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

Object number: NG-MC-1144

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

The side is planked on top of frame moulds and painted black. Twenty-two gun ports are painted on the side of the lower deck and another sixteen gun ports are indicated on the bulwark of the upper deck. A broad white band highlights the tier of guns on the lower deck. The bow features a detailed beakhead with a coat of arms in a laurel wreath as a billethead, painted gold. The cathead is decorated with a gold-painted lion’s head. Below the elliptical stern an empty aperture for a screw propeller and a round-headed rudder is depicted. The model has a well for lifting the screw propeller and a small poop, which usually covers the well for the lifting screw. The sheer is virtually flat. One sheer rail is indicated. The hull is round and painted a metallic copper colour below the waterline. The model has three sets of channels. The position of three masts and the bowsprit is shown in a truncated form.

The 51-gun steam frigate Adolf Hertog van Nassau, 72 metres long, was built in Flushing from 1858 to 1861. The ship was called in to protect the port of Flushing in 1866 against the threatening presence of the Peruvian ironclad Independencia, which, built by Laird Brothers in the United Kingdom and on its way to South America, called into Flushing without authorisation. The weakness of the Dutch frigate before such a formidable opponent was so obvious that the incident hastened the transition of the Dutch fleet to ironclads. Adolf Hertog van Nassau thereafter only served as a guard ship and was sold for breaking up in 1914.¹¹A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 56.

Scale (on model) 1:50.

J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1144; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 56; J.M. Dirkzwager, ‘De introductie van pantserschepen in Nederland’, Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 4 (1985), no. 1, pp. 23-41

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Rijkswerf Vlissingen, Half Model of a Screw Steamer, Flushing, 1863', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20054135