It’s been a real labour of love for photographer Anthony Smith and quartermaster Bart Huijs to create this beautiful book on the famous clipper Stad Amsterdam (literally The City of Amsterdam).

It took the pair no less than four years of combined sailing and shooting to produce this stunning coffee table tome, which depicts not only their beloved subject, but also life at sea, the beautiful places they visited and the curious marine life swimming up to the tall ship to take a peek.

Packed with over 200 colour and black and white pictures and diary entries taken from quartermaster Bart Huijs’s journal, this book takes the reader on a virtual voyage where both clipper and nature will enchant and transport to far away worlds.

“My connection to the Stad Amsterdam goes back to 2009 when I was invited to join the re-sailing of the Voyage of the Beagle for a 35-part documentary series for Dutch television.”, the book’s photographer and author Anthony Smith tells YBW.
“I was one of the presenters of the series as well as the ‘ship’s artist/photographer’. I ended up spending eight months on the ship as we worked our way around the world.

“During that time I came to fall in love with the ship, the sea, and a life at sea. A couple of years ago I was reminiscing about our voyage with my friend (and former quartermaster) Bart Huijs and whilst we were looking through our photos we realised that we had a very special set of images.”

It didn’t take long for Smith and Huijs to embark on an other adventure together, albeit one of a different kind.

“There was no other book about the Stad Amsterdam (which is rather surprising given her status as the flagship of Amsterdam, which welcomes thousands of day-guests and hundreds of sailing passengers aboard every year) so we decided that we should be the people to create one!” says Smith. “It has turned out to be a very successful project and one that we have enjoyed enormously – I believe we really have done justice to this wonderful ship.”.

Partly inspired by the 1854 clipper frigate The Amsterdam, Stad Amsterdam was born to represent the Dutch capital and to celebrate its commercial spirit.
Designed by Dykstra Naval Architects, the building work on the clipper began in 1997, starting with the 60.5m long steel hull.
That was just the beginning. It took three more years, 15 aluminium yards, more than 800 blocks of wood, over 13 kilometres of rope, steel rigging and of course, its famous three masts to complete the vessel.

Stad Amsterdam was unveiled and christened on 1 June 2000, to coincide with the city’s SAIL Amsterdam 2000 tall ships festival.

The stunning tall ship is evocative of old times. You can imagine the great adventures clippers such as the Stad Amsterdam had.

Since then Stad Amsterdam has travelled all over the world, with more voyages in the pipeline. She has trained hundreds of people in the art of sailing, has been used as a charter-ship for guests, and has travelled the route of the HMS Beagle for the Dutch TV programme Beagle: In Darwin’s Wake.

“When I think about all the experiences that I have had whilst sailing
on the Stad Amsterdam – the storms, the wildlife, working up in the
rigging etc. “, concludes Smith “the moments that I remember most fondly are the long
crossings, weeks away from land, and the simple, self-contained little
world that the tall ship provides.”.

Stad Amsterdam by Anthony Smith and Bart Huijs is available from Amazon.

The voyage begins….the stylish black and white cover of the book.

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