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

Kolderstok said:
Fact - indeed!
In the early 17th century the route to the East was around the Cape - then upwards again via Madagscar, Mauritius, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and then towards (nowadays) Indonesia.
But in 1610 chief merchant Hendrik Brouwer, trialled a new route from the Cape of Good Hope to Java and reported enthusiastically of his prosperous journey. It would shorten the duration of the trip from the Netherlands to East India by several weeks, and even months. Instead of going past Madagascar and Mauritius, and then going straight across the Indian Ocean, Brouwer discovered a new route which looked a lot longer on the map, but was much quicker to sail in practice. From the Cape of Good Hope he took a south-easterly course until the ship was at around 35 degrees south. At that latitude there were strong westerly winds, and it was essential to make use of those for as long as possible. From there he changed course sharply, to make use of the south-easterly trade wind, and sailed straight towards Java. Thus it was possible to sail the entire course with a tail wind. An added bonus was that the climate was much more pleasant than at tropical latitudes, so the crew fared better and supplies did not spoil as quickly. Because this route was so profitable, it was made compulsory for everyone by the VOC in 1616. However, this route also had unforeseen downsides. According to the instructions, from the Cape one had to sail around a thousand miles east, but it was very difficult to estimate the distance covered. At the time it was not yet possible to determine an exact longitude, and on the way there were no fixed landmarks. Sailors therefore never knew how far they had got already. This was extremely risky; ships that sailed too far east ended up on the ‘Southland’, Australia, and the coast of Australia was at that time barely explored. This coast was, however, already notorious for its sharp cliffs and treacherous shallows and there are a 'few' Dutch ships who shipwrecked at the Australian coast, the Batavia being the most notorious one.

Hans
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Spot on Hans - I am in full agreement. That is why I said, he was fast but not as fast as I was initially led to believe.
 
Red dragon said:
Can you save me a seat , I’m a newbie so I don’t mind sitting near the back , also I have a big bag of popcorn ( I promise not to crunch too loudly or rustle the packet) ian
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Hello Ian - a very big and hearty welcome to the log of the Willem Barentsz. We are an unruly bunch here, so the more noise you make and the more you participate the better! :)
 
Maarten said:
Haha Heinrich,

Every week I visit your blog over 10 pages have been added. You win the trophy from Paul.
Love you history postings and the way you dig into things, just great.
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Dear Maarten. I have unearthed many interesting things and little pieces of information as I did my research which I am merely sharing. @dockattner Paul's log though is nothing short of phenomenal - a true testimony to a wonderful build!
 
Kolderstok said:
The story of the flying Dutchman is a nice one, although it is complete fiction. What you describe here is only a part of the story, and not the main part of it.

The flying Dutchman is all about the following (from the Dutch wikipedia):
It is said that the skipper of "de vliegende Hollander" was a man named Willem van der Decken.
Wikipedia says:
Willem van der Decken is, in all likelihood, a fictional character who is widely known as the cursed captain of The Flying Dutchman, the ship he sailed into a storm near the Cape of Good Hope. According to one version of the story, he made this decision on Good Friday 1676 after it had already been storming for several weeks.

Van der Decken became known through the nineteenth-century novel The Ghost Ship The Flying Dutchman by the English writer Frederick Marryat. In the book, a house on the Havenstraat in Terneuzen is designated as the home where captain van der Decken lived with his wife Catherina and son Philip. According to the author, a few years after Van der Decken's departure the family had to move due to poverty to just outside the town. There they moved into a small colourful house. Marryat also mentions a building on the Noordstraat where Van der Decken was said to have been born.

According to historians, Van der Decken is based on Bernard Fokke, a VOC captain who drove his crew to extremes in order to reach a destination at great speed. He was therefore described as a tyrant. Falkenberg's name is also mentioned among sailors as a possible captain of the ship. In Washington Irving's book The Flying Dutchman on Tapas Sea he is called Rambout van Dam. In many books, the name Van der Decken is mostly used, sometimes written together (VanderDecken).

The following quote is in fact the base for the story of the Vliegende Hollander. As said - it had been storming for several days and Van der Decken was eager to sail. He got upset he could not go, and this made him so angry that he shouted:

"Storm or no storm, Easter or no Easter, I will sail, even if it is for eternity!"

Promptly the storm subsided. The devil then appeared before him and said that he would indeed sail for eternity, whereupon the storm rose again in all its anger. But van der Decken could sail - with rounded sails, and against the wind. In the following years the crew died one by one, except Van der Decken who was left alone at the helm to sail the world seas, for eternity.
Every now and then (even up to nowadays) the flying Dutchman is seen, with blood red sails, rounded, sailing against the wind, floating above the water*

The Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam has also written a piece about the Vliegende Hollander (which is slightly different - but the same story):

God or the devil
It was the seventeenth century when Willem van der Decken left Holland on Easter Sunday, bound for Asia. A blasphemous fact; working on a Christian holiday. That was acting like the devil! Everything had to make way for a quick crossing to Asia. The fastest route to Asia was around the Cape of Good Hope. To the south of Africa, the weather got worse and worse, but Van der Decken insisted: he must and will set sail. He did so in order not to hinder the trade and to pocket the money that could be earned. His crew begs him to wait out in the open for another day, but Van der Decken does not want to hear about it and even throws his helmsman overboard. He spoke the words: "God or the devil, I will sail around that Cape! If I have to sail until the last judgement".

These sounds came to the devil's ears. If this was what Van der Decken wanted, he could have it. The devil took over the ship from the sinful captain and made the ship sail around in circles for all eternity. The ship became a true ghost ship, able to do things that a normal ship could never do. Like sailing against the wind. The colours of the sails changed to blood red and often the ship was seen 'floating' 'above' the waves, where a normal ship makes its passage through the water. The crew members became the living dead: the ship was possessed by the devil from that Easter Sunday onwards and was popularly called a ghost ship that was still often seen on the horizon. There are even people from the 1990s (yes, our 1990s) who claim to have seen the ship.*

*My vision on this:
This is quite usual: when it has been a hot day the layer of air above the water often causes a mirage, where you can see objects at a far distance (often beyond the horizon) and floating above the visible water. Combined with the evening sun which causes orange red skies a passing sailing ship could in this way be seen as floating and with orange red sails.
You just need the right circumstances and a sailing ship (yes - they still excist) passing by.

Hans
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Love this legend.
 
Hello Dear Friends

Onwards we go - as it is time for the deadeyes. Luckily I have the excellent instructions from @pietsan Piet Sanders to follow which make things just so much clearer.

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Photograph: Piet Sanders. For the deadeyes, Piet did not use the kit-supplied black, metal wire but went with 0.5mm brown rope which was then served with 0.3mm brown rope.

Time to call in my secret weapon ... the Admiral.

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And the result:

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This picture - and it is beyond macro- close-up (look at the size of the clamp) shows the first step of just securing the rope to the deadeye itself.

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Here you can see the second step which shows the serving rope glued to the 0.5mm thread that was used to secure the deadeyes. All the deadeyes have now received their servings and are lying in the clamps waiting for the glue to dry. The number of windings that the serving rope is wound is carefully counted to make sure that the servings are of equal length.

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Photograph: Piet Sanders. After the servings had been completed, Piet then simply applies some PVA glue to the elongated part of the deadeye assembly and inserts the deadeye into the pre-drilled hole in the hull.

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Deadeye inserted.

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The rope is finally secured to the hull by means of a brass nail.

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Photograph: Piet Sanders. And Voila! that is what the final assembly looks like - the neatest deadeye-assembly you could wish for.

While I am waiting for the glue on my served deadeyes to dry, I made a start with the ropes securing the gunport-lid hinges.

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The Admiral prepared the hooks for these and subsequently did the knots and secured the rope to the hooks ...

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After which I quickly made a jig to hold the hooks while I coated the knots and ropes with diluted PVA. Clamps were used as weights so that they would hang down straight while the glue dried. This would result in taught and straight ropes for my gunport lids.

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Ropes on the port side are finished. Now I have to do the starboard side's gunport ropes and by that time, the deadeyes can come out of the clamps. I will see how much I can still get done today, not forgetting of course it that is also the Monaco Grand Prix this afternoon!
 
Heinrich said:
Thank you my friend. Anna has left already, but at least we have finished 17 deadeyes so I can complete the one side during the coming week. She just has a natural talent working with the small parts and is far better at it than I am. :)
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Nice to have nimble fingers when working around the rigging.
 
RogerD said:
Wonderful work by both you and Anna. The small accurate details certainly add to beauty of your build. Your Chief Shipwright did a fine job.
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Thank you very much for the kind words, Roger. I am really happy with how this build has turned out and just have to keep focused. Often the small details are time consuming and requires extra focus.
 
Daniel20 said:
Very neat, well executed assembly work Heinrich. And I'm sure it was a special treat to have your Admiral there to help.
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Daniel, having her here is a special treat. Last weekend I purposely did not work on the ship as I wanted to maximize our time together. But today I had no option - if I wanted to have something to work on during the week, the deadeyes had to be done today - or at least partially done (there are still eleven left to do).
 
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