From the 1860s, Turf was put in Southeast Drenthe. The life of peat workers was heavy. Not only the men worked in the peat, but also the women and children. “All hands counted,” says Jan van Zijverden, History curator of the Drents Museum.
The men were busy with the peat stitch. Women and children put the peat drying and accumulated it in the peat ship. In the ship about 30 cubic meters of peat and about 50 cubic meters on the deck. “It was stacked so high that the skipper could still look over it,” says Van Zijverden.
But before the peat could be transported, it was first dried in the summer. In the fall it was removed with wooden ships, also called a market pap. Van Zijverden explains how this works: “Such a skipper is actually an independent entrepreneur. He bought a load of peat from a dyeing of the species he needed. And then enter it into the peat to pick up the peat. Of course he did not charge it himself. He left that to the peat workers.
The men and the boys brought the peat to the ship with a ship’s cage and collapsed it in the hold. “Around 100 kilos of peat per ride went on such a ship’s cage. So that’s pretty tough work.”
In the hold, the women and children went to work and the peat accumulated. “That was a very precise job. That had to happen that the load did not move on the way. And that of course you can lose as much as possible,” says Van Zijverden.
In the hold it was a large dust gang. “The peat was dry and especially for the children that was very annoying. They had a lot of problems with their eyes and throat. The turf were pretty big for those little hands, so it was tough work.” The children also got the same as the parents. Van Zijverden: “They were paid in guilders and partly in drinks. In gin. Also the children.”