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Old 02-23-2016, 12:33 PM
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Yale Yale is offline
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Location: Dipinajata, Texas
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Abhovi, you brought to mind the comments of popular historian James Burke, in his book "Connections." He explained how other nations of the time carried cargo in galleon warships, which were not efficient for the task. The Netherlands was the exception:

"The Dutch had their warships built by the navy and their merchant ships designed by traders. These traders designed the fluyt, and in doing so they built the last word in bulk carriage for two hundred years. The first one was launched at Hoorn, and in almost every way she was unique. The fluyt was unusually long, the length being up to six times the width -- twice as long as the standard. The deck area was clear save for a small deckhouse aft, leaving most of the space for cargo. The ship's bottom was almost flat, which permitted a large, almost square hold, easier to fill efficiently. The modified hull design enabled its post structures to be nearly vertical. The sails on the ship were smaller, and the masts shorter than usual, and blocks and pulleys were extensively used to make it easier to handle the sails and to cut down on the size of the crew. As a result of all this, the centre of gravity of the fluyt was lower than normal, and this gave the ship extra stability in rough weather.

"Many of the fluyt's features were the results of decades of gradual improvements in the boats that sailed the shallow Dutch inland waters, and they created a ship that was rarely above 500 tons in weight. Though technically the Dutch could have built up to 2000 tons, the fluyt's weight was optimal for the cargoes she carried and the distance she travelled. And with a small crew, and the use of pine instead of oak in the upper works, construction and running costs were much cheaper than other ships of the time, which encouraged more frequent sailing times. The fluyt built the Dutch commercial empire, ploughing mundanely around the European coasts, carrying grain, timber, iron, fish and furs from the Baltic, salt and wine from Spain, Portugal and southern France, woolens from England. Amsterdam became the richest city in Europe."

So, best wishes for your new project -- which really does reflect an extremely important ship design of history.
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