HIGH HOPES, WILD MEN AND THE DEVIL’S JAW - Willem Barentsz Kolderstok 1:50

Oh and I forgot. the "practice" lifeboat (larger one) has been finished too.

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For this picture I borrowed the Admiral's I-Phone 12. I really do not know what the fuss is all about - my budget Oppo takes far better pictures. I cannot wait for my new One Plus with Hasselblad camera to arrive.
 
Hi Peter. No the Oppo doesn't. But my One Plus Pro 9 (the new Pro 10 is already available) that I have ordered, does have the Hasselblad camera! :)
 
Wow, fascinating research on your part. Every time I catch up on your log there is a new piece of history to digest. I think you will need a much bigger apartment or a lot more wall space in your boatyard to display all the versions of “no name” exploration ships that you will be modeling. Your WB #1 looks superb. I’m sure once the keel is laid for the WB#2 ( please excuse the names) that ship will also be an exceptional model.
 
Heinrich said:
Dear Friends

On Thursday I posted that I had received a very important document from the Zeeland Archives. That document in a nutshell can best be described as a "Job Card" for the work undertaken on the two Zeeland ships for the 1595 expedition as well as a full inventory of how the two ships were equipped for the journey. My hope was that in there - somewhere - I would find some information useful as to how ships were constructed for the Barentsz expeditions and just to gain a better understanding in general of how things worked. Well, to cut a long story short, whilst not providing answers to all my questions, it has answered some of them, has provided very valuable information and was just damn interesting to read.

However, there is one major hiccup.

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How to decipher that? The original document in the hand of Pieter Reygersbergh - the equipage and ammunition master of Veere. I passed a much simpler page on to three of my Dutch friends and their verdict was unanimous: "Very difficult" - read "impossible".

So I got going. By looking at original resolutions from Zeelandt of which I had the printed transcripts, I began identifying individual letters. Even though the handwriting was different, there were certain similarities. Slowly - ever so slowly - the puzzle was started and at the end of Day One, (Friday) I had this.

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And by today I can post this. I have printed this out as I have copyrighted the English version. I will most certainly not bore you with all 31 pages, but I would like to show you what is available, if you are really serious about what you are doing.

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You will see that the 60 lasten as donated by the asterisk changes upon closer examination of the ship.

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Note that De Zwane is now listed at its "correct" displacement of 40 lasten. The amounts are in pounds, schillings and "grooten Vlaams".

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And there is our first piece of crucial information - the Zeeland ships featured double-planked hulls. This is not to be confused with the thin exterior of pine wood that was applied to ships as a means of protecting them against the "paalworm".

And with this type of information available it now raises an interesting question. Do I build the nameless "Het Expeditieschip of Willem Barentsz or do I build the De Zwane (the real one of Zeelandt Staten Generaal - not the doubtful Witte Swaen) as she sailed on the 1595 expedition?

Food for thought.
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Good morning Heinrich. You have done some brilliant research- I do enjoy you sharing it. You should publish a manuscript/paper on the WB with all your research and views...you can launch it on completion of your WB. Would be cool. Cheers Grant
 
Heinrich said:
Oh and I forgot. the "practice" lifeboat (larger one) has been finished too.

View attachment 309611

For this picture I borrowed the Admiral's I-Phone 12. I really do not know what the fuss is all about - my budget Oppo takes far better pictures. I cannot wait for my new One Plus with Hasselblad camera to arrive.
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Don’t forget H. DO NOT WASH THE CAMERA
 
Pathfinder65 said:
Wow, fascinating research on your part. Every time I catch up on your log there is a new piece of history to digest. I think you will need a much bigger apartment or a lot more wall space in your boatyard to display all the versions of “no name” exploration ships that you will be modeling. Your WB #1 looks superb. I’m sure once the keel is laid for the WB#2 ( please excuse the names) that ship will also be an exceptional model.
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Thank you Jan! No, there won't be more versions of the ship than the two. The second model is solely aimed at bringing the build closer to those aspects with which I agree. This model though will be a very hard act for me to follow. I am exceptionally pleased with how everything has turned out so far, so the challenge will be to emulate that with the new one. With that said, I do have a few ideas and I hope to incorporate a few different things.
 
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GrantTyler said:
Good morning Heinrich. You have done some brilliant research- I do enjoy you sharing it. You should publish a manuscript/paper on the WB with all your research and views...you can launch it on completion of your WB. Would be cool. Cheers Grant
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Thank you very much for the kind words Grant - also for those about the little boat. The idea is that Hans will include a booklet of my research results with future WB kits. I would love to write a paper on my research, but seeing that my conclusion (at this stage) is as inconclusive as everyone's else's, I doubt whether it will add much. However, I have learnt and am learning a heck of a lot and that can only be good.
 
I always enjoy reading your well researched historical posts. Now it’s even more fascinating as you delve into document interpretation and analysis. To have the tenacity to decipher those old records and make sense of the wordage is quite an achievement. You are very wise to copyright your material.

I also agree you should eventually publish, at the very least, a paper. The Hakluyt Society, as an example, springs to mind. A research paper would fit well as “further reading” to their previous related publications.
 
RogerD said:
I always enjoy reading your well researched historical posts. Now it’s even more fascinating as you delve into document interpretation and analysis. To have the tenacity to decipher those old records and make sense of the wordage is quite an achievement. You are very wise to copyright your material.

I also agree you should eventually publish, at the very least, a paper. The Hakluyt Society, as an example, springs to mind. A research paper would fit well as “further reading” to their previous related publications.
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Thank you very much for the positive comments, Roger. The old documents are invaluable to research - often the majority of the information is unrelated, but then you come across something like the double-planked hull and that makes it all worthwhile. Not so much for the model, but that information has verified the thickness of the hull planking discovered by the Russian archeologists. I used the papers of the Hakluyt society as well, so that is an excellent suggestion.
 
Nomad said:
Very nice curves indeed Heinrich, a pleasure to look at - well done Thumbsup
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Thank you for the kind words, Mark. The main difference between this ship and most others is at the widest point of the frames / hull is actually below the waterline - resulting in the fat-bottomed girl! :)
 
Heinrich said:
Oh and I forgot. the "practice" lifeboat (larger one) has been finished too.

View attachment 309611

For this picture I borrowed the Admiral's I-Phone 12. I really do not know what the fuss is all about - my budget Oppo takes far better pictures. I cannot wait for my new One Plus with Hasselblad camera to arrive.
Click to expand...
Such a elegant ship. You’re doing a fantastic job Heinrich! ;)
 
Heinrich said:
Oh and I forgot. the "practice" lifeboat (larger one) has been finished too.

View attachment 309611

For this picture I borrowed the Admiral's I-Phone 12. I really do not know what the fuss is all about - my budget Oppo takes far better pictures. I cannot wait for my new One Plus with Hasselblad camera to arrive.
Click to expand...
It sure is a lovely little model.
Still having a lot problems wrapping my mind around the fact that they actually sailed on one of the more unforgiving seas with these ships. Without an engine, without GPS and without any comfort to speak of.
 
RDN1954 said:
It sure is a lovely little model.
Still having a lot problems wrapping my mind around the fact that they actually sailed on one of the more unforgiving seas with these ships. Without an engine, without GPS and without any comfort to speak of.
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And what is more - compared to the East Indian voyages, the trips were relatively uneventful. Never once is it mentioned that they got into trouble on the open seas. The actual journals are actually quite boring, because it was so uneventful. According to Ab Hoving, these ships had better sailing characteristics than their 17th century counterparts where everything was geared towards load carrying. At a max sailing speed of 8 knots, they were faster than the big retour ships (5 knots) could cope (with full sails) with a wind factor of 5 on the Beaufort Scale and provided that they were properly ballasted, were remarkably stable. Dr. T.H. Beke in his analysis of De Veer's and Linschoten's journals, surmised that at one stage Barentsz covered 1700 nautical miles in a period of 25 days - and that with the fishing smack in tow!
 
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