Nautical Research Journal
all ships depicted from the seventeenth century, the water line is on half of the lower wale. If we did that here, the deck would be submerged at the slightest list. T is vessel cannot be reconciled in any way with the rules known to us from contemporary literature.
T e last striking phenomenon in the side view is the dotted baseline, which starts at the rear on top of the keel but ends up considerably lower in the forebody. T is seems to be a stunningly premature way of portraying depth in the stern. Finally, I have analyzed hundreds of maritime paintings from diff erent painters and times, but in none of them have I encountered a ship of this type and size (90 feet long, single-decked with eighteen guns). Warships were popular subjects in paintings and were oſt en depicted. T at a ship like this is nowhere to be found is telling. Nevertheless, on page 143 of Van IJk’s book, we fi nd a specifi cation contract for an 85-foot ship with a single deck, so although the drawing is not entirely impossible, it remains a most unusual vessel.
T e other drawings
A quick examination of the other six drawings in the series yields a number of unlikely points.
Drawing 0149 (0856), the top view of a ship of 110 feet in length, appears to have only one deck, just like the previous ship described. T ere are (presumably) places for eighteen guns (of which only sixteen can be seen in the top view, but it is unclear what is still standing there).
Drawing 0149 (0857) shows a cross-section and a cut-away front view of the 110-foot ship, on which the fl at planking of the bottom is indicated, but where the bilge boards are missing. If this shows a picture of a construction phase, the bilge boards should have been mounted. T e drawn frames in the bow are of an unlikely arrangement and seem to be based on a drawing by Van IJk, in which he shows the bow construction of an English ship (Cornelis van IJk:
De Nederlandse Scheepsbouwkonst opengestelt (1697), pict. C on page 18.). T is is another type of ship that I have never encountered in paintings.
Drawing 0149 (0860) again depicts a 90-foot ship, just like the one we worked out, but with a smaller beam of 22 feet and a larger depth of 11 feet, against 24 and 10-1/2 feet respectively of
the examined
design. A side view is missing, the reason why this drawing was not selected to be worked out. T is is unfortunate, because this drawing was considerably better as a lines plan than the model we examined. It is true that, in particular, the frames at 20 and 70 feet are clearly too narrow, but with some correction work this drawing can certainly be made into a usable lines plan. (Figure 17) We did do calculations using Delſt ship which produce a displacement of 185 tons, very close to the vessel we calculated from the Van IJk specifi cations. It is a pity that this ship does not have a side view.
T at missing side view could have been on drawing 0149 (0861), which represents a side view of such a ship, but whose depth is indicated as only 10 feet and this therefore concerns a diff erent design. T is drawing is very similar to the one we used, up to the number of eighteen guns. Could it be intended as an improved version? Was the one a preliminary study for the other?
Drawing 0149 (0862) represents a single-decked 74-foot-long ship with four guns on the half-deck and two in the cabin!
T e most unbelievable is drawing 0148 (0863), an image of a 70 x 19 x 9-foot ship with no less than twenty guns. (Figure 18) T e almost complete absence of sheer, which makes the ship look unusually fl at, makes this design the most far-fetched of the series. Here we again see the laterally folded frames in the side view. T e fi gure of fi ve shrouds for the main mast does not seem to match the usual shipbuilding rule for a vessel of these dimensions. On page 221 of
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