Model of a Polacre

Entry

Polychromed and rigged wooden frame model of a three-masted ship with sails, mounted on a stand.

The model has three decks: lower deck, upper deck and a poop above the cabin – of which parts can be removed. The figurehead is replaced by a gilt button, a gilt serpent on either side of the beakhead. The stern has a round tuck and a hollow counter. The single-storey taffrail is decorated with pilasters, the ship’s name, foliage, martial trophies and the coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The sides of the poop are decorated with trophies. Below the stern a straight, square-headed rudder is indicated. A steering wheel is fitted behind the mizzen. The model has one anchor and one capstan, and the cabin is panelled. The sides of the railing are decorated with a geometric motif and have netting on the beakhead and a poop. The sheer rises towards both ends, the model has two wales and a sheer rail, and a wriggle between sheer rail and upper wale. The hull is S-bottomed and is painted white below the waterline. The main and mizzen channels are continuous. The model has a three-masted polacre rig with sails, which has some peculiarities: the mizzen topmast has an old-fashioned rounded cap and the mizzen has a lateen yard. The model flies three Dutch tricolours and a green-white flag in the mainmast.

The coat of arms helps to date the model after 1815. A Daedalus was registered in Lloyds’ Register of Shipping of 1819,¹ as having been built in Emden, Germany in 1806 as a single-decked schooner. It sailed on the London-Amsterdam and London-Bremen routes. The ship was registered as a galliot in 1809, as a ship in 1810, as a galliot again in 1811 and as a schooner in 1816.

Scale unknown.