Object data
wood, brass and rope
model: height 63.8 cm × width 122.5 cm × depth 35.7 cm
packaging capsule: height 40 cm × width 126.5 cm × depth 68.5 cm
's Lands Werf Amsterdam (possibly), after anonymous
Model of a Floating Dry Dock
? Amsterdam, France, c. 1802 - c. 1815
Conservation
- Ab Hoving, August 1999: minor repairs; retouched
- Restauratieatelier Scheepsmodellen, 2000: restored
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-6
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Wooden construction model of a floating dry dock, mounted on a base.
The model consists of five separate sections which have been joined together. Each section consists of a rectangular wooden box or pontoon with a tower on either end. On each tower four pumps are installed, which empty the pontoon when submerged. The five sections are linked together with laths on the exterior and by means of gangways with railings that connect the towers.
The model has two types of pumps: double-brake pumps and pumps that have their rods attached to a barrel, which can be moved to and fro using lever arms. The latter pumps have weighted pendulums attached to the axis of the barrel on either side.
Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) saw a model of this dock in the Musée du Louvre in Paris in 1797,1 of which he made drawings to have this model made once he returned to Holland.2 Each pontoon was 90 feet long and 36 feet wide, the total dock measured 180 feet in length. According to Obreen this dry dock, designed in France in 1787, was never built.3
Scale unknown.
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. 1-9; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 6; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 91, 94; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 224-27
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'possibly 's Lands Werf Amsterdam, Model of a Floating Dry Dock, Amsterdam, c. 1802 - c. 1815', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.242731
(accessed 5 October 2024 10:24:18).