A 17th century Dutch fluit

[milan paulus]

Very interesting and informative...

Milan

[abhovi]

Michael Mash: No wonder after a life of wooden ship models :-)
Milan Paulus: I am really honored with your comments. You seem to have found the answer to so many problems working with paper I havent even touched. There is a long way to go for me. If I could only figure out how to work as crisp and neat as you do....

[abhovi]

A lot of things were done this week. Not only the hull was painted and the masts were finished, I also made the decision to turn this fluit into a whaler. Fluits were very popular for whaling in the 17th century. In the Zaandam area, a few kilometers north of Amsterdam, where a lot of fluits were built, shipbuilding industry florished in an incredible way. In 1707 someone counted 308 ships on the stocks, big and small, at the same time. The shipbuilders did not even wait for customers. They started laying the keel for a new ship the moment the previous hull had left the stocks. And if no buyers turned up, the ships were sent north for whaling on the builders own accounts. After one or two hunting seasons they were sold most of the time after all, to serve as traders.


The model is painted with yellow ocre and an off-white color below the waterline.


After sufficient drying Van Dijk’s Brown was brushed on and wiped off, leaving remains in the imprinted wood-strcture and the gaps between planking strips.


The plastic strips turn remarkably well into wooden planks. I owe our forum member Doris a lot for passing through this technique.


The fenders serve to protect the body against damage inflicted by hoisting the hunting boats.


The carvings at the stern need a bit of a finishing touch, but they nicely cover the edges of the aperture for the helm.

In my modest archive I found a picture by the Dutch painter Lieve Verschuier, depicting a whaler being unloaded. We can see a cask filled with whale-oil being shipped into a smaller vessel, a `smalschip` (litt.: narrow ship). The fluit is of the same size as the one Witsen drew. There is however one difference: Witsen’s fluit did not have a beak-head and this one does. For our project that is no problem. On the same picture to the right we see the characteristic lines of another whaling-fluit without one. Both variations were used in the trade.

Lieve Verschuier (1627-1686). A whaler off Rotterdam. Oil paint on canvas.


Detail of Verschuier’s painting. A cask, probably filled with whale-oil id shipped into a narrow-ship.


Another whaling fluit in the distance, firing a shot. This vessel does not have a beak-head.

I also gave the fluit its identification. The name of a ship was usually depicted on the flat counter above the rudder. On Verschuier’s painting we see a carving of a person, Prins Willem, the stadholder. As I think we have enough Prins Willems in the modelling world, I chose for a replacement.


Detail of Verschuier’s painting. Stern of the whaler. The system was almost always the same: a taffrail with a carved symbolic depiction of the name of the vessel, flanked by a standing figure on each side, crowned by two animals holding a crest. The entrance of the helm is wreathed by carvings. The actual representation was the owner’s choice.

The counter has such a narrow shape that it is hard to find a fitting depiction. With the help of Google I found the crest of the city of Edam. In those days Edam was another important shipbuilding location. The crest shows a black bull on a red field with three six-pointed stars on top. Above the shield is a green crown.


Carved stone in the lower front of a house in Edam, carrying the city’s crest.

As for the further design of the counter: On the painting there is an elaborate carving on top representing two lions holding another crest, probably the one of the ship-owner. I chose my home town Alkmaar for it. It is possible to trade the lions for dolphins.
On each side of the counter there was a stutue often representing a person. On the painting we see an Arab on the left side and a woman on the right side, probably referring to some biblical scene. For my fluit I was inspired by the statue representing a merchant man, which was salvaged from the fluit, spotted at the bottom of the Baltic Sea a few years ago at a depth of 120 meters.


A ‘hoekman’ salvaged from the fluit-wreck in the Balticc Sea, nick-named the ‘ghost-wreck’.

The fluit was prepared for its whaling job by some adaptations: to bring the hunting boats on board a beam was laid over the poop deck. Pulleys were used to hoist the boats to store them on the conveniently bulgeing hips of the ship, two more were stored on deck.
To prevent damage to the ship, fenders were nailed on the sides.
Also the diameter of the main mast was slightly heavyer than its formulea suggested.
Often the bow was doubled beneath the waterline, to be better protected against the ice.
Turning this fluit into a whaler also gives me the opportunity to model the hunting boats, which will make a much more lively model.

In the mean time the last details on deck will have to be made, so I can turn to the rigging next.

Hope to see you next time.

[Vermin_King]

Very interesting. One point that came up on another forum is the painting of the hull below the waterline white. Was that a standard practice? Many ship models are done that way, but I haven't seen any ships in paintings out of the water that were white below the waterline. Not that there are many ship paintings with the ships not sailing.

[Michael Mash]

This is lovely work culminating in the decorations on the stern.
Great thread. The old paintings are a pleasure.
The Dutch were fortunate to have had many talented painters creating scenes like these.
Mike

[firdajan2]

Abhove: dear sir, this thread is a big inspiration for me - I´m just starting my own thread called Anna Maria 1694 - and you know what I´m talking about.

Thank you very much.

Jan

[abhovi]

Vermin_King: The white stuff was a mixture of animal fat, resin and sulphur. It resulted in a whitish color. We don't see many ships pictured with their underwater body showing, except is rare cases when the painter depicted a heeled ship to clean the underside. But it is not always necessary to look for such pictures. As you can see on this Van de Velde painting the white stuff is just visible above the water line. It is a detail from a very nice picture, which also shows us that the white stuff was not necessarily put on very neatly. We model builders are inclined to work very precisely (and we should), but it is not always necessary....


Michael Mash: Thank you, I fully agree with you. I'm proud and grateful.

Firdajan2: I have seen your Columbus ships and admire your work very much. I may have inspired you, but at the same time, you did it to me. Thank you for that and for your kind words.

[southwestforests]

Okay, need to change what I thought about the bottom paint. Man, that model is shaping up nicely!

[Vermin_King]

Originally Posted by abhovi

Vermin_King: The white stuff was a mixture of animal fat, resin and sulphur. It resulted in a whitish color. We don't see many ships pictured with their underwater body showing, except is rare cases when the painter depicted a heeled ship to clean the underside. But it is not always necessary to look for such pictures. As you can see on this Van de Velde painting the white stuff is just visible above the water line. It is a detail from a very nice picture, which also shows us that the white stuff was not necessarily put on very neatly. We model builders are inclined to work very precisely (and we should), but it is not always necessary....
Attachment 278270

Michael Mash: Thank you, I fully agree with you. I'm proud and grateful.

Firdajan2: I have seen your Columbus ships and admire your work very much. I may have inspired you, but at the same time, you did it to me. Thank you for that and for your kind words.

The paintings that I vaguely remember, either had a black coating on the bottom or there did not seem to be a coating. They were of boats being launched. Is the white coating you mentioned a regional technique? When I saw the ones with the black, I assumed it was tar for extra waterproofing, but when you mentioned the components, it almost makes me think it was a retardant to slow down encrustations and to help remove encrustations later on. What was the purpose for this?

[abhovi]

The problem with tar in those days was, that it was wood-tar. Today we have coal-tar. But wood-tar was not water resistant. For fishing boats, lying in the water for short periods, after which they were set dry again, that was no problem, because it was easy to give them another coat. But for seagoing vessels other means were necessary. Hence the white stuff. It was certainly not a regional solution...