarans. The freighter is the Noord-Nederland. 

Since 1923, Rederij Doeksen had the only connections to Terschelling and Vlieland but because of a new law, other firms were allowed to come into being. In 2008, a company called Eigen Veerdienst Terschelling (EVT) or translated Own Ferryservice of Terschelling was formed to offer a service between Harlingen and Terschelling in direct competition with Doeksen. Doeksen was not amused and the story about that can be found at the page dedicated to EVT.

The Friesland is a very handsome looking small ferry, resembling the larger European ferries built in the early 1980's. She was launched at the 19th of december 1988 from the Van der Giessen-De Noord wharf at Krimpen aan den IJssel in the Netherlands. It was the second time the name was used within the company, and her trials to Terschelling became national headlines when the ship was refused to dock at Terschelling by Rijkswaterstaat, a company overseeing the Dutch waterways, because of her size. They were afraid that the ship would cause damage and Doeksen had to lay up the new ship at Harlingen. Her first sailing finally took place at the 30th of june 1989 and since then she is a regular for the route. She has accomodations for 1750 day-passengers and 120 passengercars. Friesland is 68,79 meters long and she is measured at 3.583 tons.

Vlieland is a catamaran, used on the route between Harlingen and Vlieland. She was built at FMBA Marine Inc. at Balamban on the Philipines in 2004. She was launched at the 27th of january 2005 and sailed on her own power to The Netherlands departing the Philipines at the 11th of may of that year. She arrived at Harlingen on the 17th of june. There she was fitted out for the service and stated hr sailings on the 20th of july. This ship is also used as a reseachvessel for plankton at the Waddenzee from may 2009 onwardsfor the University of the Dutch town of Wageningen. The ship has accomodation for 1200 deckpassengers 57 passengercars. Hereby is noted that on the island of Vlieland cars are not allowed with exeption for the people who live on the island.

Built in Norway, at the Harding Verft at Rosendal as yardnumber 262, Koegelwieck is the second ship of this name for Doeksen. The ship was launched at the 5th of june 1992 and can accomodate 312 passengers who are seated the same way as they are in an aircraft. There is no capacity for cars onboard and she is used in the fast-service to both islands, as well as in between the islands. Her topspeed is 32 knots, and she is stated as being a catamaran, although because she also has a small hull in the center can also be named a trimaran. The ship is 35 meters long and is named after a part of Terschelling devoted to nature.