Shipping and Trade

Early on, shipping played a major role in the Wadden Sea region, and with it came an international exchange of goods, culture and ideas. The river courses made it possible to transport goods by ship to and from points inland, which was clearly preferable to land transport, which at the time was very cumbersome and slow. Where ships reached a ford, a hub of trade often emerged. Archaeological finds testify to early trade with foreign peoples, including Dankirke near Vester Vedsted. Many of the area's later towns were originally trading centres. The oldest example of this is Ribe, which had emerged as an international trading centre even before the Vikings made it permanent in 710.

Sailing made it easier to transport heavy and large materials from afar. Land transport was either on foot or with unsafe animal-drawn vehicles, while ships at the time could transport larger loads much faster. This had an impact on church building in the area. Many of the churches in the Wadden Sea area were built in Romanesque style in the 12th and 13th centuries from tufa stone that was shipped in from the Rhine area.

In the Middle Ages, the king granted a number of large trading centres a monopoly on trade, crafts and shipping. They became market towns. The most important of these was Ribe, which became a bishop's seat and royal headquarters as early as 948. In the 12th century, the impressive cathedral was built. The export of oxen was the main source of income in the Middle Ages, and in the 16th century Ribe was one of Denmark's largest cities. The other market towns in the area were Tønder (1243) and Varde (1442). Common to all three market towns is that they are located on rivers with access to the Wadden Sea. The largest ships could not go all the way into the town, so goods were often reloaded at loading points. Smaller boats, known as lighters, or horse-drawn carts provided the transport between the loading point and the town. Along the coast, there were around 20 of these larger or smaller loading points. Among them were Højer and Ballum, which belonged to Tønder. Rømø, Hviding Nakke and Sønderho served Ribe. While Janderup and Hjerting were loading points for Varde.

Especially the people on the islands participated in seafaring, alongside farming and fishing. The people of Rømø played a major role in Ribe's seafaring until 1644, when Swedish troops burned down most of the Rømø fleet. After that, many of the island's inhabitants had to seek employment on ships sailing from German and Dutch harbours, and over time the Rømø people developed a special expertise in catching whales and seals. Many Rømø residents went on to become commanders, i.e. captains of catching ships.

In the 1700s, the centre of gravity of Wadden Sea shipping shifted northwards. Ribe had already experienced a decline in trade and shipping from the beginning of the 17th century. Instead, it was Varde's loading site Hjerting that took its place as the busiest harbour in the Wadden Sea. From here there was traffic to Norway, and goods for large parts of Jutland were landed here. During the 1700s, Fanø developed a fleet of sailing ships, which became one of the country's largest, travelling the world's oceans. Sønderho and Nordby's many fine skippers' houses date from this time.

In the mid-1800s, steamships made their entrance, and in the years 1848-50, Hjerting was the only Danish town outside Copenhagen to have a steamship connection to England. In 1855, Højer also got a steam route to England. Denmark lost most of its harbours in the Wadden Sea in the defeat of 1864. The Danish Parliament decided to build a new harbour in Esbjerg as a replacement. It came into use in 1873 and completely changed the harbour structure in the Wadden Sea region. In Esbjerg, there was not only a harbour for large ships to call to, there was also a railway connection to the rest of the country and large parts of Europe. The harbour and the railway were a significant competitor to shipping from the rest of the Wadden Sea, and Esbjerg gradually became the dominant port in the area.

Esbjerg was built as a transport harbour, well-placed to ship agricultural goods to England. However, fishermen along the west coast soon discovered that the city's harbour and railway made it possible to quickly deliver fish to a larger market. Many fishermen moved to Esbjerg, which developed into Denmark's largest fishing town, a position it held until the end of the 20th century. Today, there are only a few cutters left, but Esbjerg is still one of Denmark's largest harbours. In fact, the Port of Esbjerg has come to play a major role in the offshore gas, oil and wind power industry.