Cornelis Migchielsz. Calff

https://www.zaans-industrieel-erfgoed.nl/index.html?pages_3/met%20s...

Son Nicolaas Calff was only sixteen years old on January 12, 1694, when he signed a 'Contract of Drawing of Assurantie Soo on Ships, Goods as Lijf van Persoonen'. This agreement was found in the archives of notary P. van der Stengh from Zaandam. It never became clear whether this insurance contract related to whalers and catches or to normal commercial shipping, but in any case Aris van Broek, Jacob Cornelisz. Hooning, two members of the Louwe family and two members of the Meyn family - all shipowners - among the co-signers.

Son Claas, as he was called in the walk, Calff was born on June 20, 1677 as the eldest son of Cornelis Migchielsz. Calff and Maritje Cornelisd. Guest, who died in childbirth. At that time Calff Sr. was already one of the leading merchants of Westzaandam, where he was appointed teacher of the Flemish Mennonite congregation in 1680 - barely 28 years old - so that he was allowed to hold sermons. Cornelis remarried to Neeltje Jans Bleeker from Oostzaandam, who would give him another son, Cornelis Migchielsz., On 4 February 1684. Both children were involved in father's affairs from an early age. The deed of notary Van der Stengh, in which the insurance agreement between the Zaandam shipowners was recorded, was proof of this.

Calff Sr. operated ships on the profitable Greenland and Strait of David fisheries, as whaling was then called. When Nicolaas was twenty-five years old, there was already a whaler to his name, and in 1700, just sixteen years old, his brother Cornelis was already co-owner and wind letter holder of the peeling mill De Grootvorst van Moskoviën on the Kalverdijk opposite Zaandijk.

Claas Calff's ship was also named after Czar Peter the Great, with whom Cornelis sr. Had become close friends during the legendary visit of the Russian supreme ruler in 1697 to Zaandam.  The whaler was called 'The Czaar of Moskovien'.  This ship was involved in a remarkable incident in 1702.  A harpoon was fired from one of the sloops of the ship De Bleekster.  A sloop from? The Czaar of Moskovien?  Signeur Claas Corn.  Calff also fired in and killed the whale, sparking a discussion as to who caught the animal.  The skipper of the Czaar brought in the whale and eventually offered 22 barrels of bacon and a quarter of the beard to the commander of De Bleekster.  The Bleekster's crew had to undergo biting ridicule.  When the sloops from the Saar passed them, they shouted: "Shoot another fish. We'll come and kill for you again!"  reported an act of notary Van der Stengh on January 1, 1703.

The young Calff was already in business by then. In 1695 the paper mill De Veenboer was built in Zaandijk by Barend Csz. Peat. Calff Jr. was together with his uncle Jan Csz. Guest and his future father-in-law Lourens Jsz. Louwe one of the financiers. In 1706, after the death of Veen and his widow Aagje Mooij, they and eight others sold their parts, which amounted to 5 / 6th of the total, for 5000 guilders to Jan Tagh and Claes and Grietje Huijsduijnen, who therefore became one of the largest paper manufacturers. of the Zaan region. Tagh and Huijsduijnen already worked with the De Walvisch, Walrus and De Kok windmills. It was therefore no wonder that Cornelis Calff Sr. took Peter the Great with him to De Kok in 1697, when the Russian Czaar had announced that he wanted to visit a paper mill.