---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 15:30:26 -0500
From: Jane Carlson <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Answer to "Broad Fourteens" question

For any of you who are interested in fascinating answers to curious
questions, I'm forwarding the helpful reply I received from Jan Smits to my
question posted last week to the listserv about "Broad Fourteens."    Thank
you, Jan (and others, too, who offered suggestions)!

Jane Carlson
Map Collection Assistant
University of Iowa Libraries

--------------- Text of forwarded message ---------------
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 10:04:49 +0200
From: "Jan Smits" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]

Dear Jane,

Broad Fourteens is the English name for the feature "Breeveertien" in the
North Sea off the coast of Holland, appr.  E 3 30 - 4 20 / N 53 00 - 52 20.
It is already mentioned in the Dutch geographical dictionary of 1840 which
gives the following explanation of its name:
Breeveertien is steep on the inside, going down like a wall, and has a
depth there of 20 fathom. She is still deeper at the outside but sloping up
till 14 fathom (appr. 25.5 metres), from which its  name derives. Further
to the coast it slopes up till 9-10 fathom.
The dictionary says that presently (1840) it prevents all shipping except
for fishing vessels to approach the coast. They catch on this bank cod
which afterwards mainly is salted.
To some this bank might have been the old sea wall which defended the coast
and once broken the sea flooded the low grounds behind and ate up the young
dunes.

In Lucas Jansz Waghenaer's "Thresoor der Zeevaart" (1592), the 14-15 fathom
bank is described as "De Brede Vierthijn"

It still features on the hydrological chart INT 1046, though depths are
different because the banks in the North Sea are constantly shifting, it
being mostly sedimentary sand deposits. At the moment it is some 11-12
fathoms deep.

With kind regards,

Jan Smits



Jan Smits
Map Curator Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of The Netherlands
SKD: Department for Cartographical Documentation
P.O. Box 90.407
2509 LK Den Haag
The Netherlands
tel: +31 70 3140241
fax: +31 70 3140450
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
E-mail: [log in to unmask] (encoded)

President Groupe des Cartothecaires de LIBER (GdC, European Map Curators
Group)
Chairman Working Group for Mapcuratorship, Dutch Cartographic Society (NVK)
IFLA Representative for the ICA Commission on Standards for the Transfer of
Spatial Data
WWW-SKD: http://www.konbib.nl/kb/skd/karto-en.html
WWW-GdC: http://www.konbib.nl/kb/skd/liber/intro.htm
WWW-personal: http://www.konbib.nl/persons/jan-smits/homepage.htm

Na matheis kai na matheis ap'tous spoudasmenous
(To learn and still to learn from those who know