Rijksmuseum

Object data

wood, brass, bronze, lead, mica, ivory and rope

height 78 cm × length 273 cm × width 70 cm × weight 141 kg

Inscriptions

inscription, starboard, on the inside of the stern: Vervaardigd / op 's Rijks Werf / te / Rotterdam. / 1842.
number: locations are numbered 1 to 66

Conservation

Ab Hoving, 1993: minor repairs

Provenance

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

Object number: NG-MC-508

Entry

Wooden frame model of the hull of a three-masted ship, bisected along the longitudinal axis, mounted on brass stands.

The model is lined and panelled in great detail. Seventy-six guns and carronades are preserved, the model features ninety-six gun ports in three tiers. The model has an orlop, lower deck, main deck, a closed forecastle and a quarterdeck, gangways and gratings covering the waist and a poop with two oval roofs. All are complete with panelling, doors, stairs, cupboards, berths, etc. The model has a figurehead of a crowned, running man (Neptune), the beakhead has carvings of maritime attributes and the catheads are ornamented with lion masks. The round stern with counter is pierced for two gun ports, and the two-storey taffrail is decorated with carvings of foliage, quarter figures and the coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The quarter galleries have two storeys. Below the stern a straight, square-headed rudder without sweep is specified, with a brass tiller with fastening and channels for the tiller rope, leading to the steering wheel fitted on the quarterdeck. The model is fitted with double riding bitts, a triple capstan, six pumps grouped near the mainmast and a large brass galley, and all the channels with deadeyes on the outside. Some of the diagonal trussing of Soetermeer’s system can be distinguished inside the model. The sheer rises towards both ends, the model has two wales and a sheer rail. The hull is S-bottomed. The model is fitted with the lower parts of the masts. Sixty-six different parts of the ship have been numbered.¹

This model was produced by craftsmen of the Rotterdam Navy dockyard during slack times. It represents the 84-gun ship Neptunus, 57.8 metres long, built by Cornelis Soetermeer (1782-1842) in Flushing from 1821 to 1835. The ship was renamed Koning der Nederlanden in 1844 and was the last three-decker in the Dutch Navy. From 1858 to 1860 it was converted to a 32-gun floating battery and renamed Neptunus. The ship was decommissioned in 1876.²

Scale 1:25.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 508; S.P. l’Honoré Naber, ‘Over scheepsmodellen en verzamelingen daarvan’, De Zee (1924), pp. 349-59, 442-54, 508-15; Catalogus Rijksmuseum Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1943, p. 34, no. 70; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 4; A. van Dijk, Voor Pampus. De ontwikkeling van de scheepsbouw bij de Koninklijke Marine omstreeks 1860, Amsterdam/The Hague 1987 (Bijdragen tot de Nederlandse Marinegeschiedenis, vol. 4), pp. 59-71; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 146-51

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Rijkswerf Rotterdam, Model of an 84-Gun Ship of the Line, Rotterdam, 1837 - 1842', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200315808

(accessed 6 December 2025 19:30:46).