Welcome on the homepage of the Lightvessel "TEXEL No.10"
On September 30th 2002, the TEXEL No.10 saw her 50th birthday. On the occasion of this, Anja Gloger, Karl R. Spitzer and - insignificant, little me - Dirk Kirchmann, gathered with the curators Lyda van der Steen and Nanne Voska for a small celebration. Despite the often quoted "many helping hands" of other foundation members, Lyda and Nanne seem to be doing most of the work with the help of only a few voluntary workers. From this it follows that we decided to do at least something as a small help for the upkeep of the TEXEL.
In the workshop of www.Luechthuus.de
we will develop now, and in future, this homepage for the Lightvessel. Supported
by Anja, Karl, Lyda, Nanne and also Hans-Guenter Spitzer. I think that we will
be able to gather many more technical details, as well as up-to-date and historical
photographs from public and private collections during future visits to the
TEXEL.
This naturally
means that the Copyright of all photographs, illustrations, data and text is
by:
Dirk Kirchmann,
Anja Gloger, Karl R. Spitzer, Hans-Guenter Spitzer, Lyda van der Steen and Nanne
Voska - if not otherwise stated.
For a rather qualified team has gathered to assemble the ingredients of these pages (of course this means the others), I hope that we will be able to exclude mistakes. Should there nevertheless be any, those were made on purpose ;-)
Welcome aboard the Museum Lightvessel TEXEL
Far from port and alone on the sea, the task of a lightvessel was to guide ships on their way to a safe harbour. Since 1858 lightvessels marked the dangerous sandbanks and shoals off the Dutch coast. Their purpose was to guarantee safety on sea as a floating aid-to-navigation. The end of a long tradition came on March 21st 1994, when the last of the Dutch lightvessels, the NOORDHINDER was taken out of service.
Lightvessel No.10 TEXEL is the oldest existing Dutch lightvessel. It was built at the Imperial Wharf "Willemsoord" at Den Helder and started its career on September 30th 1952 on the TEXEL position, 18 nautical miles west of the island of Texel. In 1992 this lightvessel left its position for the last time. And since 1995 the TEXEL has found her final berth as a museum-vessel at Den Helder.
The lightvessel - an important marking point on the sea - a guide for many.
Take a guided tour and discover the secrets of a lightvessel.
Feel the atmosphere of by-gone days, when a crew of 11 men stayed on the vessel for a period of four weeks.
Learn about the privileges of the officers, and how the average crewmembers spent their days.
Imagine how the storm roared, and how the ship was tossed about by the waves like a toy.
This - and much more you will
experience when you take a guided tour aboard the TEXEL.