Thank you gentlemen for all your kind works. They keep an old man going. :-)
It has been a while since my previous posting and there is a reason for that. As they say: First things first, and in a life sometimes very urgent matters pop up. Like having a grandson who suddenly is in a terrible need for a new guitar. So my first priority in the past few weeks was building a brand new Telecaster, like I did many times as a side-hobby before my museum career started. It is finished now and my commissioner, who worked together with me on the project is happy with it.
Back to the vlieboot. Not too many developments, but maybe a good opportunity to ventilate some thoughts about the ship type.
The situation in Holland was incomparable to how it is today, both politically and geographically. This map shows the estuary of the Schelde, the river running from the south and ending between the islands of the province of Zealand. Today most of these islands are interconnected, but in the late 16th century they were all islands. In the right corner below you can spot Antwerp, the most important harbor of the Spanish Netherlands.
Once the Dutch declared themselves independent from their king Philips II in a law in 1579 Veere as the station for the early navy played a crucial part. Until then the southern part of the Low Countries had always been the most prosperous part , but now tables turned. Antwerp was taken by the Spanish in 1585. The Veere war ships choose the side of the rebels and the passage to Antwerp was closed. The result was that the centre of economy moved to the cities in the Northern part, mostly in Holland. Amsterdam took the role from Antwerp as the main harbor.
This all happened under the influence of these small unsightly, but probably very defensible vessels with very few guns. Several heavy battles were fought in the Zealand waters between the Spanish and the Dutch. It has to be mentioned that these were not artillery fights like in later days. The guns did cause some havoc to the enemy while approaching each other, but the real fight was on deck, where the opponents killed each other bare-handedly with swords and pikes.
Guns were not of the sort we know with gun carriages, but they were bedded in a heavy log of wood and loaded from behind. This explains the low deck we see on the vlieboot, covered with a grating all over. Anyone trying to get on board against the will of the captain and his crew could face a violent attack from below his feet. This was the kind of guns in use:
I don't tell all this because I am extremely talkative, but because this is of importance for understanding the vessel and making a good reconstruction. Because of the low guns, a low deck was possible and the grating was an important part of the defense system of the ship. Here some progress in the outside of the ship.
Enough for today, back to work.