Table J: Ports of Embarkation of Zeeland families subdivided by Region, 1835-1880
Region Ports of Embarkation
Rotterdam
Antwerp
Liverpool
London
Amsterdam
Others*
Total
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
Tholen/St. Ph.
39
47
8
10
16
19
17
20
1
1
2
I
83
Schouwen-D.
222
61
53
14
62
17
17
5
1
0
11
3
366
N.-Beveland
64
54
39
33
12
10
-
-
3
3
-
-
118
Z.-Beveland
154
55
45
16
51
18
23
7
1
0
5
2
279
Walcheren
122
59
41
20
14
7
-
13
6
17
8
207
W. Z.-Vlaand.
288
52
158
28
34
6
5
48
9
16
3
549
O. Z.-Vlaand.
58
67
24
28
2
2
-
-
-
-
3
4
87
Totals
947
56
368
22
191
11
62
4
67
4
54
3
1689
Includes Le Havre 30, Glasgow 14, Bremen 7, Stettin 3.
Source: Data file: Dutch Immigrants in U.S. Ship Passenger Manifests, 1820-1880
This province-wide picture is quickly refined by taking into account regional
variations among Zeelanders in the choice of ports of embarkation (Table 3). For
whatever reasons, emigrants from Tholen were least likely to use Rotterdam, while
those from Oost Zeeuws-Vlaanderen were most likely to do so. Less than onehalf
(47 percent) of Tholen emigrants sailed from Rotterdam, compared to 61 percent of
those from Oost Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Here the similarity ends. The others from
Tholen were divided between London (20 percent), Liverpool (19 percent), and
Antwerp (10 percent); whereas 28 percent of Oost Zeeuws-Vlaanderen emigrants
used nearby Antwerp. The same proportion of emigrants from West Zeeuws-
Vlaanderen took ship at Antwerp, as did a relatively large proportion (33 percent) of
emigrants from Zuid-Beveland.
Antwerp was clearly a convenient port of embarkation for southern regions, but
the Dutch barge (trekvaart) transport system funneled passenger traffic to Rotterdam
much more regularly than it did to Antwerp, which had only one line from Bergen op
Zoom.12 The premier Dutch harbor captured most of the emigrants from the four pri
mary regions of emigration: in order. West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, Duiveland, Zuid-
Beveland and Walcheren. Barges ran from Breskens to Rotterdam over Middelburg,
Goes, and Zierikzee twice daily. Zeeuwen preferred to take passage on Dutch vessels
with Dutch captains and Dutch crews.
Immigrant Agents
The major Dutch immigrant agency and ship broker in the middle decades of the
nineteenth century was the Rotterdam firm of Wambersie, founded in 1838 by Johan
Wambersie (1806-1874). Wambersie was ideally suited to capture the immigrant
transport market because he knew the English language and the American scene at
first hand, having been bom of Dutch parents at Savannah. Georgia. He returned to
the Netherlands in 1833 and spent the next fifty years in the shipping business. In
1847 Wambersie and his partner Hendrikus Crooswijck offered to bring emigrants to
New York 'as cheaply as possible, in fact, for 30 guilders each1.13
22
ZEEUWSE EMIGRATIE NAAR AMERIKA 1840-1920
