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

Object number: NG-MC-75

Construction model of a quarter circular, basket-like structure with four small wheels on one side.

The number attached to the model identifies it as what Obreen calls an apparatus for cleaning ships under water.¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 75. A drawing by Pieter Glavimans (1755-1820) of a contraption to enable people to approach a leak from outside the ship shows a similar basket-like structure. Covered and made watertight with tarpaulin, it could be lowered against the side and people could work in it. It was positioned and held in place by means of ropes going under the keel, and ropes going up over the ship’s side. The wheels are missing from his design, however.

A similar contraption was described by Julius Constantijn Rijk (1787-1854) during his visit to North America in the sloop of war Pallas in 1825.²²J.C. Rijk, Generaal Rapport Z.M. Pallas, s.l. 1825, manuscript with 6 appendices in HSM, inv. no. NII (03144), Bijlage 1, p. 202. It is not clear if it was ever tested in the Netherlands.

J.C. Rijk, Generaal Rapport Z.M. Pallas, s.l. 1825, manuscript with 6 appendices in HSM, inv. no. NII (03144), Bijlage 1, p. 202; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 75; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 217-18

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Olke Uhlenbeck, Model of an Apparatus for Cleaning Ships under Water, Netherlands, c. 1800 - c. 1858', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20053224