This statue stands on one of the locks which punctuate the Spaarndam dyke. It is dedicated to Hans Brinker, a true hero of Spaarndam who, so the story goes, succeeded in saving the town from a flood having spent the whole night with his finger in a fissure that had appeared in the protection dyke. A children's book is the origin of this tale: Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, by the American M. Mapes Dodge (1873).