Object data
wood, brass and cork
height 20 cm × length 76.2 cm × width 29.5 cm
anonymous
Model of a Lifeboat
? Netherlands, South Shields, c. 1808
Conservation
- Ab Hoving, July 2008: damaged bridge repaired; coat of arms reconstructed; retouched
Provenance
...; sale, Louis Meyer (1809-1866, The Hague), The Hague (C. van Doorn en Zoon), 24 April 1865, no. 207 ('Een model reddingsboot.'), to the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague; transferred to the museum, 18831
Object number: NG-MC-1179
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Technical model of a clinker-built double-ended launch with bilge keels and a round hull, the sheer rising at both ends. It is single-banked and has twelve thole pins for five thwarts, which are linked fore and aft by a plank. The model has an aft and fore cuddy. Side benches, stuffed with cork underneath, are set against the rising. A thick layer of cork held by brass bands is set against the exterior of the gunwale, on which four bitts are mounted. One steering oar, one ordinary oar and a long pole with a point and a flat guard like a ski stick, probably an anchor pole, are indicated.
The model is identical to model NG-MC-848, which is mounted on a cart. More models built to the same scale are known to exist.2 This particular model was bought at auction in The Hague (Louis Meijer) by the Department of the Navy on 24 April 1865.3
Henry Greathead (1757-1818), a shipwright from South Shields, invented this lifeboat in 1789 after having witnessed a shipwreck. Three boats of his design were built in the Navy dockyards in Rotterdam and Amsterdam c. 1806, to do service in Terheide, Terschelling and Callantsoog. Six other boats were built between 1808 and 1809. Soon however better types were developed: Greathead’s lifeboat had less buoyancy than was expected and was not self-righting when capsized. They were nevertheless the first ‘unsinkable’ lifeboats in Holland.
Scale 1:12.
Literature
J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1179; Gedenkboek der Noord- en Zuid-Hollandse Reddingmaatschappij, s.l. 1924, p. 29-31; Catalogus Rijksmuseum Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1928, p. 86, pl. 86; Catalogus Rijksmuseum Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1943, p. 127, pl. 57; H.T. de Booy, Nederlandse kustreddingboten, Alkmaar (1966), pp. 4-5; E. Pâris, Souvenirs de Marine, facsimile, 3 vols., Grenoble 1975-76, vol. 1, pl. 54; M. Marzari, Progetti per l’imperatore. Andrea Salvini ingegnere a l’arsenal 1802-1817, Trieste 1990, pp. 37, 51; A.G. Osler, Mr Greathead’s Lifeboats, Newcastle upon Tyne 1990
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Lifeboat, Netherlands, 1789', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244992
(accessed 2 January 2025 20:39:44).