Model of a War Galley

Jochem Pietersz. Asmus, c. 1800 - c. 1807

Getuigd spantmodel van een platbodem kanonneergalei met zeilen en acht en twintig roeiriemen, op standaard. Het schip heeft één dek plus een verhoogde achterplecht met een onderslede voor geschut. Het galjoen is erg laag en in de boeg staat een zwaar kanon. Vier kleine stukken in de zijden. Platte spiegel, hol wulf, klein gesloten hek; breed roer met helmstok varend onder de slede van het geschut. De zeeg loopt op naar beide uiteinden, één berghout, het schip heeft vier zwaarden. De roeiriemen liggen in mikken buiten de reling. Het tuig is een driemast loggertuig met emmerzeilen aan de fokke- en grote mast, met driehoekige topzeilen aan de voorkant en gaffeltopzeilen achter; kluiverzeil aan de boegspriet. De druilmast heeft een loggerzeil met papegaaistok. Schaal ca. 1:44 (afgeleid).

  • Artwork typeship model, fully rigged model
  • Object numberNG-MC-666
  • Dimensionsheight 57.5 cm x length 89 cm x width 14 cm
  • Physical characteristicswood, brass, rope and textile

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Model of the 40-gun East Indiaman Vergelijking Amsterdam, 1780 wood, brass, iron, glass, rope, leather The administrators of the Naval Models Room not only commissioned new models, but also ‘improved’ existing ones. During the 19th century this model of an 18th- century East Indiaman was fitted with an emergency foremast and lightning conductors by J.P. Asmus. The Dutch East India Company had no ship called Vergelijking (Comparison) in its service. The name suggests that the model may have been intended to illustrate new ship-building techniques.

anonymous, Jochem Pietersz. Asmus, 1780

Model of the 40-gun East Indiaman Vergelijking Amsterdam, 1780 wood, brass, iron, glass, rope, leather The administrators of the Naval Models Room not only commissioned new models, but also ‘improved’ existing ones. During the 19th century this model of an 18th- century East Indiaman was fitted with an emergency foremast and lightning conductors by J.P. Asmus. The Dutch East India Company had no ship called Vergelijking (Comparison) in its service. The name suggests that the model may have been intended to illustrate new ship-building techniques.

Model of a four-pounder cannon on a wheeled mount

Jochem Pietersz. Asmus (possibly), 1800

Model of a four-pounder cannon on a wheeled mount

Three Samples of Lightning Conductors

Jochem Pietersz. Asmus (possibly), 1795 - 1848

Three Samples of Lightning Conductors

Half Model of a 16-Gun Brig

Jochem Pietersz. Asmus, c. 1796

Half Model of a 16-Gun Brig

Twee zeilen, behorend bij een model van een kanonneergalei

Jochem Pietersz. Asmus, c. 1800 - c. 1807

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Model of a 30-Pounder Caronnade

Jochem Pietersz. Asmus, 1800

Model of a 30-Pounder Caronnade

Jochem Pietersz. Asmus

Model of a War Galley

Netherlands, c. 1800 - c. 1807

Conservation

  • Restauratieatelier Scheepsmodellen, 2000: restored

Provenance

…; collection Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837), Amsterdam, 1807;1HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. E no. 9. Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, 1837;2After the death of Asmus in 1837 models from his private collection remained in the Navy Model Room in The Hague and were henceforth considered an integral part of the collection of the Department of the Navy. transferred to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-666

Entry

Rigged wooden frame model of a flat-bottomed war galley with sails and twenty-eight oars mounted on a stand.

The model has one deck and a raised afterdeck with a gun emplacement. The beakhead is very low and one heavy gun is placed in the bow. Four small guns are in the sides. The stern has a square tuck with two gun ports, a hollow counter and a small closed taffrail. The model has a broad rudder with a tiller going underneath the cannon slide on the afterdeck. The sheer rises towards both ends, one wale is indicated and the ship has four leeboards. The oars are kept in forked pillars outside the railing. The rigging is a three-masted lugger rig with dipping lug sails on the fore and mainmast, with triangular fore topsails and gaff topsails behind the mast, and a jib on the bowsprit. The small mizzen has a lug sail with an outrigger.

Two almost models identical of this vessel exist, both in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.3The other model is NG-NM-4157. The model mentioned by Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) as belonging to his private collection in 1807 is the one that probably ended up in the Navy Model Room.4HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. E no. 9.

The 5- to 7-gun war galley Zeeduivel, 91 feet long, was a flat-bottomed lugger bought by the Navy in Amsterdam in 1799 and transformed by Asmus into a war galley. The ship is both described as a gunboat, oared gunboat or war galley. It patrolled the Waddenzee until 1807 when the ship was broken up.

Scale (derived) approx. 1:44.

Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 666; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 97-98, 336

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Jochem Pietersz. Asmus, Model of a War Galley, Netherlands, c. 1800 - c. 1807', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200414045

(accessed 13 December 2025 13:24:32).

Footnotes

  • 1HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. E no. 9.
  • 2After the death of Asmus in 1837 models from his private collection remained in the Navy Model Room in The Hague and were henceforth considered an integral part of the collection of the Department of the Navy.
  • 3The other model is NG-NM-4157.
  • 4HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. E no. 9.