All works in Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum

anonymous

Model of a Double Capstan

Netherlands, c. 1800 - c. 1850

Object data

wood and brass

model: height 47 cm × width 29.8 cm × depth 22.8 cm
packaging capsule: height 51.5 cm × width 73 cm × depth 25.5 cm

Inscriptions

  • label, on the frame: 203 former inventory label

Conservation

  • Ab Hoving, August 2011: woodworm treatment

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-203

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

Construction model of a double capstan in a wooden frame with three levels.

The upper barrel with ten whelps is for ten bars, the lower barrel with eight whelps is for eight bars; two pawls on the deck can be used to prevent the upper barrel from turning back, one for either direction. The deck around the heel of the lower barrel has been heightened with an inclined plane; around the barrel a ring with trucks is placed to reduce friction. The purpose of this device was to surge the rope up the barrel. To demonstrate its operation, the middle deck has been fitted to one side with an arrangement to guide a rope. The wooden spindle turns on a point in the step on the lowest level; another ring with wheels running up against the deckhead of the lowest level prevents the spindle from moving upwards.

This capstan is based on the design by Pierre Forfait (1752-1807) (NG-MC-189), French engineer and Minister of the Navy during the first French Republic, with a slightly different version of the inclined plane.1

Scale (estimate) 1:12.

Literature

J.C. Rijk, Handleiding tot de kennis van den scheepsbouw, s.l. 1822, pp. 197-98, figs. 100-03; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 203; J.H. Harland, Capstans and Windlasses: An Illustrated History of their Use at Sea, Piermont, NY, 2003, p. 84

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Double Capstan, Netherlands, c. 1800 - c. 1850', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244015

(accessed 23 November 2024 05:05:42).

Footnotes