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

Object number: NG-MC-70

Wooden model of an iron dowel. It is hollow and has a thin, sharp-angled ring in the middle on the inside. Iron dowels were used to replace the ones made of lignum vitae. They were cast hollow to compensate for the weight and were stuffed with a filling after fitting.

Dowels were introduced together with the system of diagonal framing as invented by the British naval architect Robert Seppings (1767-1840) and replaced traditional joinery.¹¹HNA 2.12.01 Min. Marine, Exh. 27/5/1822 N7. This model was probably one of a series together with models NG-MC-65 and NG-MC-69.

J.C. Rijk, Handleiding tot de kennis van den scheepsbouw, s.l. 1822, pp. 145-48, pl. IV fig. 72; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 70; G.P.J. Mossel, Handleiding tot de kennis van het schip, Amsterdam 1859, p. 93; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 159-62

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous or anonymous, Model of an Iron Dowel, , c. 1821', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20053222