1300 till 1600

1300
Later, at the time - from the beginning of the fourteenth century - when shipping on the Zwin increased significantly, the requirement for a more organised method of pilotage grew.

The aforementioned chronicles tell the story of the establishment of the Zeeland harbours at that particular time in history: the Walcher harbours Arnemuiden, Middelburg, Veere and Flushing and the Zierikzee harbour. These cities appointed competent pilots. Merchant vessels from abroad, of which those from Biscay, Castile, Portugal, Genoa and Venice were the most important, were under the direction of what were known as ‘navigators’ up until they reached the Flemish and Zeeland coastal waters, where they took a pilot on board.

The navigators were part of the crew and were thoroughly acquainted with the shipping route; they were chiefly involved in coastal navigation. The pilot better acquainted with the local waters took over the navigation duties once he had boarded the vessel.

1487 and 1493
The quartermaster accounts from the city of Middelburg for the years 1487 and 1493 show that the Zeeland people were at that time already active in the piloting of ships that were destined for Zeeland and perhaps also the tideway.

These accounts tell of the payment of a certain fee to those pilots who were dispatched by the city of Middelburg to the sea in order to meet merchants from Spain and other countries. The fact that they were bold enough to request exemption from quartering and actually obtained this in 1568 indicates the strength of their position and business activities.

1572
A time of conflict dawned on Zeeland after Flushing and Veere had sided with the Prince of Orange in 1572. It quickly turned out that Alva could only win the battle if he also had control of the Zeeland waters. He asked the Count of Bossu, who had a fleet of ships on the Zuiderzee, to send several ships to Zeeland in order to reinforce his own fleet.

On 1 October 1572, Bossu responded by stating that he had fourteen ships ready to depart for the Marsdiep under the command of vice-admiral Van Boschuizen. He alerted Alva to the fact that the ship captains had considerable objections to sailing into the Veregat or Roompot without a pilot, as well as that if they were to be successful in entering these waters, they would still require pilots to bring them to Arnemuiden. So sea and river pilots were even existent as early as 1572.

The need for appointing pilots in order to boost safety was perhaps due to the increase in shipping - the Zeeland Chamber of the United Dutch East Indisch Company was second only to Amsterdam in terms of size. The pilots performed their duties based on regulations specified by the city of Middelburg. It was primarily a matter of the course of navigation from Middelburg along the Kanaal van Welsinge (Welsinge Canal) and from there subsequently on to the Rammekens roads or the Flushing roads.