Fortress Island Pampus
The Antwerp draughtsman Jan Peeters was known for his ship drawings.
This etching appeared in the volume: "Thooneel der Steden ende Sterckten van t'Vereenight Nederlandt met d'aengrensende Plaetsen soo in Brabandt Vlaenderen als enen Rhijn en elders verovert door de Waepenen der Groot-moghende Heeren Staeten onder het gheley vanande seer Edele Hooghghebore Princen van Oranien".
Edited by Gaspar Bouttats at Antwerp. Antwerp; 1674
Index
Just a drawing of Pampus made by a volunteer
Historical finds
Casemate mount found
This is a gun from Krupp-Gruson. The caliber is 5.7 cm L 25 intended for the throat gun of Fort Island Pampus. Three such guns were set up in each of the two armored stands. The red shaded part of the casematmount has now been found, during the heavy storm of 27-10-2002 near Pampus somewhere against the basalt ring (poured stone quay) by the two fort watchers and later brought to the surface.
Part of roof armor found
In the summer of 2003 a sports diving team found on the southwestern basalt ring a thick plate of iron which later turned out to be part of the roof of an armored stand the thickness of the material is 7 cm. Name plate of the maker of the affair
A crab found
Some years ago a crab was found on the south side in the embankment. This was used, among other things, in the empty projectile storerooms. The trolley ran over a rail on the ceiling. Hanging from the trolley was a chain hoist used to move the heavy projectiles. Photo at right is an old model chain hoist.
Field track found on Pampus
Tippers used to transport coal from tender ships to the coal yard on the embankment rode over this field track. Type of dump truck used for this purpose.
New photo discovered in Amsterdam municipal archive
A photograph of a rather large gun on a railroad car was found in the "Image Database" of the Amsterdam Municipal Archives. It is a photograph by Jacob Olie from 1894.
This must have been the barrel of one of the four guns then placed on Pampus.
Model 2nd Pampus Ship
Just before Christmas, the Pampus Foundation was approached by Ruud Brouwer, living in Dokkum. The man had a model of the, according to him, first Pampus boat in his garage. And he was a bit worried about it. He did nothing with it himself and it was actually in his way. Throwing it away was not an option for him, and since he is originally a "Mulean" he initially thought of Pampus. "Whether the Pampus Foundation had any use for it?". Of course, that was not said to deaf ears. Of course, you should never say no to offers like that.
The model was made by his grandfather "Jantje" Brouwer in the 1920s-30s. He was then working at the Schouten Shipyard in Muiden.
Within a week the model was delivered to our office in Muiden.
The model is about 1.50 m. long and about 40 cm. wide, scale 1:10.
It looks, despite its advanced age of around 75 to 80 years, still in reasonably good condition.
When the model could be properly examined, I came to the conclusion that it was not a model of the first Pampus ship but of the second, which, by the way, walked off the slipway at the Schouten Shipyard in 1926 (Commissioned by the Ministry of War).
Based on historical data known to the Pampus Foundation of these ships, the differences between the first and second Pampus ships are evident in this model.
The second Pampus ship was about 4 meters shorter than the first, the chimney was shorter and it was a motor vessel, propelled by a 60 HP Kromhout diesel engine. Whereas the first Pampus ship was a screw steam tug. Moreover, the first Pampus ship had a row of portholes at the top of the hull on both sides. This was not the case with the second ship.
Armored grenades back on Pampus
On September 27, 2011, 2 armored shells were delivered to Muiden by the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service Defense (EODD) from Culemborg. They are the same shells that were found last year and this year at Almerepoort (a new residential area under Almere Muziekwijk). It became quite a job to get them from Muiden to Pampus. They weighed a whopping 216 kilograms. But in the end we succeeded. They are now being returned to the correct color on the island after which one will be placed in the National Visitor Center in the room where you can now fill shells with "gunpowder" in game form. And the other in the eastern gun turret
Sharp detonator found on Pampus
On Sept. 27, 2011 fairly soon after the armored shells were delivered to Pampus, a live detonator from an English brisant grenade was found by the gardener. He had come across that grenade tip many times on Pampus while mowing the lawn. He apparently saw nothing dangerous in it and always threw it aside when he had to mow it. But since the EODD was on the island anyway, he assumed they should check it out. No sooner said than done. He then picked it out of the grass somewhere and put it on the cart on which the two armored shells were lying. Meanwhile, the two EODD people had gone into the fort with a guide to view it. When the tour was over, they walked down the stairs to the plaza where the cart with the shells stood. Then the adjutant's eyes almost fell out of his head at the sight of that grenade tip. He did not know what he saw and went to take another good look at it after which he immediately proceeded to take action because, according to him, it was a sharp detonation of an English brisant grenade that had to be safely detonated. The police had to be alerted and visitors had to stay away from the point and stay on the other half of the island until the situation was safe again. Finally, the detonator was safely defused by Den Helder's EODD (Royal Navy) in the early evening. To illustrate the activities to defuse the detonator, see the photos below.
This video shows the detonator being disabled
Accumulator pit in east gun turret exposed
By an outside vacation job crew, in one weekend (14-11-2015) time, the east accumulator pit in the east gun turret was completely cleared of debris. During the emptying, a lot of remnants of parts from the gun turret were unearthed.
Remains of the objects built by the Germans on Pampus in World War II that have disappeared due to renovations
Aerial photo of Pampus taken just after World War II. Clearly visible are the 9 craters where the Gunpowder factory from Muiden detonated munitions found in the region with explosives.
In the white ovals are the remnants of the architectural objects placed by the Germans at the beginning of the war.
The numbers in the ovals correspond to the numbers accompanying the photos below.
Scrap-iron
This is folder 009087, one of 10 folders containing 130-year-old construction drawings from the German Firma Gruson. A total of 287 drawings were found at the National Military Museum in Soesterberg in the spring of 2020
In 2021, the foundation of the artillery shed was uncovered with the goal of restoring it and rebuilding a new artillery shed on top of it. See photos below.
© 2000 PCL