Model of a 60-Gun Ship

...; Admiraliteit van Amsterdam (Admiralty of Amsterdam), 1722;¹¹A.J. Hoving and A.A. Lemmers, In tekening gebracht. De achttiende-eeuwse scheepsbouwers en hun ontwerpmethoden, Amsterdam 2001 (Bijdragen tot de Nederlandse marinegeschiedenis 12), p. 41. Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague; transferred to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-499

Polychromed hollowed-out wooden block model of the hull of a 60-gun ship.

The original base and the stern decorations are missing. Sixty-four gun ports are indicated in three tiers. The model specifies decks on four levels: the lower deck, main deck and beakhead platform, forecastle and quarterdeck, and a poop. The latter has two roundhouses. The figurehead is of a crowned lion, the gold-painted catheads have lion’s masks. The stern has a round tuck and a hollow counter with painted pilasters and two gun ports. The taffrail has two storeys (damaged) with two sternwalks that continue around the quarter galleries. The latter have two storeys and shell-shaped roofs. The sternpost rakes sharply. Below the stern a straight, square-headed rudder and a steering wheel are positioned on the quarterdeck. The model is fitted with double riding bitts, two capstans and the casing of a double chain pump on the lower deck. Most of the other fittings are loose parts, including the galley. The model has three sets of channels rigged with deadeyes. The sheer rises towards both ends. Two pairs of wales and a sheer rail are indicated. The hull is S-shaped, strikingly sharp at both ends, and is painted white below the waterline. The spars consist of the masts only, with tops and caps, and the bowsprit with jib boom.

This model is probably the model made in a ‘Navy Board’ style that was purchased by Captain Hendrik Lijnslager for the Admiralty of Amsterdam in 1722. The reason why Obreen described the model as that of a 40-gun ship remains a bit of a mystery:²²J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 499. the model clearly represents a British Fourth Rate of 60 guns. At the usual British scale of 1:48, its dimensions agree exactly with those of the ‘Establishment of 1719’ in force until 1733, but other features suggest that it could be a little earlier than that. Although the model is somewhat crudely made compared to the quality of most surviving examples from that period,³³J. Franklin, Navy Board Ship Models 1650-1750, London 1989; A. Kriegstein and H. Kriegstein, 17th and 18th Century Ship Models: From the Kriegstein Collection, Florence, OR 2010. it is nevertheless accurate at showing the form, general structure and fittings of an early eighteenth-century British Fourth Rate.

Scale (estimate) 1:48.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 499; W. Voorbeytel Canneburg, ‘De Nederlandse scheepsbouw in het midden van de achttiende eeuw’, in Jaarverslag Vereniging Nederlands Historisch Scheepvaartmuseum (1924), Amsterdam 1925, pp. 76-84, p. 80 (with body plan); L.G. Carr Laughton, Old Ship Figure-Heads and Sterns, London/New York 1925, p. 277; J.R. Bruijn, De Admiraliteit van Amsterdam in rustige jaren 1731-1751, Amsterdam/Haarlem 1970, p. 130; J. Franklin, Navy Board Ship Models 1650-1750, London 1989; A.J. Hoving and A.A. Lemmers, In tekening gebracht. De achttiende-eeuwse scheepsbouwers en hun ontwerpmethoden, Amsterdam 2001 (Bijdragen tot de Nederlandse marinegeschiedenis, vol. 12), pp. 16-17; A. Kriegstein and H. Kriegstein, 17th and 18th Century Ship Models: From the Kriegstein Collection, Florence, OR 2010; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, pp. 58-61

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a 60-Gun Ship, United Kingdom, c. 1715 - c. 1720', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244312