Model of a Marker Waterschip

Entry

Wooden frame model of the hull of a single-masted vessel, mounted on a stand.

The deck and planking are partly left open in order to reveal the construction. It is a carvel-built double-ender with a high vertical stem and a straight, falling sternpost. At the stern a broad rudder with a wooden hand tiller is indicated. The model has one deck and a clinker-built deckhouse, which covers a cabin and the well. The deckhouse has the longitudinally curved shape typical for ships of this type, and has a small hole in the roof for a chimney. Forward, against the deckhouse, a fitted windlass is specified; another one is positioned in the bow, as well as one in the stern and three small ones on the afterdeck. The sheer rises steeply towards the bow. The hull is round with a prominent keel and part of the planking is pierced for the well. The afterdeck has a deck horse for the main sheet and the foredeck has a mast hole. The model has four chains on either side.

The ‘Marker waterschip’ was originally a fishing vessel with a well or fish box in which the catch was kept alive. The hull is much like that of the botter, but without leeboards. It fished with trawl nets and could sail very fastly. From the late seventeenth century onwards these ‘waterschepen’ were mostly used to tow ships in camels over the shallow Pampus.