Free The Dutch by Richard E. Schultz Page A

wonders of the swift vessels and understood why rich nobles and wealthy merchants purchased them as quickly as they could be constructed. It was after one of those evaluations that Johanna forcefully recommend her husband constraint the number of boats built he built each year and he agreed. She also suggested adding ornamentations to each vessel making them more distinctive. As she predicted, when the supply diminished, the price of Claus’s small boats skyrocketed. The new marketing strategy gave them the time and money to pursue their two great passions-practicing the new Sacramentarian religious beliefs and sailing the little boats they built on the estuary for the pure pleasure of sailing.
    Like many Sacramentarians, the Ruddermans accepted the tenet of predestination. They believed that salvation and their life were pretty much pre-ordained by an all powerful God. It gave them comfort when Johanna was unable to have children. Their own reading of the Bible led them to accept God’s will, his laws, and a firm belief that they were among those already selected for salvation. They viewed Claus’s success in business as evidence of the Lord’s favor for they believed those “chosen” lived successful lives. Johanna’s beliefs were more expansive than her husband’s. She also believed being a good person and living a good Christian life would gain a believer even additional merit from God Almighty. So the couple lived pious lives and treated their friends and employees as part of their extended family. They rewarded their workers well for their labor and gave ample alms to the poor. They also contributed generously to their church. Even with this generosity, the Ruddermans were able over time to acquire property. They owned their house, the shipyard and the surrounding land, but when Claus died, the widow was left with little actual cash on hand. Her husband’s death meant she would have little revenue from the shipyard to sustain her household. Johanna could no longer rely on the steady income produced by the construction of Kaags.
    While Henri and his fellow workers escaped contamination at his master’s shipyard, the prospective customer of Henri’s vessel succumbed before the ship was completed. Many other prospective ship buyers had met the same fate. A temporary glut of new cargo ships caused prices to plummet. Though Henri had built a fine and sturdy vessel, it sold for substantially less than anticipated leaving little profit for him and the master to share. Henri had little to show for his hard work but spent wage, and the glut in the marketplace left little prospect of independently building another ship in the immediate future. At this point, the trusted magistrate suggested a visit to the Rudderman’s shipyard to meet with Claus’s widow. Henri agreed, with some reluctance, for he had never contemplated building anything but sea going vessels and had little interest in river craft. The next morning, Henri arrived at the Rudderman shipyard with the nonchalant attitude of a casual observer. The first person he met was a friendly journeyman who had little to do since the passing of his master. He gladly took Henri on a tour of the facility. The site was well placed near the deepest part of the estuary, less than half a mile from the main dock at Rotterdam. The yard was located safely within the Ban Palen posts. It had its own sturdy dock, well-maintained and suitable for servicing larger vessels. The workspace was smaller than a normal shipyard but the dynamics of the site were essentially the same. The cheerful journeyman volunteered that the undeveloped land on both sides of the shipyard were part of the parcel, which in Henri’s mind opened the opportunity for expansion.
    The yard itself had no boathouse per se, only a shed-like structure with a thatched roof to shelter a hundred square feet of dry workspace. The area was open to the wind and weather on all