Object data
wood, brass, glass and paint
height 63 cm × length 228 cm × width 56 cm
anonymous
Model of a 74 to 80-Gun Ship of the Line
Netherlands, 1830 - 1840
Provenance
...; collection Mr J. Schouten, Dordrecht; purchased by the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, 1861;1 transferred to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-1087
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Polychromed wooden frame model of the hull of a three-masted ship mounted on a stand.
Eighty-two gun ports are indicated in three tiers. The sides are painted black with two white bands highlighting the main batteries. The model has five levels: orlop, lower deck, main deck, forecastle and quarterdeck with gangways and gratings covering the waist, and a poop with a deck light. The beakhead does not have a figurehead. The stern has a round tuck, a flat counter with two gun ports, the taffrail has two storeys and is decorated with carvings of trophies and an oval coat of arms with an anchor. The two-storey quarter galleries are decorated with carvings of pilasters and diamonds. Below the stern a round-headed rudder of the Soetermeer type is indicated; a steering wheel is fitted on the quarterdeck forward of the mizzen mast. The model is fitted with double riding bitts and two double capstans. The sheer is almost flat. The model has two wales and a sheer rail. The hull is S-bottomed and is painted a metallic copper colour below the waterline. The spars of a three-masted rig have been added, with tops and trestletrees; both the mainmast and the mizzen mast have trysail masts with gaffs, the mizzen with a boom. The bowsprit has a jibboom and flying jibboom.
The model was bought by the Department of the Navy, together with models NG-MC-1088 and NG-MC-1091, from the collection of J. Schouten in Dordrecht in 1861.2 It has not been possible to identify the ship represented by this model. It is listed as De Ruyter. The application of the round-headed rudder dates the model to 1829 or later: this would make the 74-gun ship De Ruyter the only remaining candidate (Flushing 1831, by August Elize Tromp (1801-1871); cut down to a 51-gun frigate in 1843; launched in 1853; converted to screw steamer from 1859 to 1860; converted again, this time to a steam battery from 1862 to 1863; broken up in 1874),3 but this vessel had an elliptical stern from the outset. The model possibly represents an earlier stage of the ship’s design.
Scale unknown.
Literature
J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1087; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 2, 55; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 176-81
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a 74 to 80-Gun Ship of the Line, Netherlands, 1830 - 1840', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244902
(accessed 14 November 2024 08:05:53).