The ‘Night Watch of Dutch Maritime Archaeology’. This is the name of the 17th-century dress that Texel divers brought to the surface from the Palmhout wreck. Not knowing then that they had made an important historical discovery. “A burglar is looking for a safe, we really wanted to know what was in that box of that wreck,” says diver Hans Dijker. The Texel director Arnold van Bruggen made the docuseries ‘The dress and the shipwreck’, which will soon be shown on NPO 2.
Texel residents could watch the docuseries in one go on Sunday in Cinema Texel. The first of three episodes starts with a recording of diver Jac Betsema walking early in the morning through the mud behind the Waddendijk at a rising sun. “I had to get out of bed at half past five for that.” It immediately captivates the viewer.
Director Arnold van Bruggen has done an excellent job of capturing the contrasts between hobby divers and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE). Because it is not legally allowed to take anything from the Palmhoutwreck, a shipwreck off the coast of Texel that has a protected status. But the divers believe they saved the dress from destruction. “Because otherwise it would have been washed away.”
“You are actually looking for gold coins, but you find a dress”
“You are actually looking for gold coins, but you find a dress,” says diver Hans Dijker. “We didn’t know it was that important.” The divers were initially disappointed. “An old dress is useless,” says Jac Betsema, the eldest of the couple. Only later did the realization come that this was something special, because divers never bring textiles to the surface. “Then it’s all digested and pulverized.”
The value only surfaced when Corina Hordijk, director of the Kaap Skil museum, was invited to a barbecue at the Texel divers. “Then I saw a dress hanging behind the table with snacks. This exceeded my wildest expectations. Whatever I had thought, but not that a silk 17th century dress had turned up. Then I immediately realized: if this comes into our museum, we have of course got hold of the Night Watch. It is the most beautiful archaeological water find there is.”
And that while the divers themselves were light-hearted about it at first. The historic garment was rinsed with the garden hose and laid out on the paving stones to dry. Annet van Boven was asked by the divers to put on the garment. “I didn’t do that,” she says. “It was dirty, but made of a flexible fabric.” Finds are often distributed among the divers. These objects are often placed on the mantelpiece as curiosities.
The dress attracted attention and not much later the world press fell over the divers. Journalists from The Guardian and The New York Times, among others, dived into the story. The director of the School of Historical Dress in London also says in the documentary series that at first she could not believe that the finds were real, they are so unique. She could therefore not hide her disgust at the amateurish way in which the objects had been treated.
Maritime archaeologist Thijs Coenen also had no words to say about the way the divers worked. “It shows me that the divers don’t know how to do it or that they don’t care. Because things go away, they break or disappear.” Coenen drew the comparison that tourists go to the Ancient Roman city of Pompeii and take valuable historical items with them. “The law is quite clear. You can’t just take things without documenting it. And certainly not without reporting it immediately.”
“We really hate it when ‘junk’ that is turned up by us goes to the other side”
It goes against the feelings of the divers. “Everything we brought to the surface in the past was half from the municipality and half from us,” says diver Gerrit Jan Betsema. “Later they changed the law and it turned out that we were in serious violation. We never thought about that, because we always went our way.” His brother Jac continues: “We really hate it when ‘rubbish’ that we dig up goes to the other side. That belongs on Texel. That is Texel’s heritage.”
Coenen understands the thoughts of the divers. “It is also great that you want to keep finds local or regional. But some finds are so important that they belong in a Rijksmuseum. That needs national attention. These matters can also have a national importance.”
Palm Wood Wreck
Researcher Maritime Archeology Arent Vos says in the documentary that between 1000 and 1500 objects were found in the wreck. “An important job was to bring order to that,” he says. He has bundled everything in a book.
“It was thought that all items had been handed in to the province. That we had a complete overview and could therefore include everything in the report. I had a strong suspicion that there were other things. But I am not an NSB member. I think that those involved should come forward with this themselves and realize that it is useful. At universities, research can be done on this with the most modern techniques. So that we can turn it into beautiful publications. We try to convince people to get there.”
Museum director Corina Hordijk was in a dilemma because of the whole incident. She has a friendly relationship with the divers, but on the other hand she has to reckon with the authorities.
“The divers had retrieved the dress in a way that was not legal”
“We had to arrange everything to be able to exhibit the dress. Legally, that was a challenge. The divers had brought the dress to the surface in a way that was not legal. It was immediately clear that there was work to be done. And that is still the case. I have tried to do mediation and explain to the authorities that once it works on Texel. As a museum director, I should of course have said that what the divers have done is not possible. But then you come nowhere either. Then the door just closes. Then it’s done, because those divers are really not going to stop.”
In the end, the divers tacked and handed over all the gear to the province. This made the finds ‘legal’. The province was shocked by the historical value of the material. After everything was handed over, the divers found another sleeve of the dress. “I just put it in the washing machine and washed it at 30 degrees,” says Van Boven laconically in the documentary.
It quickly became clear to Van Bruggen that he wanted to make a documentary about this. “The dress was very briefly in Kaap Skil in 2016,” says the director afterwards. “I saw that it affected a lot of people, they even got emotional about it. Then you know that something special is going on.”
“It’s a pirate story about a treasure, similar to Lord of the Rings”
He later learned of the controversy between the divers and the government. “This is not just the dress, but also the complex story around it, which is very cool. The question that was of course central was whether we managed to get the dress back to the island.”
Van Bruggen is happy with the result. “In the end, everyone managed to step over their own shadow and make it possible for it to be exhibited in the museum now. It’s a pirate story about a treasure similar to the Lord of the Rings. Everyone sees that treasure and wants it what with it. Then they get greedy and all dive on it.” Van Bruggen spent about 6 years making the documentary.
Museum director Corina Hordijk of Kaap Skil is also pleased with the result. “You can now also see how complicated the story is,” she says. “For the future, the dress is very important to us. It has put us on the bigger map.”
Visitor numbers are doing well. “From the opening of the exhibition, we are on average twenty to thirty percent higher. I expect that it will also take off with this documentary. People are becoming increasingly aware of us. We have a special piece in house. You go to the Rijksmuseum for the Night Watch and to Kaap Skil for the dress. The entire collection is special, but the dress is unparalleled.”
Arnold van Bruggen also makes a podcast in response to ‘The dress and the shipwreck’. He is also working on a website: “We make it possible for people to dive virtually in the Wadden Sea. They can then also do research on the wreck themselves.” The Wadden Sea is a national monument and diving is prohibited. The docuseries ‘The dress and the shipwreck’ can be seen on Mondays 3, 10 and 17 April at 22.20 on NPO 2.