Model of a Prototype Dispatch Vessel

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

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-526-2

Model of a hand-driven catamaran.

Two floats are connected with metal rods at the ends. Each float has a seat. The propulsion mechanism consists of a single paddle board with flat counterweights, driven with handles at either side.

T. van den Bosch, engineer at the Land Registry Office, invented this vessel for dispatch services in the harbour and presented two models.¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 526. It was tested at the Navy dockyard in Amsterdam, but proved unsatisfactory.²²HNA 2.12.01 Min. Marine, Exh. 8/1/1833 N119, 3/9/1833 N47, 5/4/1834 N1. Van den Bosch made several inventions, which he proposed to, and were subsequently tested by, the Dutch Navy: he always blamed their failure on the Navy.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 526

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a Prototype Dispatch Vessel, Amsterdam, c. 1833', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244340