![[Yerseke flagproposal]](../images/n/nl-ze!ye.gif)
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by Jarig Bakker, 19 Oct 2004
With 11 scallops in canton, the flag could have suited the Breton Association
of Seafood Producers. The bay of St. Brieuc, in northern Brittany, is one
of the hospots of scallop fishing, which is extremely regulated, allowed
only a few weeks per year to a limited number of ships and watched by helicopters.
A few years ago, the famous strawberry producers of Plougastel-Daoulas,
near Brest, issued a car sticker showing the Breton flag with strawberries
instead of ermine spots, but I am not aware of any real flag of that ilk.
Ivan Sache, 24 Oct 2004
The city of Yerseke (c. 6,000 inhabitants) is a component of the municipality
of Reimerswaal, in the province of Zeeland. It was incorporated into Reimerswaal
in 1970. Yerseke is a fishing port located on the southern shore of the
Eastern Schelde (Oosterschelde), one of the large arms of the estuary
of the river Schelde. Yerseke is the Dutch capital city of mussels and
oysters. The city has one of his ports dedicated to the mosselkotters
(mussel cutters), the boats used for mussel fishing. Yerseke has the only
mussel auction room in Europe and a museum dedicated to the history of
mussel, oyster, shell and sea shell fishing in Zeeland. Yerseke also rears
lobsters and musselbeer.
The Eastern Schelde is protected from see flood by the Eastern Schelde
Dam (Oosterscheldedam), part of the Delta Plan, inaugurated in 1986. Originally,
the Eastern Schelde should have been completely locked, which would have
suppressed tides and therefore mussel and oyster rearing in the Eastern
Schelde. The dam was modified to allow water tidal circulation:
it is made of 65 40-m high pillars supporting 62 steel floodgates.
The floodgates remain open and can be lowered within one hour in case
of storm warning. The tidal amplitude is reduced by only 15 %, which allows
traditional fishing and rearing activities to exist in the Eastern Schelde.
The tourist center Delta Expo was opened on two artificial islands near
the dam. It is possible to visit the pillars and the underground parts
of the dam, as well as do a boat trip around the dam (with seals expected
but rarely spotted). This visit is probably one of the most impressive
tourist attractions in the Netherlands.
The Delta Plan was the consequence of the flood which devastated Zeeland
and southern Zuid-Holand during the night of 31 January to 1 February 1953,
killing 1,865, putting another 500,000 homeless and flooding 260,000 ha
of land. On 19 November 1421, St. Elisabeth's Day, a flood devastated the
delta of the Schelde and reached the city of Dordrecht, submerging 65 villages
and killing 10,000 people.
Ivan Sache, 24 Jul 2004
![[WV Yerseke burgee]](../images/n/nl@wvy.gif)
by Ivan Sache, 24 Jul 2004
The burgee of the WVY (Watersportvereniging Yerseke) is horizontally
divided blue-red-blue with the yellow letters WVY placed in the red stripe.
Source: WVY website.
Ivan Sache, 24 Jul 2004
![[Yerseke Coat of Arms]](../images/n/nl-ze)ye.gif)
by Jarig Bakker, 27 Jul 2004, after image in the Koffie Hag-Album
On our Reimerswaal page: we show the flags
of Reimerswaal and the former municipalities incorporated into it, except
Yerseke. It is not said wether Yerseke had not adopted a flag before the
merging or we lack information on this flag. However, Yerseke has a municipal
coat of arms:
Argent nine ermines 5 + 4 a chief gules a barrulet (?) argent.
Elements of this coat of arms might have been used in a flag, if any.
Clicking on the [Yerseke] button in the menu on the left of the WVY-homepage
loads a new frame with the municipal coat of arms shown in the bottom.
The page also shows a statue representing a fisher bearing a basket. A
similar statue, featuring women, can be seen in Cancale,
one of the French capital cities of oysters. Cancale shows the oysters
on its coat of arms and flag:
Ivan Sache, 24 Jul 2004
I have searched my books for anything Yerseke-flag like:
a. Old atlases: Yerseke was not a harbor-village; it was slightly inland,
and usually the "Verdronken Land van Remmerswaal" is depicted too,
making Yerseke an even more inland-village. Perhaps there were fishing
ships in the village.
b. In the 1950's Klaes Sierksma researched all Netherlands municipalities
about flags, and he didn't find an Yerseke flag.
c. 1975 Hans van Heijningen wrote letters to all municipalities about
flag usage; however Yerseke had in 1970 merged with several other municipalities
into Reimerswaal, and HvH did not get info on the Yerseke flag (wether
it existed or not).
d. In the 1990's DerkWillem Visser did the same, and his research resulted
in the book/CD "Gemeentevlaggen en wapens Koninkrijk der Nederlanden",
last updated in 2001 (the CD that is). Visser reports no flag for Yerseke;
it is suspected that Visser reported more flags than there were in actual
use, not less.
e. The muscle activities started only in c. 1870; fishing was restricted
to shell-fish: oysters, lobster, mussels, and shrimps. I have seen shrimp-cutters
from Yerseke in the harbour of Dokkumer Nieuwe Zijlen some 50 years ago.
Only distinctive mark: YE painted in white on the bow (Dokkumer Nieuwe
Zijlen had OD for OostDongeradeel). Jaume Ollé's renderings of the
flagbook of Steenbergen (written c. 1860) shows no Yerseke flag. However
the YC-burgee has the feel of a Zeemanscollege-flag - but AFAIK
there was no Zeemanscollege in Yerseke.
Zeeland fishing-ships, like a lot of Holland ones used flags especially
for herring-busses (haringbuizen): red with (for example)
a black D (for Delfshaven). A BRB horizontal triband doesn't fit into that
category.
AFAIK Yerseke never had a flag - as the Zeeuwen say: "Ons Zeeuwen
bent sunig!" (= Zeeuwen don't buy butter when they can get margarine
cheap!)
The Coat of Arms was granted 31 Jul 1817 by the High Council of Nobility,
without a description.
Van der Laars in the Koffie Hag-Album writes:
"In zilver negen hermelijnstaartjes en een schildhoofd van rood,
beladen met een golvende dwarsbalk van zilver" =
Silver 9 muschetons a red chief with a wavy fess argent.
Explanation: the ermine's tails are from the arms of the de Vrieze
family from Oostende (Belgium), which also owned Hoedekenskerke,
now in Borsele municipality; the wavy bar is
symbolizing the canal between two polders.
Source: Ralf Hartemink's site.
Jarig Bakker, 27 Jul 2004
Yerseke: that this fisher's village has no flag cannot be ascribed to
thrift of the Zeeuwen. Fishers didn't need their own flags. Most Dutch
places with flags were cities with voting rights in the States General,
or Provincial States. The Yerseke coat of arms is derived from the family
De Vrieze van Oostende. That was a family from Goes, and Oostende was a
manor on Zuid-Beveland. No relation whatsoever with Oostende in Belgium.
Jeroen van Leeuwen, 24 Apr 2005
