...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-490

Polychromed and fully planked wooden half bracket model of the starboard side of a three-masted screw steamer, mounted on a rectangular, white-painted wooden backboard.

The side of the ship that is painted black is planked on top of frame moulds. Seventeen gun ports are painted on the side, placed in one tier. A white, horizontal band highlights the gun deck. The bow features a detailed beakhead with a decorative, gold painted scroll as a billethead. The stern is elliptical and bears the coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Below the stern a screw propeller in its aperture and a round-headed rudder with a rounded blade are indicated. The model has a well for lifting the two-bladed propeller. The sheer is virtually flat. One sheer rail is indicated. The hull is round and painted a metallic copper colour below the waterline. The model has three sets of channels rigged with chainplates. The position of three masts and the bowsprit is shown in a truncated form.

This model was sent from Amsterdam to the Department of the Navy in 26 May 1857.¹¹See inscription; HNA 2.12.01 Min. Marine, inv. no. 3985. The screw steamer Piet Hein was originally laid down as a ship of the line in 1833, but taken apart and put together again as the first Dutch screw steam frigate Admiraal van Wassenaer, 45 guns, 59.62 metres long, completed by August Elize Tromp (1801-1871) in Amsterdam from 1853 to 1856.²²J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 490; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 55.

The construction of the stern with the well for lifting the screw propeller, inspired by British examples and imposed on the Dutch engineers by Secretary of the Navy James Enslie and his advisor H.G. Jansen, proved to be a failure. It spoiled the lines of the stern, which vibrated so badly that it was feared that the entire stern would break off. In 1861, the whole affair escalated into a parliamentary enquiry on the performance of Evertsen and Admiraal van Wassenaer, which were both built to this design. Following Tromp’s advice, subsequent ships were built according to Lambertus Katharinus Turk’s (1811-1873) design.

Scale (on model) 1:50.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 490; J. Wentholt, Memoriaal reis Admiraal van Wassenaer, s.l. 1869, manuscript in HSM, inv. no. S.2277(01); A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 55; J.M. Dirkzwager, ‘De introductie van de “waterschroef” in de Nederlandse Marine’, Industriële archeologie 7 (1983), pp. 80-96

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Rijkswerf Amsterdam, Half Model of a Screw Steamer, Amsterdam, 1857', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200315799