Object data
wood and brass
height 35.5 cm × width 26.5 cm × depth 26.5 cm
height 45 cm × width 33 cm × depth 33 cm
's Lands Werf Amsterdam (possibly)
Model of a Capstan
? Amsterdam, France, c. 1780
Inscriptions
- label, on the lower base: 188 former inventory label
Provenance
...; ? collection Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1765-1837), Amsterdam, 1807;1 Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague; transferred to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-188
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Demonstration model of a capstan on a wooden frame with two levels.
The capstan is for eight bars without pawls to keep it from turning back. The wooden spindle comes down on to the lower level. Each whelp has a slide inside with a peg sticking out near the heel: the slides run on wheels over an inclined plane hidden beneath the barrel, causing the pegs to come up one after the other when turning. The slide can be pushed down again by means of a small lever near the head. The purpose of this mechanism was to surge the rope up the barrel.
Capstans of this type were used for the placement of heavy foundations in the harbour of Cherbourg in 1780,2 where Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) observed them on his voyage to France in 1797.3 He mentions the model in the model collection of the Amsterdam Navy dockyard in 1807.4
Scale (estimate) 1:10.
Literature
J.P. Asmus, Rapport van een reize naar de Fransche zeehavens aan den Oceaan in den jaar 1797, op ordre van het Bataafsche Gouvernement-Verzameling van differente stukken gedurende de reize naar de Fransche zeehavens in den Oceaan in den jaare 1797, 2 vols., s.l. 1797-1801, manuscript in HNA 2.01.29.01 Dept. Marine, inv. no. 451-18, vol. 2, pp. 121-24; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 188; J.H. Harland, ‘The Design of Winches Used at Sea in the 1800s’, The Mariner’s Mirror 77 (1991), no. 2, pp. 151-65, p. 158, fig. 4B; J.H. Harland, Capstans and Windlasses: An Illustrated History of their Use at Sea, Piermont, NY, 2003, p. 84; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 72-75
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'possibly 's Lands Werf Amsterdam, Model of a Capstan, Amsterdam, c. 1797 - c. 1801', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244000
(accessed 23 November 2024 00:38:31).