User:Yams01/Frans Naerebout

Naerebout was born into a poor fishing family and sailed as a fisherman and pilot off the coast of Zeeland. He gained fame when on 24 and 25 July 1779 the frigate ship Woestduyn, coming from Batavia, approached the rede of Vlissingen under the leadership of an inexperienced pilot. The ship ran on a sandbank. When a rescue vessel of the VOC refused to set sail due to the stormy weather conditions, Naerebout sailed together with his brother Jacob and six other brave Vlissingers to the Woestduyn. At the risk of their own lives, they managed to save 71 of the more than one hundred people on board the ship, until the rising tide forced them to return. The strong winds stirred up a storm and Naerebout had great difficulty in getting his mates to make a second trip. Nevertheless, they sailed out again in the afternoon and also managed to get the remaining sixteen passengers safely ashore.

In 1781 Naerebout received an appointment from the state to provide pilotage services. In 1783 he joined the "Oostindischen Maatschappij ter Kamer Zeeland". In 1788 he managed to reach the ship Zuiderburg, which was in difficulty off the coast of Westkapelle, and to guide it to Plymouth. In 1795, in a similar case, he brought the Voorland offshore, but had to sail to the Cape of Good Hope. In 1804 he was one of the pilots who managed to bring the fleet led by Carel Hendrik Ver Huell from Texel to Boulogne.

From 1804 things went badly for Naerebout. The economy had collapsed and he no longer received any income from his regular work. With effect from 1 March 1807, however, he was appointed lightkeeper of a new firepit in the Oost-Bevelandpolder, north of Goes. Later he also became harbour and sasmeester of the Goese Sas near Wilhelminadorp. From 1814 he did not fare so well again, and he received financial support from various sides, including from the Zeeuwsch Genootschap. On October 31, 1816, he was appointed Brother in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, which also earned him an allowance.

Naerebout was buried on 3 September 1818 in the Grote of Maria Magdalena Church in Goes. The funeral was provided by the Goese department of the Maatschappij tot Nut van 't Algemeen and was accompanied by many tributes.

In the Grote or Maria Magdalenakerk in Goes, two stones remind us of Naerebout. On the north side of the sermon church is the grave with the tombstone, on which the text "Here rests Frans Naerebout" and the copper plate of the coffin on which it says "Frans Naerebout, died on August 29, 1818, old 70 years". On the south side of the sermon church, a memorial stone was later erected by the Goese department of the Maatschappij tot Nut van 't Algemeen.