Read Online The Dutch by Richard E. Schultz - Free Book Online

partnership with his young protégé. Those extra allotments of materials to the master’s yard would last until his former apprentice acquired the necessary funds to locate and tool his own shipyard. In Henri’s case the funds almost miraculously appeared following his vestment.
    Five years earlier, Henri had been devastated by both his parent’s death from influenza. With only distant relatives living in the interior of Holland, in the almost mythical Duchy of the Droger Land, the boy was truly alone. Only thirteen at the time, Henri became a ward of a city appointed magistrate. By law, this magistrate controlled the fate of the orphan and the estate of a deceased family. While Henri had attended one of the city’s best early schools, the magistrate decided against continuing the boy’s academic education. Instead, he arranged an apprenticeship with one of the better shipwrights, a man Henri’s father had known and respected. His family home was sold and his father’s business liquidated. The satisfaction of debt and the collection of administration fees were the prime concerns of any appointed trustee. The laws were written to safeguard the communal good and not to protect children. Even the financial accounting of an estate was at the discretion of the assigned magistrate and few orphans were ever given an accounting and fewer yet saw any of the proceeds from their parent’s estate. With little more than a small bag of coins retrieved from his father’s chest, the magistrate directed that Henri move his personal possessions into the boat house of his designated master. For the next five years he lived on a bed of straw, a stone’s throw from the estuary that led to the sea. The building was hot in the summer and chilly in winter. A small fire pit heated his morning snack and his evening meal. The boat house was spacious and well-built and kept out the wind that usually arrived briskly along the well traveled river-route to the North Sea.
    As an apprentice, Henri was responsible for working hard and learning his trade. He labored every day, except the Sabbath, when he attended the Catholic Church with his master’s family. The master himself attended Sunday mass with his guild. Henri was expected to keep an alert watch at the shipyard during the evening hours protecting his master’s property. Tradition demanded that he share the important Dutch midday meal at his master’s home so he ate a more than adequate main meal each day. The master’s wife also provided him the morning snack and the smaller evening meal eaten at the boat house. His master shipwright was a demanding but fair man who showed concern for Henri’s physical health. He had a hands-on approach to shipbuilding and taught Henri by example. The boy took pride in these lessons and attempted to show his gratitude by prompt and proper execution of each assigned task. For five years, the master proved to be a good teacher who unselfishly shared his carpentry and shipbuilding skills with Henri. When the master’s high standards were met, he often rewarded Henri with a few silver coins at each new ships dedication.
    Over the years, the boy had ample time to ponder his fate. Although his father would have been overjoyed with his advance to shipwright, his mother would have been less enthusiastic. She was proud of her husband but wanted their son to become a more cultured and educated man. She demanded that her husband, a man who couldn’t read, sacrifice unnecessary luxuries so Henri could attend the best early school in Rotterdam. His mother had been the daughter of a scribe who taught his daughter to not only read and write but honor the written word. For this reason, his mother insisted her son have the same educational opportunity as the sons of more privileged nobles and influential merchants. She personally saw to it that her son make the most of his educational opportunity. When Henri