- DIMENSIONS:
- (Length
0.61 m; Height (keel to main deck) 130 mm; Beam 135 mm
- DESCRIPTION:
- The hull
of this little model is carved from solid oak. It has a round bow with
a long decorated beak-head surmounted by a delicate scroll; the open
stern gallery leads directly to similarly open quarter galleries. Each
broadside comprises six guns with two bow chasers and two stern chasers;
there are no guns mounted on the upper deck. All the guns are half-barrels
only, their fixing-pins pushed into holes in the centre of each mock
port. The hull is painted white below the waterline and dark brown above;
there are traces of red on the forecastle mouldings and ochre on the
sides at the level of the poop. The beak-head and the stern gallery
decoration are both grey picked out with gold. The model is rigged with
a bowsprit and three masts. The bowsprit is fitted with a spritsail
yard, a top and spritsail topmast and spritsail topsail yard. The foremast
and mainmast each have a lower yard, a top, topsail yard and a topgallant
yard; the mizzen mast has a lateen yard, a cross-jack yard, a top and
topsail yard. The original rigging having suffered severe damage over
the years, restoration of the model was undertaken in 1980 by Mr James
Lees of the Conservation Workshops in the National Maritime Museum at
Greenwich. The model was restored in keeping with the original workmanship:
the restoration is obvious on reasonably close inspection, and a detailed
description of the work undertaken was published in 1982.
- COMMENTARY:
- The crudeness
of workmanship notwithstanding, the general effect of the model is pleasing.
While there is no way of determining precisely when it was built, it
is certain that it was made between 1600 and 1685, when it was first
recorded. The spritsail topmast and the angled beak-head produce between
them a fairly narrow chronological band when both features were found
together. All that can be said of the model's identity, then, is that
it represents a small vessel, probably a merchant ship, c.1605-30.
- Museum Id. No:
- 1685 B no. 758:
Duae naves prostratae exacte structae; variisque tormentis
bellicis ex ligno elaboratis exoneratae
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