Model of a Timber Ship

anonymous, c. 1824

Klein schetsmatig, gepolychromeerd stapelmodel van een viermaster, incompleet. Het heeft een rechte vallende voorsteven en spits voorschip; platte spiegel. In doorsnede is de romp geheel vierkant, in het achterschip sherp; brede kiel en in de haakse kimmen een uitstekende rand om het schip heen. Volledig vlakke zeeg en één barkhout. Op het dek staan twee dekhuizen, een beting en een kaapstander. Het viermasttuig laat allen de masten, stengen en marsen zien, plus de boegspriet.

  • Artwork typeship model, demonstration model
  • Object numberNG-MC-506
  • Dimensionspackaging capsule: height 33 cm x width 63.5 cm x depth 13.5 cm, model: height 24.9 cm x length 60.7 cm x width 9.8 cm
  • Physical characteristicswood, brass and paint

anonymous

Model of a Timber Ship

? Netherlands, Québec, c. 1824

Inscriptions

  • inscription, on the stern:COLUMBUS

Provenance

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

Object number: NG-MC-506

Entry

Polychromed wooden ‘bread-and-butter’ model of a three-masted ship.

The model has a straight stem and a pointed bow. The stern has a square tuck. In the transverse section the ship is completely square with a flat bottom, the stern is sharp. The keel is broad and the ship has a protruding rim around the bilges. The sheer is completely flat. The model has one wale. Below the waterline the hull is painted white. On deck two deckhouses, a pair of bitts and a capstan are specified. The model is fitted with three masts and a bowsprit.

The timber ship or timber raft Columbus was built by Charles Wood in 1824 at Anse du Fort, Isle of Orleans, four miles from Quebec. The ship measured 301 feet in length over the gun deck. Timber rafts were large rafts made of masts and lumber, rudimentary 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 dues on imported timber. Columbus successfully sailed to London, where it was relieved of its timber cargo. The undertaking proved such a financial success that, contrary to Wood’s advice, they decided to send the ship back across the Atlantic for another timber cargo instead of breaking it up. This voyage proved fatal.

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. 506; 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 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/20053779

(accessed 11 December 2025 05:15:30).