Half Model of an 84-Gun Ship of the Line

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

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-281

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

The side of the ship is depicted by ribbands attached to frame moulds. The side above the wale is planked. Forty-four shadowed gun ports are indicated in three tiers. The side is fully planked and is painted black, with two white bands spanning the gun deck and main deck. The forecastle and quarterdeck are planked and have square hances. The sheer rises slightly towards both ends. Two wales and a sheer rail are indicated. The bow features an empty beakhead. The stern is round, the elaborately decorated taffrail has two storeys and a semi-circular stern gallery at the middle level. The upper storey has a sternwalk above the gallery, supported by decorated knees. The taffrail bears the coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The helm port and a straight, square-headed rudder are specified below the stern gallery. The hull is fairly sharp and painted white below the waterline. The position of three masts and the bowsprit is shown in a truncated form.

The 84-gun ship of the line De Zeeuw, measuring 57.7 metres in length, was built by Cornelis Soetermeer (1782-1842) in Flushing.¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 281. De Zeeuw was one of the first ships in the Dutch Navy to be constructed with a round stern. The ship’s keel was laid in 1819 and the vessel was launched in 1825. In 1860, De Zeeuw was converted to a floating battery and renamed Jupiter. The ship was decommissioned in 1873.²²A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 6.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 281; Tideman 1876-1880, vol. 2, p. 9; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 6

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Half Model of an 84-Gun Ship of the Line, Netherlands, c. 1819 - c. 1825', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244092