in the Levant and the Baltic Sea. One shipyard built pleasure boats. The warehouses stored herring, grain, tobacco, wine, salt, anchovies, cat skins, pitch and tar. The Silodam, Zoutkeetsgracht, Bokkinghangen, Nieuwe Teertuinen and Breeuwerstraten owe their names to the activities of grain storage, salt refining, fish smoking, tarring and calking. Port falls into decay Until the end of the 19th century this was an area with many shipyards, small industries and warehouses. On the islands and in the immediate vicinity there were also salt sheds, buckling smokehouses, and tar and tanning works where ship timbers, sails and fishing nets were preserved. Then the ships became too large for this port, and the development of the Eastern Docklands took over the role the Westelijke Eilanden had played for more than 200 years. During the first half of the 20th century, the neighborhood fell into decay. Nevertheless, much has been preserved of the atmosphere of the busy past. Bickerseiland Bickerseiland, originally the Vooreiland, was named after the Bicker patrician and merchant family who owned land there. There were a dozen shipyards on Bickerseiland. A marina was built at an early stage. There was a three-aisled wooden church from 1660, which was replaced by a stone building around 1736. After this Island Church was closed in 1939 and demolished in 1950, the churches were used for the restoration of the floor of St. Martin's Church, Bolsward. Some of the household items ended up in a restaurant on the Haarlemmerstraat. Bickerseiland is no longer an island due to the construction of the railway embankment between Westerdok and Westerpoort (1878) for the Den Helder–Amsterdam railway. Prinseneiland This island, at first called the Middeneiland, was named after the (first three) Princes of Orange Princes Island. After a city council conflict that lasted ten years, the sale of building plots on Princes' Island began in 1623. The island was intended for wood storage and tar. Of the 900 warehouses in Amsterdam, more than one hundred were on Prinseneiland. An attempt in 1662 to call the Galgenstraat the Prinsendwarsstraat never got off the ground. Neeltje Pater from Broek in Waterland inherited at least eleven warehouses on the island. Hardly anyone lived on Prinseneiland until after World War II. The island was rediscovered by the artists Jan Sierhuis, Johan van der Keuken, Jef Diederen, Reinier Lucassen, Peter Schat and Willem Breuker. Since then, the island has turned into an