Model of a 22-Gun Frigate

Entry

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

Twenty-two guns are situated on one deck (two are missing). The model has a lower deck (indicated by its gun ports), a main deck, a closed forecastle and quarterdeck with gangways, and a poop. The figurehead is of a woman with spear and a Liberty hat, the beakhead is very low. The stern has a round tuck, a hollow counter with two gun ports, an overhanging taffrail of two storeys with a sternwalk and is heavily decorated with gold painted carvings of draperies and corner figures. The quarter galleries of two storeys are decorated with carvings of draperies and a fishtail. Below the stern is a straight, square-headed rudder. A double steering wheel is fitted on the quarterdeck. The sheer rises slightly towards both ends, the model has two wales and a sheer rail. The hull has an S-bottom, rather sharp at both ends, and is painted white below the waterline. The model is rigged on three masts with a very lengthy bowsprit and jib boom, a lateen yard and very long boom for the mizzen.

The model was found without number and identified by process of elimination. Obreen identifies the model with the American frigate l’Héroïne (which translates into Dutch as ‘heldin’) of 1793.³ This agrees with the ‘American-style’ model also called l’Héroïne that Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) bought for his private collection somewhere before 1807.⁴ Some features of the model could indeed be regarded as not Dutch, such as the shape of the hull and the rigging. Yet the inscription also points to the 22-gun frigate Heldin (130 feet long) built in Amsterdam in 1795. This vessel, also classified as a 24-gun and even a 32-gun frigate, took part in the battle of Camperdown and was taken in 1799 during the British attack at the Vlieter.⁵

Scale unknown.