All works in Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum

anonymous

Model of a Ferry Steamer

Netherlands, 1822

Object data

wood, brass, lead and rope

height 47 cm × length 89 cm × width 27.4 cm

Provenance

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

Object number: NG-MC-511

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

Wooden frame model of a paddle steamer mounted on a stand.

Long, flat-bottomed vessel, broadened in the sides to the full width of the paddle boxes. It has one deck with a low deckhouse and parts are left open in order to reveal the interior. Neither engine nor paddle wheels are mounted on the model. The paddle boxes can be opened at the top and have privies aft. The model features a broad rudder and an arched scaffolding for the helmsman. The gangways have a tackle with weights inside. A capstan aft and a winch on the foredeck are specified. The model has a tall brass funnel and is rigged with one mast with a yard and a bowsprit.

The model was restored in the 1980s in the Maritiem Museum in Rotterdam. Wilhelmina was built in the United Kingdom by the Watt company in 1821, as the first of a series of three ferries designed by Gerard Moritz Roentgen (1795-1852). The other two ferries, Rotterdam and Moerdijk, were built in the Netherlands. The 32 hp engine was supplied by Cockerill in Seraing. Wilhelmina was used as a ferry on the Hollands Diep near the Moerdijk until 1847 and was sold in 1858.1

Scale (estimate) 1:30.

Literature

G.M. Roentgen, Verhandeling over de stoomboten, Utrecht 1825; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 511; M.G. de Boer, Leven en bedrijf van Gerard Moritz Roentgen, s.l. 1923, pp. 8-9; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 182-84; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 136-39

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Ferry Steamer, Netherlands, 1822', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244324

(accessed 28 December 2024 08:04:53).

Footnotes