The Lauwerzee (fishing boat registry SCH 165) was a steam trawler with Scheveningen as its home port. During World War I, on June 28th 1917, it sailed out for coastal fishing. After this, nothing was heard from it again. It was suspected that the ship perished with all hands during a storm that raged on the North Sea from the Friday after her departure. The perished crew consisted of the skipper named Vrolijk, his son and his brother in law with his son and asides from that three men from Rotterdam that operated the engine.

Delpher.nl

A report from the Arnhemse Courant newspaper of 8-7-1917 on the disappearance of the Lauwerzee.

Newspaper 'De Courant' of August 10th reports that a judicial investigation had been opened into the demise. The ship had last been seen southeast of the Nieuwe Waterweg waterway on June 29th. Fishers from Scheveningen thought they had seen the ship under a heavy list and surrounded by three other vessels but this testimony was put aside as untrustworthy by the newspaper.

Type: steam trawler/tugboat

Owner: NV Lauwerzee, Scheveningen, H.P. van der Boom

The database MarHisData mentions a sea tugboat called Lauwerzee owned by L. Smit & Co. from Rotterdam which was refitted as a fishing vessel in 1916. This ship received fishing boat registration MA 139 yet it had Ijmuiden as its home port. The information on this ship seems to be confused in this database though and is likely to point at several ships. Furthermore, this ship appears to be too large to be the SCH 165.

Public Domain

Steam trawlers in the port of Ijmuiden with in the foreground the HVH 2 and the IJM 151.

The wreck has not been found.

• Arnhemse Courant (8-7-1917).
• De Courant (10-08-1917).