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

Object number: NG-MC-342

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

The side of the ship is fully planked over frame moulds and is painted black, with a small white band running along the full length of the main gun deck. Sixteen shadowed gun ports are painted on the side of the model, indicating two tiers. The extent of the forecastle and quarterdeck is only suggested by their gun ports, as the waist is closed by a bulwark. The sheer is almost flat. One wale and a sheer rail are indicated. The model has three channels with deadeyes. The bow features a fully detailed beakhead with a white female bust on a gold-painted wreath as a billethead and a cathead. The stern has a round tuck, a hollow counter, a taffrail (damaged) and a single-storey quarter gallery. Below the stern a square-headed rudder with a rounded blade is indicated. The hull is sharply S-bottomed and painted a metallic copper below the waterline. The position of three masts and the bowsprit is shown in a truncated form.

According to Obreen eight 28-gun sloops of war, measuring 36.5 metres in length, were built after this model:¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 342. Atalante (1823-26, broken up in 1841), Leye (1825-27, not mentioned after 1834), Hippomenes (1826-30, decommissioned in 1841 and broken up in 1854), Argo (1827-32, renamed Van Speyk before launching, renamed Medusa in 1837 after having been transferred to the Colonial Navy) and Castor (1830-35, converted to a drill-battery in 1849 and broken up in 1866) were all built in Amsterdam by Pieter Schuijt Juniorsz (1797-1885). The Pollux (1822-24, broken up in 1838) and Ajax (1828-32, sold out of service in 1890) were built by Pieter Glavimans Jansz (1768-1850) in Rotterdam.²²A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, pp. 15-20.

Obreen also mentions that the Heldin was built in Flushing in 1839-42 as the last ship of this series,³³J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 342. but this Heldin was actually a 22-gun sloop of war. The 28-gun Heldin built in Amsterdam from 1826 to 1830 is a much more likely candidate for this model. This model was probably added to the Navy Model Room in 1835.⁴⁴HNA 2.12.01 Min. Marine, Exh. 1/9/1835 N7.

Scale (on model) 1:40.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 342; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, pp. 15-20

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Half Model of a 28-Gun Sloop of War, Netherlands, c. 1823 - c. 1842', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20053655