Model of the Construction of a Timber Ship

anonymous, c. 1824

Model van de dwarsdoorsnede van een schip midscheeps, met drie dekken. Eén kant is beplankt, evenals de helft van het bovendek, de andere laat alleen de inhouten en balken zien. De rompvorm is geheel vierkant, de bodem samengesteld uit twee lagen rechte balken gedragen door twee kielen; de vloerbalken steken voorbij de scheepswand uit, zodat aan de onderkant een rand ontstaat, die beplankt is. De zijden bestaan uit verticale inhouten, aan één zijde beplankt. Aan één kant zijn twee knieën met tien messing pennen in de kimmen aangebracht, maar deze knieën komen elders in de constructie niet voor. De dekken zijn door dekbalken en klamaaien aangegeven, gedragen door drie rijen dekstutten, die boven het bovendek uitsteken; dekbalken en -stutten zijn in de zijden en bodem met halfhoutsverbindingen ingelaten.

  • Artwork typedemonstration model
  • Object numberNG-MC-108
  • Dimensionsheight 24 cm x width 33.5 cm x depth 17.8 cm
  • Physical characteristicswood and brass

anonymous

Model of the Construction of a Timber Ship

? Netherlands, Québec, c. 1824

Provenance

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

Object number: NG-MC-108

Entry

Construction model of the cross-section of a ship amidships, with three decks. One side is planked, as is half the upper deck. The other side only shows the timbers and beams. The hull has a completely square shape, the bottom is made out of two layers of straight floor timbers, supported by two keels. The floor timbers are planked and protrude beyond the side, which results in a rim running along the bottom. The sides are made of vertical timbers, planked on one side. At one end the model has two knees with ten brass pins sticking out, but these knees are not repeated elsewhere in the construction. The decks are indicated with beams and carlings and are supported by three rows of stanchions, which protrude above the upper deck. Stanchions and deck beams are fixed into the sides and bottom with straight half-joints.

The timber ship or timber raft Columbus1J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 108. was built by Charles Wood at Anse du Fort, Isle of Orleans, four miles from Quebec, in 1824. The ship was 301 feet long on the gun deck. Timber rafts were large rafts made out of masts and lumber, rudimentarily shaped into hulls and rigged, to be broken up at arrival and sold for their timber. They also carried a cargo of timber. The prime motivation was to lower the freight costs, but the rafts also provided a means to avoid the taxes levied on imported timber. Columbus successfully sailed to London, where it was relieved of its timber cargo. The undertaking proved such a financial success that instead of breaking the ship up, the owners decided to send it back across the Atlantic for another timber cargo, ignoring Wood’s advice. Sadly he was proved right: this second voyage proved to be a fatal one.

Literature

The Times, 24/8/1824, 21/10/1824, 2/11/1824, 4/11/1824, 9/11/1824; The Mechanics’ Magazine, 18/9/1824, pp. 433-36; The Monthly Nautical Magazine, New York, April 1855; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 108; F.W. Wallace, Wooden Ships and Iron Men, London 1924, pp. 14-17, 324-28; D.M. Williams, ‘Bulk Carriers and Timber Imports: The British North American Trade and the Shipping Boom of 1824-1825’, The Mariner’s Mirror 54 (1968), no. 4, pp. 373-82; S.T. Waite, ‘Bulk Carrier and Timber Imports’, The Mariner’s Mirror 55 (1969), no. 4, p. 400; D.R. MacGregor, Merchant Sailing Ships 1815-1850, London 1984, pp. 13-15; E. Reid Marcil, ‘Ship-Rigged Rafts and the Export of Quebec Timber’, The American Neptune 48 (1988), no. 1, pp. 77-86; A.J. Hoving and A.A. Lemmers, ‘Smokkelwaar ten tijde van de Vierde Engelse Oorlog’, Scheepshistorie 8 (2009), pp. 76-80; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 83-85

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of the Construction of a Timber Ship, Netherlands, c. 1824', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20053451

(accessed 11 December 2025 02:04:36).

Footnotes

  • 1J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 108.