AKERBOOM 1681 after Ab Hoving nominally 1/66 but drawings in 1/64

[Iterum]

Hello my dear friends,

the AKERBOOM is from 1664 Not from 1681, sorry!

it all started by the finding of my old modelbuilding books of Hoeckl, Winter, &Co.


and the question if these are a reasonable choice and reliable source of plans'/lines' information to build a Dutch Golden Age's man-o-war and this was denied. @Ab Hoving was very kind to me to sent me the plans for his shipmodel made from card:

Here the
Link to Ab's model built in 1/77


This drawing by Willem Van de Velde showing the 60-gun ship of the III.rank named AKERBOOM (Oak Tree) from her port back side - and the beathtaking beauty of a model he created:


I do have to admit I will not start with a fully rigged model
as dramatic and temptational it may be to me:

...so I will have to strip the hull from guns and masts. But I will win a less complex model to build...*
So I want to go to the copy shop to print out the plans (allready scaled to 1/66 thanks a lot) and study them fully. Ab motivated me to ask questions and so I will do this and do invite all of you to join my journey in here into the terra incognita of historical Dutch shipbuilding. And so I will have to pimp up my libary by some books about the Dutch Golden Age - but what books are absolutely these relevant ones?

But back to what I did figured out:
I figured out some information from the three deckers website:




The original source of the transom and quarter gallery does given a plenty or details to us - and so I will have to pick them out "clearing" them and

do bring them into the right style** and realising them in card, paper, wood (really?) or some kind of putty:

...and by the clearing to figure out what this may below this gunport? (Is it just fun in a roll of toilettpaper flying in the wind or a honotable carved element?)

The Oak Tree is a dominant feature on the transom and my question is certainly If it is a carved structure or was it a plane canvas painted as a threedimensional masterpice?


Here a hastely made cut out
that doesn't given a plenty of help to decided between both:


But let's start with the uncladded hull and the location of the gunports, as these are most important - here Ab's Delftship's creation:


So my starting point is set and I do have to go to the copyshop to get my prints out of the xerox.
So if anybody has any idea I do invite you very much to ask, show, invent, criticism.

The first set is to created the hull, the wales, the gunports (drawing the outlines at first?) and to paint the hole in a wooden style - by showing the specialy linked joints of the planks (after Mondfeld Shipbuilding in the XXVII.Century). So there is a plenty to do and I do hopefully not forget to let you guys look over my ideas before ruining my build by glueing it onto the than wreck.

Thank you very much...
______
**

*and my returning saison of black moods does hopefully not do kick in and end her - or me being in hospital again.

 

[Iterum]

Looking for detailling I figured out a pair of Dutch artists (last one van de Velde) that may be helpfull as contemporary:


This shows ZEALAND (left) and AKERBOOM may be an Abraham Storck artwork?


This drawing shows ZEALAND with an interesting view over the rising decks and their decoration.

So my task beside building the hull will be to dive into Dutch naval history, art of shipbuilding, and terminology. The decoration on the hull of DER HOLLÄNDISCHE ZWEIDECKER wasn't bad I have been told by Ab. And so I am interested to come away from the much later and Swedish artwork by af Chapman:


and certainly the French style published by Ancre.fr in Nice we all do know.

By dealing with such contemporary drawings and paintings from the Dutch Golden Age


I do hope to trim my point of view to build a ship from Oak in a not too forested country:


Learning a feeling for the lines and their special harmony:


and thinking towards this very specific style


Here you do see three different methods of building a breakhead bulkhead all three are contemporary - is the difference by time or by admirality or by shipwright master?

But a nice thing I found on my path down into the rabbit hole was this colour reference of a sail I do love very much:


So I do have to learn all this not to end in a too young and french-dutch mixtoure on the transom or the quatergalery.

Collected too many vdV's pix online and wishing good night to all of you from the bottom of the rabbithole - oh no! There is a further door...


This drawing may rescue me by not being necessary to implement gunbarrels into first hull - but showing open gunports (not building a block model with drawn on lids). This IS something I do have to plan If I do want DARKBROWN five sided boxes (opening hours the port) with a toothpick piece to Imitate the upright fixed gunbarrels standing "diagonal" and hardly to recognize in the decks darkness. But when all the lids are open???


Or did the Dutch seamen secure their guns in some other way?

 

[Ab Hoving]

I warned you that building a ship like this would tear you into an endless search for data.
The first picture you show is not a historical one by Storck, but a modern one by Jan de Quelery, still alive and kicking .

 

[Herman]

Hello Chris

For research and to pimp up your library I can advise you the following books by Ab himself:
- "Nicolaes Witsens Scheeps-Bouw-Konst Open Gestelt" (ISBN 9789051941098)
- "In Tekening Gebracht" (ISBN 9789067075411)

As you seem to be a fan of temporary drawings of Dutch ships the following books:
- "The Willem van de Velde Drawings in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum" (3 books)
- "The Paintings of the Willem van de Veldes" (2 books)
- "Dutch Warships in the Age of Sail 1600-1714" (James Bender) (ISBN 9781848321571)

I myself am building a model of De 7 Provinciën, for which the book "De 7 Provinciën" by G.C. Dik (SIBN9789051940916) and the site of otteblom.nl are very helpful (BTW one of the drawings of Otte Blom shows a possible way of securing the guns for heavy weather).
Also the paperback by het Rijksmuseum of the "William Rex" (ISBN 9789040089978) shows some nice pictures of a contemporary model (and of Ab Hoving).

*
Regarding the different methods of building a breakhead bulkhead you will see that over the years they became shorter and shorter to disappear completely on more modern ships.

Good luck with your research and looking forward to your build log!

 

[Iterum]

Dear Herman, thank you very much for this listing of ship's books - I did put them in the basket looked in the down right corner and reboot my PC. That's a task to discuss with my ministry of silly walks* and financial affairs... But I could hunt down "The Ships Of Abel Tasman" online and did get it for "a brittle lid more than p&p...." The research costs do kill Ab's estimation of €20 per model immediatly...
...or his ministry doesn't took them in account.

So I printed out the drawings Ab sent me and by this decided to add the quartett of A4 shiets together in the right Order (Sorry for only showing an 12 sectional Imperial ruler but the 11sectional model is WIP.) Her hull's length is 619mm, hight (before decor and lamps)220mm, and breadth 162mm - so she is a really big girl:


These are the lines and thanks to Ab I didn't had to bother with unpleasent sizes (due to copying heat and paper's dhrinking) that do not fit - everything does aline greatly:

Here the aft view together with the well known and often repeated WvdV picture:

The AKERBOOM drawings will end up ontop a "underside light tablet" together with frostpaper to get some clearer lines for the decorational details.

That's all for today and from here, my next step is to think about how to construct a propper hull from cardboard in this eminese size. A construction also able to show open gunports and so on.
____________
*Yoga

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

Hello Chris,

I’m excited for your new project. Below are a few detail pics of Herbert’s models, as found on ModernNight’s Flickr page:




The nice thing about the Dutch ships, from a modeler’s perspective, is that the upper bulwarks are not overloaded with complicated friezes like the French. These two examples are fairly representative of the Dutch treatment of the quarters.

 

[Iterum]

I warned you that building a ship like this would tear you into an endless search for data.
The first picture you show is not a historical one by Storck, but a modern one by , still alive and kicking .

LES BARRIQUARDES MYSTERIEUSE

Dear Ab,
this is really fun to work into the Dutch art of shipbuilding, dealing with the facts, curiosities, and data I due have to learn. I am astonished how old Dutch baroque painters as Jan de Quelery are - still live and kicking ;-)
I have got my Wolfram zu Mondfeld book about historical modelship building - but I do trust him for English and French data but I am not trusting in his knowledge about Dutch shipbuilding of the XVIIth century after reading "Ruder hard Steuerbord" (about the 4-days-battle) with his drawings of HALFEE MAAN 1665 (?).

I do deal with the structure of the hullbuild at first - thinking about the arrangement of the card parts (as I not have a scaled "topview" with waterlines) for hull and deck. So I have to plan the connections between the bulkheads and the centralline-card and how to arrange the decks between them. Important are certainly the facts that the upper gundeck is only very deeply (on the hight of the tiller's tip) is enclosed by a bulkhead:

So from this towards the seats
of ease you can see everything - if the door is open:



And due to this I do have to figure out:

a)
How thick the formers were in this place and how thick the inner and outer planking was?
As inner planking + former + outer planking = max. thickness of hullside at the vaist.

ba)
What was the breadth and length of the usual inner and outer planking?
bb)
...does decksplanking differ?

c)
Where to locate the gunports, hatches, stairways and gratings historically right? (The WvdV drawing should be pivoted by geomatrical math - but I do hope this is allready done ;-)

And certainly I have to fight the foe of infecting my build by English and French influences.


I made some cheap copies to collect my ideas into and a small booklet should assist my badly damaged brain:


Dear Ab, there are cetainly these basic questions to the sizes of Dutch planking and how they were connected. But this is the criminalistic thrill giving part of the job. And my solution to plank the hull in planks cut from plasticsheets (so I could by sandpapier and knife imitate a simple but beliefable grain structure) the hull becoming a more "wooden" look. The question why imitating wood and not using it is quite simple to answer: cardboard and plasticsheets are at hand. And by the investment of some time I will hopefully get a result fitting the scale (and feeling less pain by macro pix).

And certainly it is my intrest in drawing to deal with the questions by using a tayler's ruler, pair of compasses and pencils. In two weeks I do have to go to hospital again for some weeks getting a plenty of time for drawings between tests - when not sucked down into darkness again. So I do hope to be able to do something and affraid not comeing in to it by tremor out of fear. But I do take the drawingboard and materials with me, as there is a plenty of time in evenings and weekends.

I do think I will have to Invest more detail in my 1/66 model as the bigger scale and my "Detailnoya" do force me into doing it. When cladding the card hull by plastic I can much easier weld littel parts onto the surface by Tamiya Extra Thin - hopefully...

Dear Marc thanks for the Support! Great Pictures you added. The decoration isn't that kind of an overkill - and due to this errors aren't so easy hidden. Perchance you - or others - can give a helpfull hand to me?
Sometimes the bulkheads did had very simple handrailing:

..in other ships it was quite elaborated:

Am I free to choose after my taste? ...or are there any rules like: "Any ship of 40 guns or more from an Amsterdam Yard untill 1660 has never elaborated detailling but after 1664 the motif of top of the transom is repeated in the railings."

Quite a practial question in kind of:"Would this have worked/have been built like this?"
How do you climb upwarts to this last deck on this ship:

as the stairs at the hull are clearly visible nothing on the last bulkhead is shown:
Les barriquardes mysterieuse

Click Here!

 

[Herman]

Hi Christian, I wish you all the best and a very Happy Birthday.

Enjoy your day.

 

[Ab Hoving]

Well Chris,
I am happy to see that you realize in what sort of pitfall you are trying to venture. I have witnessed more colleague model builders feeling lost in the Dutch field of shipbuilding rules and an almost total lack of clear answers.
I also hope that your physical condition will not deteriorate because of all the questions you will ask yourself (and others). This still is a hobby and boy it IS a hobby .

As to some of the questions I may answer (but note down that I don't know all the answers):
The topview you are missing is here. I left it out of the pdf because I usually don't need it, but of course if you want, here it is:


a) I have a list of dimensions of parts I took from the original contract. As you are German, most of the term used agree with the German names, but if you find any uncertainties, you can always ask. See the file below.

I usually glue layers of card together to get the right thickness for the 'spine'. You will end up with something like this (this is for a different model than yours):


As the list provides you with the dimensions of the keel, you should be able to find the answer to your question about sizes.

b) Both inner and outer planking were 1/4 of the inside stem. Inside stem was found by taking one inch for every 10 feet ship's length. So 140 feet length gives a thickness of 14 inches, one quarter is 3 1/2 inches = 9 cm (the contract says 4 inches, 10 cm). You can scale that down to your chosen scale yourself. If you choose to plank your model with individual planks within every strake, you can take 8 meters as the average length. Mind you: the drawing shows the ship without planking).

bb) Thicknesses of deck planking depended of the deck in question. The lower deck planking was 3 inches of oak (this is a warship), the higher you came, the thinner the planks.

c) As to historical correctness: it's an illusion. Correct at what moment of the ship's existence?
All I can offer is the formulae shipbuilders used in those days and the pictures made by several artist. And however brilliant those painters were, a drawing or painting is not a photograph. You have to admit yourself a lot of assumptions and probabilities.
Get used to that!

Oh, and the stairs on the aftermost bulkhead mostly consisted of separate steps nailed to the wall.

Enough for today. I am very much interested in your ingenuity while setting up the basic shapes of this monster

Ab

And of course congratulations and many happy returns of the day!

 

[Steef66]

Happy birthday Chris.

And brave of you, to start building a Dutch from scratch.

 

[Iterum]

Thanks a lot, all together!
Yes it
Some very German way for language is in the hobby

"Passion" in German is

LEIDENschaft

Suffer...ing

So let's get used to it. But by this you get an eminent freedom to do things as you think it is in the right way - hopefully. That sounds a lot after that kind of suffering I do like.

Here my last finding by WvdV:

 

[Steef66]

If you want a POB of the Dutch 2 decker of Winter, just give a call. I translated the line plans of the book in AutoCAD. I can transform them to 1/66. Maybe my log tells you more how and what about Dutch ships of the 17th century.

 

[Iterum]

Thanks a lot Ab, now I can add the WL-layers and get a much stiffer structure of the hull:

Are the positions of the gun ports in the built place?

Aaaaahbas I did find it - Here is my transformation/mutation of the orange Heller's stand from shiny plastic becoming "wood" by sanding with several


kinds of paper, scratching by knife and colouring by Citardel:


For Dutch ships I do need a Dutch ratio-rat with 11 duimen:

 

[Iterum]

If you want a POB of the Dutch 2 decker of Winter, just give a call. I translated the line plans of the book in AutoCAD. I can transform them to 1/66. Maybe my log tells you more how and what about Dutch ships of the 17th century.

That sounds very interesting, Steef, thanks a lot - see you!

What I do love about AKERBOOM is there is a lot of freedom in this "foggy" picture so I can Deal with a plenty of possible solutions from the

single drawings - so my ship will look different from Ab's.

 

[Ab Hoving]

Perhaps these waterlines are more helpful for the shape?

 

[Iterum]

I do think about the Ancre plan sets and the planks shown in there in cuts; Here at Endsor's "Shipmasters Secrets " I looked at the same cuts at the frames:

By drawings this onto the lines plan I can get a good feeling of the planking itself (and I only need to draw half a hull).


By this I can deal with the less elaborated design of the Dutch bulkheads:

The bars are allways bent parallel to the deck's curve:
giving some nice shape to the hull looking very homogenus:


But I have to disappoint all of you such beautyfull drawings as Richards is able to produce aren't in my portfolio of possibilities:


As this is the next step: I will have to cut out the copies,

have to glue them on a sheet of paper and start to add the wales, planks and so on onto it.
So I will have to deal with the data from Ab to get the right measurements about planks', frames', wales' measurements.
Suffering from your passion is selfmade suffering...

"Das Leiden aus der
Leidenschaft ist
selbst beschafft."
​

And than after this it is time for the design of the bulkheads and theirs' handrails (recently I do vote for a "copy" of the transom's decor - but I may get lazy later on...) - so when the next step gets ready I will do post the next update for you.

 

[Iterum]

Perhaps these waterlines are more helpful for the shape?
View attachment 430628

View attachment 430625

Yes, Ab, these are much more helpfull for the shape of the hull. Thanks a lot!

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

Happy Birthday, Chris!

 

[shota70]

Happy birthday Chris
good luck with your new project, it's looks very challenging

 

[Iterum]

Happy birthday Chris
good luck with your new project, it's looks very challenging

Shota, thank you. As I do point towards the flexibility in the project I will have to keep track and go from one step foreward to the very next step not overdoing it.