Object data
wood, brass, mica, rope and textile
model: height 85.3 cm × length 81 cm × width 18 cm
packaging capsule: height 92 cm × width 87 cm × depth 23 cm
anonymous
Model of a Hengst
Rotterdam, 1819
Inscriptions
- inscription, on the rudder: ROTTERDAM / 1819
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-676
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Rigged, hollowed-out wooden block model of a single-masted, clinker-built, flat-bottomed vessel with sails, mounted on a stand.
The model has one deck and a cabin, of which the roof can be removed. The cabin is completely panelled and has one octagonal and one pyramid-shaped deck light on top. Behind the cabin is a cockpit and a tiny afterdeck. The bow is pointed with a straight, steeply raking stem. The pointed stern is fitted with a broad rudder with a wooden tiller. The sheer rises at the bow. The model has leeboards and is fitted with a windlass, hatches, a hand pump, a boat hook and one oar. It has a gaff-rig with sails and a bowsprit. There is a deck horse for the main sheet on the afterdeck.
A ‘hengst’ of this type was used as a ferry for the Dutch royal family at the Strijense Sas and the Hollands Diep.1 They were often used as ferries: the oldest reference to a hengst dates from 1711, when the Dutch prince Johan Willem Friso drowned while crossing the Hollands Diep in one.
This model differs significantly from the descriptions made by Petrejus2 and Van Beylen.3 The model was exhibited in London at the International Ship Model Exhibition of 1882.4
Scale unknown.
Literature
J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 676; Catalogue of the International Ship Model Exhibition, exh. cat. London (?) 1882, no. 180; E.W. Petrejus, Oude zeilschepen en hun modellen, Bussum 1971, p. 250; J. van Beylen, ‘De hengst’, Jaarverslag Vereniging Nederlands Historisch Scheepvaartmuseum (1982), pp. 30-36
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Hengst, Rotterdam, 1819', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244491
(accessed 13 November 2024 06:41:53).