Notary Boat

This beautiful ship is one of the classic ships I work on. Here she sails on the canal near the brewery Het IJ, located in a traditional windmill, at the Zeeburgerpad in Amsterdam.

It is the Dame van Amstel, a so called notary boat. About 100 years ago these ships were built for notaries. The reason they built these boats was because of an old law. That law stated that all legal transactions made on the water under supervision of a notary, were free of taxes.
So, in the true historical and economical Dutch trading customs, these ships were used. But because of this success, and of course, the missed income of taxes, this law was rapidly changed.

Then the notaries started using their ships only to feast their important clients. Other ships were sold, or were broken down. So not many original notary boats are left nowadays.