Rijkswerf Amsterdam

Half Model of a Screw Steamer

Amsterdam, 1866

Inscriptions

  • inscription, top left, on an oval label:JAVA / Transportschip / 250 P:K: 6 Stukken
  • inscription, bottom right, on a piece of paper, in ink:Voornaamste bepalingen. / [followed by measurements and armament] / Behoort bij rapport van den / Hoofd Ingenieur der Marine te / Amsterdam dd. October 1866. / [followed by scale]

Provenance

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

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-1192

Entry

Polychromed wooden ‘bread-and-butter’ style half block model of the starboard side of a three-masted screw steamer, mounted on a rectangular wooden backboard, painted yellow.

The side of the ship is closed and painted black. A tier of seventeen black gun ports is indicated on the side and highlighted by a broad white band. The upper deck is closed and shows a telescopic funnel and hammock netting in the bulwarks. The clipper bow features a beakhead ending in a decorative, gold-painted scroll. Below the elliptical stern an aperture for a four-blade, Mangin-type screw propeller in its lifting frame is indicated, as well as a Lumley-design flap rudder on to which the pintles have been painted. The sheer rises forward. One sheer rail is indicated. The hull is round and painted a metallic copper colour below the waterline. The model has three sets of channels rigged with chainplates. The position of three masts and the bowsprit is shown in a truncated form.

The screw-steamer Java, 68.50 metres long, was built in Amsterdam from 1863 to 1865. As a transport Java carried six guns, with twenty more when armed as a warship. Java was built with Lumley’s Patent Rudder,1For Lumley’s Patent Rudder see models NG-MC-1167, NG-MC-1167-1 and NG-MC-1176-2. which was tested during a voyage to the Dutch East Indies from 1866 to 1867. It was removed upon its return to Holland and the test results were passed on to Mr Lumley. Java was decommissioned in 1875 and broken up in the following year.2A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 85.

Scale (on model) 1:50.

Literature

Journaal Rijkswerf Amsterdam, 15/07/1865; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1192; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 85.

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Rijkswerf Amsterdam, Half Model of a Screw Steamer, Amsterdam, 1866', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.245005

(accessed 13 May 2025 09:36:43).

Footnotes

  • 1For Lumley’s Patent Rudder see models NG-MC-1167, NG-MC-1167-1 and NG-MC-1176-2.
  • 2A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 85.