Object data
wood, brass, rope, plaster and paint
model: height 32 cm × width 72.1 cm × depth 24 cm
launch: height 14 cm × length 70 cm × width 19.1 cm
height 35.5 cm × width 74 cm × depth 41 cm
A.C. van Haeften
Model of a Lifeboat Release
Netherlands, Netherlands, 1876
Inscriptions
- inscription, on the back: Sloepsval met propgatsluiting / ontworpen door den Kapn Luitn/z / Jhr A·C· van HAEFTEN. / maart 1876.
Provenance
...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883
Object number: NG-MC-1384
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
Polychromed model of part of a ship’s side with a launch hanging from two crescent type davits, mounted on a base representing water and the side of a ship.
The model demonstrates the release mechanism of the launch, with two hooks holding the tackle of the davit forward and aft, which are released by removing a catch in the middle. The mechanism simultaneously closes a drain hole in the bottom of the launch with a handle in the cockpit. The launch is a carvel-built, square-ended launch. It has an open cockpit, four thwarts plus two small ones holding the release mechanism, and six rowlocks.
Lieutenant Commander Jonkheer A.C. van Haeften’s lifeboat release was tested and compared to Hill & Clark’s release aboard the ironclad ram ship Schorpioen in 1876.1 Van Haeften’s release was preferred and was subsequently generally accepted into the Dutch Navy.2
Literature
A.C. van Haeften, ‘Beschrijving van het sloepsval met propgatsluiting. Met eene plaat’, Tijdschrift voor het zeewezen (1877), pp. 101-05; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1384
Citation
J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'A.C. van Haeften, Model of a Lifeboat Release, Netherlands, 1876', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.245189
(accessed 5 January 2025 04:24:02).