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

Object number: NG-MC-255

Polychromed wooden half bracket model of the starboard side of a three-masted ship, mounted on a rectangular wooden backboard, painted black.

The side of the ship is depicted by ribbands attached to frame moulds. Only the side of the two main gun decks is planked. A total of thirty-six gun ports are indicated: twenty-eight on the side, painted black and indicating the two main gun decks, three on the forecastle and five framed ones on the quarterdeck. The extent of the forecastle and quarterdeck is outlined by ribbands, their hances ending in volutes. The sheer rises slightly towards the stern. Two wales and the sheer rail are indicated, both wales are interrupted by gun ports. The bow features an empty beakhead with a schematic representation of a figurehead, a beakhead bulkhead, part of the beakhead platform and a knighthead. The stern has a round tuck and a hollow counter. Below the stern a straight, square-headed rudder is indicated, following the skeg of the keel. The hull is flat and painted white below the waterline. The position of three masts and the bowsprit is shown in a truncated form.

According to Obreen the model represents an Amsterdam design dating from 1786.¹¹ J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 255.In that case the most likely candidate for this model is the 74-gun ship of the line Prins Maurits of 1783. The ship measured almost 179 feet in length and was designed by Willem Lodewijk van Gent,²² J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 90.but it were probably William May (1725-1807) and Cornelis Mast who finished the actual construction of Prins Maurits as master shipwrights.³³A.J. Hoving and A.A. Lemmers, In tekening gebracht. De achttiende-eeuwse scheepsbouwers en hun ontwerpmethoden, Amsterdam 2001 (Bijdragen tot de Nederlandse marinegeschiedenis, vol. 12), p. 176. Prins Maurits was renamed Dappere in 1795, but broken up soon afterwards in February 1796.

Scale (on model) 1:48.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 255

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Half Model of a 76-Gun Ship of the Line, Amsterdam, c. 1786', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20066268