“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean – roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain.
Man marks the earth with ruin – his control
Stops with the Shore.”
– Lord Byron, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” (1812-1818)
Peter, the little Dutch boy who saved his country by putting his finger in the dike and keeping it there until help came, is the stuff of legend. But the Netherlands’ fight against the rising sea is real, and dates back over seven centuries.
As early as the 14th century, Dutch ingenuity started land reclamation projects by constructing a ring of dikes.
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