Object data
wood and brass
height 25 cm × width 25.5 cm × depth 25.5 cm
's Lands Werf Amsterdam (possibly)
Model of a Capstan
? Amsterdam, Hellevoetsluis, 1794
Inscriptions
- inscription, on the lower base: ASMUS / Invent 1794 / HellevoetSluys
- label, on the lower base: 190 former inventory label
Provenance
...; ? collection Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837), Amsterdam, 1807;1 Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague; transferred to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-190
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 to the lower level. The barrel is completely round, the whelps can slide up and down and do not protrude outside the barrel except for at the heel. An inclined plane is hidden beneath the barrel, causing the whelps to move up and down when turning the barrel, their heel surging the rope up the barrel. The inclined plane can be removed from underneath the upper deck.
This design by Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) is a variation of the capstan designs by Du Sahy (NG-MC-188) and Pierre Forfait (1752-1807) (NG-MC-189).2 A capstan of this type was used for some years on one of the slipways of the Navy dockyard at Flushing.3 Asmus mentions this model as part of the model collection of the Amsterdam Navy dockyard in 1807.4
Two other identical models exist, one in the collection of the Maritiem Museum in Rotterdam5 and the other in the Van Marum Collection in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem.6 The dating attributed to the model in the Van Marum Collection, however, conflicts with the above-mentioned context.
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. 190; G.l’E. Turner, Van Marum’s Scientific Instruments in Teyler’s Museum, in E. Lefebvre and J.G. de Bruijn (eds.), Martinus van Marum: Life and Work, 6 vols., vol. 2, Leiden 1973, pp. 127-401, no. 64; 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. 4A; J.H. Harland, Capstans and Windlasses: An Illustrated History of their Use at Sea, Piermont, NY, 2003, p. 85
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.244002
(accessed 23 November 2024 00:39:21).