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

Object number: NG-MC-594

Model of a made mainmast with trestletrees and shrouds, mounted on a base representing the port section of a ship’s deck.

Three gun ports are set in the side, the channel is interrupted by the middle one. Four of the five shrouds have turnbuckles with minor differences.

Turnbuckles with counter-threaded screws were an invention of Benjamin W. Booth’s, Master Commandant in the United States Navy. The adaptations to Booth’s design shown on this model – one short, one with elongated brace for a broken shroud, both of which were fitted on the brig Meermin (Flushing 1828-48)¹¹A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 26., and a removable one with shackles as used on the paddle steamer Suriname (Flushing 1827-36)²²A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 44. – were made by Cornelis Soetermeer (1782-1842). The pinion jack set on the fifth shroud was an invention by the Frenchman Painchaut; it works with a lever and a rack.

Booth’s turnbuckle was observed by Julius Constantijn Rijk (1787-1854) and August Elize Tromp (1801-1871) in North America in 1825.³³J.C. Rijk, Generaal Rapport Z.M. Pallas, s.l. 1825, manuscript with 6 appendices in HSM, inv. no. NII (03144). Painchaut’s pinion jack was dismissed by both Cornelis Jan Glavimans (1796-1857) and Soetermeer for being too cumbersome, although the French Navy had been enthusiastic. The Dutch Navy preferred the American turnbuckle, though minor improvements were to be made. All versions were tested between 1826 and 1831.

Scale (according to Obreen)⁴⁴J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 594. 1:10.

J.C. Rijk, Generaal Rapport Z.M. Pallas, s.l. 1825, manuscript with 6 appendices in HSM, inv. no. NII (03144); B.W. Booth, ‘Method of Setting Up Rigging to Ships’, The American Journal of Improvements in the Useful Arts, and Mirror of the Patent Office in the United States 1 (1828), no. 1, pp. 154-55; A.E. Tromp, ‘Over de uitgevonden zamenstellen, tot aanzetting van het want aan boord der schepen, ter vervanging van de thans gebruikelijke juffers en taliereepen. Met eene plaat’, Tijdschrift toegewijd aan het zeewezen (1831), vol. 1, pp. 48 ff., 166 ff.; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 594; G. Doorman, Het Nederlandsch octrooiwezen en de techniek der 19de eeuw, The Hague 1947, p. 213, no. 873, p. 233, no. 1024, p. 259, no. 1291; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, pp. 26, 44; J. van Beylen, Zeilvaart-lexicon. Maritiem woordenboek, Weesp 1985, p. 266, ‘wantheugel’; US Patent US2696397 A

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Petrus van der Loo, Model of a Mainmast with Turnbuckles and Pinion Jack, Netherlands, c. 1825 - c. 1830', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20053841