Rijksmuseum

Object data

wood, brass and rope

model: height 67.5 cm × length 105.3 cm × width 16 cm
packaging capsule: height 76 cm × width 111 cm × depth 35 cm

Conservation

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-668

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

Rigged wooden frame model of a war galley with forty-six oars, mounted on a stand.

The model has one deck with a long raised section in the middle. On each side the thwarts are supported by this raised section and the gunwale. The beakhead is very low and has the head of a reptile as a figurehead. Two slides for guns are placed in the bow, one on the after deck. The stern has a square tuck with one gun port with half-lids. At the stern is a broad rudder with rudder quadrant and steering tackle going through the tuck. The sheer rises slightly to the rear, two wales are indicated. The hull is round. One plank is removed on the starboard side. The oars are kept in forked posts outside the railing. The model has a two-masted schooner rig without sails. The bowsprit has a jibboom, the topmasts are attached with brass rings instead of mast caps.

A drawing by Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) in the collection of the National Archives in the Hague gives a length of 9210/11 feet for this vessel.¹ He mentions the model in a list of objects relating to his journey to France in 1797.²

Scale (derived) approx. 1:36.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 668; E. Pâris, Souvenirs de Marine, facsimile, 3 vols., Grenoble 1975-76, vol. 1, pl. 37; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 91, 95; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 112-17

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a War Galley, Amsterdam, c. 1795 - c. 1813', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20053891

(accessed 12 December 2025 08:42:30).