Zie Ginds Kompt De Stoomboot: A Song History

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"Zie Ginds Kompt De Stoomboot" is a well-known Dutch Sinterklaas song, which the Lexicon jeugdliteratuur spells "Zie, ginds komt de stoomboot."[1] Its words open Sint Nikolaas en zijn knecht (Saint Nicholas and his servant), a rhymed picture book by Jan Schenkman.[1] Schenkman, born and died in Amsterdam (1806–1863), taught school there and did much literary work besides.[2] G. Theod. Bom of Amsterdam published the book, and while the digital library DBNL transcribes a copy dated 1850, Frits Booy's entry in the Lexicon dates the undated first printing to around 1849.[3][1] The book's first poem, "Aankomst van Sint Nikolaas," pictures the saint's return from Spain aboard a steamboat.[4]

Etching of steamboats with smoking funnels on a choppy river, with a small boat of passengers in the foreground

Charles François Daubigny, The Boat Trip: The Steamboats or Watch Out for the Steamers, etching with chine collé, 1861. French river steamers rather than Dutch ones, shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

Booy writes that this little book was the first to show Saint Nicholas coming by steamboat from Spain, and that it "werd erg populair" (became very popular).[1] The St. Nicholas Center likewise traces the custom of the steamboat arrival from Spain to Schenkman's book, and credits it with helping to fix the form of the modern Dutch celebration.[5] Mark Gilston includes it, under the spelling "Zie Ginds Kompt De Stoomboot," in Christmas With Dulcimers, a book of mountain dulcimer tablature that mixes Christmas standards with less familiar melodies.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Zie Ginds Kompt De Stoomboot"

Sources

  1. DBNL (Lexicon jeugdliteratuur): "Jan Schenkman," by Frits Booy.
  2. DBNL (Van den Branden & Frederiks, Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde): "Jan Schenkman".
  3. DBNL: "St. Nikolaas en zijn knecht" (colofon).
  4. Project Gutenberg: "Sint Nikolaas en zijn knecht" by J. Schenkman.
  5. St. Nicholas Center: "St. Nikolaas op Strooi-avond".
  6. Mark Gilston: "Christmas With Dulcimers".
  7. Image: Charles François Daubigny, The Boat Trip: The Steamboats or Watch Out for the Steamers, etching with chine collé, 1861. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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