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

Object number: NG-MC-539

Model of a feathering wheel (port) with eight moving paddle boards.

The shaft penetrates the wheel entirely. The paddles, each fitted on an axle of their own, are moved by spokes attached to an eccentric on the axle against the hull. The model can be operated by means of a handle.

The model was made following investigations into the wheels of the French paddle steamer Estaphette carried out by D. van den Bosch in 1834.¹¹A. Lemmers (ed.), Maritime Technology from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: Multimedia Catalogue of the Dutch Navy Model Collection 1698-1889, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. 539 notes that the model was inscribed ‘Fransch model der Estafette’. Upon re-examination in 2016, this inscription could not be located. It may have been written on a seperate piece of paper that has now gone missing. The steamer operated a ferry-service between Rotterdam and Dunkirk.²²J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 539.

The purpose of the design was to ensure that the paddle boards remained vertical when entering and coming out of the water, which greatly reduced the vibrations of the paddle wheel.

This alternative for the paddle wheel design by William Morgan (model NG-MC-538) was invented by François Cave and in turn improved by Samuel Seaward (1800-1842). Two ships were to be equipped with one of the designs each, but the models were accidentally switched and instead of Cerberus, Phoenix was equipped with Seaward’s paddle wheels in 1837. The ship was too heavy and the wheels consequently failed to meet the requirements; they were eventually replaced by ordinary paddle wheels.

Scale (derived) 1:10.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 539; J.M. Dirkzwager, ‘De Nederlandse Marine als pionier in de technische ontwikkeling. De radervoortstuwing in het tweede kwart van de 19de eeuw’, Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 10 (1991), no. 1, pp. 41-58, pp. 50-52, fig. 8; J.M. Dirkzwager, ‘Problemen en oplossingen bij de ontwikkeling van de stoomvaart in Nederland’, Erfgoed van Industrie en Techniek 3 (1992), pp. 74-90, p. 80; A.J. Hoving, ‘Early Dutch Paddlewheelers’, Model Shipwright 79 (1992), pp. 59-63; A. Lemmers (ed.), Maritime Technology from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: Multimedia Catalogue of the Dutch Navy Model Collection 1698-1889, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. 539

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'D. van den Bosch, Model of a Paddle Wheel, Rotterdam, 1835', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20053799