Steamboat the Dageraad was the first barge of the TESO (‘Texels Eigen Stoomboot Onderneming’), Texel’s own ferry service. The TESO had been founded the previous year, relying on capital collected from many Texelaars. Using a rental boat, the TESO began competing with the Alkmaar shipping company which had been providing unsatisfactory ferry services.
The TESO won. Two years after the Dageraad came into use, local dedication had forced the competitor off the island. The TESO soon bought the steamboat Ada van Holland as a spare.
Many boats later, the TESO is still ferrying with two vessels. But the jetty in Oudeschild has since been exchanged for the fykes in ‘t Horntje, which facilitate huge double-decker ferries. TESO transport almost four million passengers yearly. And it still belongs to the Texelaars.
