…; sale, widow of Leendert van Zwijndregt, Rotterdam (Pieter Holsteyn), 19 March 1765, ('een konstig gemaakt OORLOG-SCHIP, à 50 Stukken Canon, […] door L. van Swyndregt […] staande in een Glaaze kast op een gesnede Voet; waarbij nog een zeer konstig gemaakte Groote Mast en Steng.');¹¹Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 12 maart 1765.…; anonymous sale, Amsterdam (De Brakke Grond), date unknown, to Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1765-1837), Amsterdam;²²HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. E no. 11. sent to the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, October 1818;³³HNA 1.01.47.29 Admiraliteitscolleges, Collectie Van der Hoop, inv. no. 187, nota October 1818. transferred to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-498

Polychromed, fully detailed wooden construction model in three superimposed sections, fully framed and planked, mounted on a stand.

Forty-eight gun ports are indicated in three tiers. The model has a small orlop deck aft, a lower deck, a main deck and a beakhead platform, forecastle, quarterdeck and a poop. All are indicated by beams and carlings, the aft sections of the upper three decks are planked. The detailed beakhead has a crowned lion for a figurehead and the bowsprit rests on the stem. The stern has a round tuck, a hollow counter with side counter timbers and two gun ports. The two-storey taffrail is decorated with carvings of foliage and garlands and a blank cartouche. The single-storey quarter galleries have bell-shaped roofs. Below the stern a straight, square-headed rudder with a tiller-sweep beneath the main deck and a steering wheel on the quarterdeck are specified. The galley is placed in the hold. The model has a capstan on the lower deck and another one on the main deck, a brake pump with cistern and pump dales on the main deck. The ship’s bell is situated on the forecastle to starboard. The model has three sets of channels rigged with deadeyes. The sheer rises towards both ends, the model has two wales and a sheer rail. The hull is S-bottomed and is painted white below the waterline.

Remarkable features are the replacement of the central keelson with two sister keelsons, and the unique construction of the bitts, manger and capstans. Underneath the white lead paint on the underwater body, waterlines have been drawn in pencil.

The model is first mentioned in 1765, when the widow of the shipwright Leendert van Zwijndregt (1708-1764) tried to sell it with the help of the Rotterdam bookshop owner Pieter Holsteyn.⁴⁴Rotterdamsche Courant, 14 maart 1765, no. 32. At an unspecified, but later date, Jochem Pietersz Asmus (1755-1837) purchased the model for his private collection at an auction held in De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam.⁵⁵HNA 2.01.29.02 Dept. Marine, Aanhangsel I, inv. no. 20, La. E no. 11. Following the appointment of Asmus as the first Keeper of the Navy Model Room in 1818, the model was sent from Amsterdam to the Department of the Navy in The Hague.⁶⁶HNA 1.01.47.29 Admiraliteitscolleges, Collectie Van der Hoop, inv. no. 187, nota October 1818.

According to Holsteyn the model was made by Leendert van Zwijndregt, and Obreen adds that it demonstrates a new construction method adopted by the Admiralty of Rotterdam in 1756.⁷⁷J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 498. However, there is no evidence of any new construction method employed by Leendert van Zwijndregt. However, the remarks made in 1737 by Brest dockyard constructor Blaise Ollivier (1701-1746) concerning the building method of Leendert’s father Paulus van Zwijndregt (1681-1749) agree with this model in too many particulars to be a mere coincidence.⁸⁸D.H. Roberts, Eighteenth Century Shipbuilding: Remarks on the Navies of the English and the Dutch, … by Blaise Ollivier, s.l. 1737 (facsimile Rotherfield 1992).

In 1738 the Admiralty in Rotterdam purchased a palm wood model with removable decks in London.⁹⁹J.C.J. de Jonge, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche zeewezen, 5 vols. and index, Haarlem 1858-62, vol. 4, p. 263, note 2. While the ship itself is undoubtedly Dutch, many of the model’s details are distinctly not Dutch. It is therefore likely that this is the model ordered in London, and that it was made according to Paulus van Zwijndregt’s specifications in order to demonstrate his building method as part of his discussions with the British shipwrights John Davis and Charles Bentam (?-1758) who were working for the Admiralty of Amsterdam at that time.¹⁰¹⁰A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 48-59; 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). The model is now without its three masts, but model (NG-MC-127) is the mainmast belonging to this model.

Rotterdamsche Courant, 14 maart 1765, no. 32; J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 498; 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, pp. 79-80 (with body plan); Catalogus Rijksmuseum Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1928, no. 20, pl. 16; D.H. Roberts, Eighteenth Century Shipbuilding: Remarks on the Navies of the English and the Dutch, … by Blaise Ollivier, s.l. 1737 (facsimile Rotherfield 1992); A.A. Lemmers, ‘De achttiende eeuwse scheepsbouwcontroverse herzien’, Erfgoed van Industrie en Techniek 2 (1993), no. 4, pp. 98-105.; A.A. Lemmers, ‘Meer dan een mooi model’, in H. Stevens (ed.), The Art of Technology: The Navy Model Collection in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/Wormer 1995, pp. 16-19; A.A. Lemmers, Techniek op schaal. Modellen en het technologiebeleid van de Marine 1725-1885, Amsterdam 1996, pp. 48-59; 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. 75-77; A. Peters, Ship Decoration 1630-1780, Barnsley 2013, pp. 86-87

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a 40-Gun Ship, London, 1738', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200315804