All works in Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum

William May (possibly)

Model of an Oared Landing Craft

Amsterdam, 1785

Object data

wood, iron and paint

model: height 12.7 cm × length 48.5 cm × width 13.2 cm
packaging capsule: height 18.5 cm × width 91 cm × depth 19.5 cm

Inscriptions

  • label, on the deck: 513 former inventory label

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-513

Copyright: Public domain

Entry

Polychromed wooden bracket model of a landing craft, mounted on a stand.

Flat-bottomed double-ender with a vertical stem and stern, the sheer rising forward. The side is depicted by ribbands, painted white below the waterline. At the stern a basic rudder is fitted; the hand tiller is missing. The model has a sizeable foredeck, declining forward, intended for the gun emplacement. Behind this foredeck four thwarts above a raised floor are specified. Ten rowlocks are indicated in the gunwale.

The model agrees with a drawing by William May (1725-1807), dated 8 November 1785.1 A fair number of these crafts were built and used as gunboats against the French invasion troops in 1793.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 513; H.T. Colenbrander, Gedenkstukken der algemeene geschiedenis van Nederland van 1795 tot 1840, 10 vols., The Hague 1905-22, vol. 1, p. 214; D.J.A. Roodhuyzen-van Breda Vriesman, In woelig vaarwater. Marineofficieren in de jaren 1779-1802, Amsterdam 1998, p. 114; A.A. Lemmers, Van werf tot facilitair complex. 350 jaar marinegeschiedenis op Kattenburg, The Hague 2005, pp. 69, 74; A.A. Lemmers, ‘Shipworm, Hogbacks and Duck’s Arses: The Influence of William May on Sir Robert Seppings’, The Mariner’s Mirror 99 (2013), no. 4, pp. 410-28, p. 426, note 68

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'possibly William May, Model of an Oared Landing Craft, Amsterdam, 1785', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244326

(accessed 29 April 2024 06:47:15).

Footnotes