Former island community in quest to trace fishermen lost at sea

Volunteers in the fishing community of Urk have started a campaign to trace the bodies of dozens of fishermen who were lost at sea in the last century.

At least 30 people from the village never returned after going out to sea in the last 100 years, but their bodies have never been found. Sometimes shipwrecks were recovered with no trace of the missing crewmen.

The non-profit organisation, Stichting Identiteit Gezocht, will try to identify where Urk fishermen are likely to have washed ashore, using charts and records, and combine their research with anonymous graves in coastal locations.

“If someone is missing, whether it’s on land or sea, the uncertainty of not knowing where they might have ended up has has a huge impact on those left behind,” chairman Teun Hakvoort told Omroep Flevoland.

The researchers will scour the coastlines of Belgium, France and Germany as well as the Netherlands, for clues about the whereabouts of victims’ bodies.

If an unmarked grave corresponds with the likely location of a missing fishermen, the organisation will try to identify the remains using DNA testing.

“Our aim is to try to draw up a detailed picture of the missing persons,” Hakvoort said. “Where did they drown? When did the ship go down? Where is the wreckage? What were conditions like at the time? What were the currents? Where were they washed up?”

Urk was an island in the Zuiderzee until 1939, when the reclamation of the Flevopolder and Noordoostpolder made it part of the mainland, and remains a tightly knit community with a strong fishing tradition.

Hakvoort expects his volunteer organisation to be able to survive on local donations and sponsorships without the need for subsidies. “We had a walk-in information evening yesterday and someone from the village handed us an envelope with €5,000,” he said. “That’s Urk for you.”