Ivy was built in Elmshorn (northern Germany) as a schooner barge. About 100 of this ship type were reportedly made. With a flat surface (bottom) so you could use them to dry out on sandbars here and there along the coast; they would then sail on at the next tide. Intended for coastal and large river navigation. The Ivy has carried cargo from the Mediterranean Sea to Norway. Most schooner barges did not survive the 1st World War; they were requisitioned by the military.

In 1936 the ship was lengthened which was usually done at the same time as the installation of an engine; the space for cargo had to remain the same, of course.
Before then, the Ivy was a proud 2-master. You have to have guts to sail a boat like that across the ocean because there are reports of that too.
In 1979, the Ivy got stuck in the ice of the Barends Sea. The ice started to press and dented the port side (left). That side was completely replaced after because it kept leaking.

As time went on, the ships got bigger and bigger, and the Ivy dropped down the ranks. After a long record of service as a coaster, she was converted to a working vessel around 1980. She knew that. With quite a few dents and dented by life, she came up for sale in Denmark in 2008. Jan de Vries, a lover of old ships and good ironworker, bought her and redid the top of the Ivy. A drawing in a 1927 book served as an example.
Now the Ivy is a sailing home. The 1970s engine (a Scania 275 hp) is still doing fine.

There are now 10 such ships left in Europe and the Ivy represents Rotterdam. Rotterdam’s historic harbor is unique both because of its size and because you are allowed to restore there. With the time it now takes to restore a ship to its original condition as much as possible.