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

Object number: NG-MC-792

Model of a section of a ship with a 20 cm mortar on a pivot carriage.

The mortar is 5.1 cm long and has a 15 mm calibre, it has a round breech and one eye, replacing the dolphins on top. The mortar bed consists of two parallel cheeks and two transoms, with brass axles going through the transoms. It has no trucks but slides on a pivot slide on deck. The slide is slightly inclined and has rollers underneath to ease the movement on the pivoting rails on the circle on deck; it has a brass pivot bolt. The section of the ship has one deck, supported by brass knees and brass stanchions supporting the bed. The loading gear mentioned by Obreen is missing, as is the quoin of the bed.

The mortar and carriage were found separated from the ship section and are possibly the model numbered 46 (now NG-MC-1889-46) mentioned in the list of additional transfers to the museum in 1889. They also fit model NG-MC-1372 perfectly, which is an identical model without the cross section of the ship. The model represents a mortar on a bed in a gunboat and was made in 1834 at the Navy dockyard in Rotterdam.¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 792.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 792

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Rijkswerf Rotterdam, Model of a 20-cm Mortar on a Pivot Undercarriage, Rotterdam, 1834', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200315907