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

Object number: NG-MC-1351

Polychromed wooden half block model of the starboard side of a three-masted ship, mounted on a framed rectangular wooden backboard, painted brown.

The side of the ship is fully planked. Nineteen gun ports are situated on the main deck and quarterdeck, eight smaller gun ports and eight oar ports are on the lower deck. The forecastle and quarterdeck have black sides, their hances are decorated with carved volutes as hancing pieces. The bow features a beakhead with a carved figurehead of a crowned, gold-painted lion, the trail board between the cheeks is decorated with a dolphin, two hawseholes, a beakhead bulkhead and part of the beakhead platform, a black knighthead and an anchor lining. The stern is round and has two tall windows, the sternpost and rudder go all the way up to the quarterdeck. The model has a straight, square-headed rudder with a gold-painted rudder head in the shape of a human head, with a winged helmet in the shape of a boar’s head. The hull is S-bottomed and painted white below the waterline. The model has three sets of channels rigged with deadeyes and chainplates. The position of three masts and the bowsprit, all painted white, is shown in a truncated form.

The model has been cut in vertical slices at the positions of the station frames (best visible on the white hull) – which may indicate that the model was used for taking measurements.

William May (1725-1807) first designed a 40-gun hooker frigate in 1774.¹¹See model NG-MC-306. He probably worked on it for another nine years, as this model shows the same design but dates from around 1785. His plans were examined and rejected by a commission of naval officers in 1785.²²J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 306.

Scale unknown.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 306; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1351; A.A. Lemmers, ‘Over kruisverbanden en kippekonten’, in H. Stevens (ed.), The Art of Technology: The Navy Model Collection in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/Wormer 1995, pp. 26-29; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 37-38, 74-79; A.A. Lemmers, ‘Shipworm, Hogbacks and Duck’s Arses: The Influence of William May on Sir Robert Seppings’, The Mariner’s Mirror 99 (2013), no. 4, pp. 410-28

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Half Model of a 40-Gun Hooker Frigate, Amsterdam, c. 1785', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200316170