A 17th century Dutch fluit

[Bengt F]

Those are really beautiful little sloops, abhovi,

Very fine vaccuum-formed shape and superb detailing. They complement your 17th century Dutch fluit model excellently, and you sure know your way around the inricate rigging of these early merchant ships - impressive!

In the painting, the sloops are carried/tackled alongside both sides of the stern, at it's most narrow point, which makes very good sense, if they are stored away for a passage, then they don't take up valuable deck space.

All the best from Stockholm,
Bengt

[Vermin_King]

I think it really emphasizes your many talents that you were able to master vacu-forming in one attempt. There are many articles and posts on this site of the difficulties people have with it.

AND you were successful on your first attempt!

I really have been enjoying following your ship builds

[abhovi]

Thank you Bent F for your kind and stimulating words. It feels very good that there are indeed a few people who like my threads. But Vermin King, let's not overdo it. To tell the truth I failed the first two times I tried to vacuum a hunting boat, as you can see here:



I'm afraid my talent is much more modest than you think it is. Actually I could start a thread showing my failures. But I suppose that would not make anybody happy.
And being happy with our hobby is what it is all about, isn't it?

[Vermin_King]

Even so, I think that on vacu-forming, 33% to 50% success is very good.

[Bengt F]

Hi again, abhovi,

Have you seen these illustrations, by american artist Hubert Cance, of a 17th century Dutch fluit?





All the best from Stockholm,
Bengt

[abhovi]

It is a very nice picture, indeed.
Question is: how reliable is it? Well, I know what this picture is based on: on a drawing made after a probably not 17th century model in the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, made by the late Jules van Beijlen. That is not exactly first hand material. It gives a nice image of a questionable model, but it has little connection with the characteristics of a Dutch fluit.
It does show some nice rigging details though.

[Arjan68]

Hello Bengt,

I fully agree with Abhovi's reply about that drawing. It is a nice looking ship that more or less resemles a fluit. But it is wrong on some essential details,

Unfortunately there are very few drawings and paintings of fluit ships, and even less can be concidered reliable. This makes Ab's reconstruction of the ghost ship wreck very interesting. It is based on a real ship and will possibly be as close as we will ever get to a 17th century fluit.

Arjan

[Bengt F]

Thank you both,

I kind of anticipated an answer along these lines...

It seems that the artist made his fluit ship 'look better' by adding garish colors and decorative elements. As I understand it now, by the very interesting account and build thread by abhovi, these fluits were the container ships of the day, rather crude hauling barges or whaling ships, that were not at all as lavishly decorated as the imposing regal war ships of the early 17th century, such as the Wasa that we have here in Stockholm. The Black Raven model from SHIPYARD is, I guess, also made to look better and more beautiful than a fluit ever was. Did the fluits decorations consist only of a name emblem at the stern, above the rudder (there were not many who could read in these days, only learned scholars), plus a couple of the usual 'hookmen' (corner figures)?

It seems that the fluits were also very secure and dependable ships (which makes them interesting) due to their low, wide (almost rectangular) construction, that could be depended upon for many years, under rough wheather and high seas. It makes a lot of sense for the Hansa traders.

One can olny hope that there will be funds for a further search of the 'Ghost Ship' in the Baltic, that was found almost intact a couple of years ago. I think I read somewhere that Dutch conservationists were very much interested in salvaging the wreck, in much the same fashion as the Wasa was in the early 1960s. I would personally welcome this - and just imagine that, an original Dutch 17th century fluit, restored in the same way and put in a museum. That would indeed be a tourist magnet!

Best regards from Stockholm,
Bengt

[Arjan68]

Even simple fluit ships had some decoration. This was mainly at the transom and the wide hole for the tiller.
Unfortunately most of the transom is missing from the ghost ship. The decoration around the tillers is still there and this is some very nice woodcarving. I can't show you any pictures here because of copyrights on the video material.

These ships may have been crude, but still the building quality was surprisingly good. Even after centuries on the sea bottom it is is easy to see that the hull planking was smooth with tight fittings.

The wide and flat bottoms of the ships did not give them very good sailing abilities, but on the other hand it made ships the very stable and gave them a high loading capacity compared to their draft and size. Very important for trading vessels.

[abhovi]

Some time ago I promised better pictures instead of the clumsy snapshot I use to make. Fortunately I have a son with better equipment and better understanding of what photography is all about. Hereby his results.

I made three hunting boats, one on deck, one being hoisted and one on the stern, like in Verschuier's painting of a whaling fluit off Rotterdam, which I showed earlier in this project



As for the flags: From the stern there is the Dutch flag: red white and blue. From the mizzenmast usually the flag of the skipper's hometown was shown, in this case the flag of my present town, Alkmaar. From the main mast the flag of the 'Noorsche Compagnie', which held a whaler's monopoly. From the fore mast a double Dutch flag, usually seen on men-of-war, and on the bowsprit the flag of the county of Holland. Most of these flags were copied from Lieve Verschuier's painting.



The pdf with the lines plan and the layout of the planking in 1/77 scale is available for whoever is interested. Just send me a PM. It might take some time to deliver though, because of a slight problem with the design program, which will be solved next month. So please be patient.