SCHUURMAN

NETHERLANDS (see also List of Individuals)

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16.11.1846 Rijswijk/NL - 3.6.1929 Den Haag/NL

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Cornelis Bernardus Schuurman graduated as a civil engineer from the Royal Academy of Delft in 1869 to join then the Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch national office for water affairs. Schuurman was promoted in 1875 to district engineer of Zealand province and there was involved in the canal design from Gent in Belgium to Terneuzen, Southwestern Netherlands. Schuurman was knighted by the King of Belgium once the works were completed in 1882. In 1890 Schuurman was stationed in Dordrecht as a director of the 4th Dutch water prefecture and there was involved in the improvement of the waterway to Rotterdam. Following these successful works, Schuurman was awarded the Order of Oranje-Nassau in 1897. One year later, he was appointed Royal court engineer for the Limburg province and made a Cavalier of the Order of the Dutch Lion in 1900, again as an expression for eminent success with public works for the Netherlands. Schuurman moved in 1905 to s'Gravenhage, today's Den Haag to improve the Grand River, his last river project, and from there retired in 1906.

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Schuurman may be considered an early successful hydraulic engineer of the Netherlands who was involved in a number of Dutch waterways and canal structures. Given that his country is almost completely flat with highest elevations of some dozens of meters, river navigation was an important issue over centuries, and the Dutch have greatly advanced inland navigation in the 19th century. Schuurman was also a Member of the Permanent International Association of the Navigation Congress PIANC, with headquarters in Brussels. He participated in the 1894 Congress in Den Haag, where other exponents of river engineering were present, such as the Frenchmen Louis Fargue (1827-1910) or Henri Girardon (1844-1907), the Germans Ludwig Franzius (1832-1903) and Gustav Tolkmitt (1848-1900), or the English Leveson Francis Vernon-Harcourt (1839-1907). Schuurman was among these engineers who greatly contributed to river improvement at the end of the 19th century, therefore.

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_{Ramaer, J.C. (1929). Ir. C.B. Schuurman. De Ingenieur 44(29): A287-A288. P}

_{Schuurman, C.B. (1894). Relations entre la forme du tracé des rivières et la profondeur du chenal. 6 Intl. Congrès International de Navigation Intérieure La Haye.}

_{Schuurman, C.B., Burgdorffer, A.C. (1894). Die Enteisungsversuche auf den Niederländischen Strömen. 6 Intl. Congress of Navigation La Haye 3: 1-57.}

_{Schuurmann, J.A. (1894). Le port d'Amsterdam. 6 Congrès International de Navigation Intérieure La Haye Q2: 1-23.}