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

Dear Friends

This is the confirmation I have wanted all along.

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"A piece of frame of the caravel Mercury, Willem Barentsz expedition 1596-1597" (The Third Expedition!)

Museum of the History of the Murmansk Shipping Company. A fragment of the frame of the ship, discovered by the expedition of the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after Likhachev under the leadership of Pyotr Boyarsky.

I permit myself a smile ... :) Thumbsup
 
Heinrich said:
My friend I have a very nice birthday gift for you and for all our friends here on the WB build log. I am just waiting for one of our friends to do an exact translation for me and then I will post it.
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Good morning Enrico, see mail
 
Frank48 said:
Good morning Enrico, see mail
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Those are two very interesting sources, Frank. The French translation of De Veer's journal is one that I did not have before, so now I have the Dutch, German, French and English translations. The book containing the paintings of the Rijksmuseum is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much!
 
pingu57 said:
That is quite a clear name tag Heinrich, is this the confirmation that you where waiting For??
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Yes, my friend. That fragment was part of the same section of wreckage that was discovered by Peter V.Boyarsky of the Russian Research Institute for Cultural and National Heritage on Nova Zembla in 1992. On the 20 May of the same year Ab Hoving representing the Rijksmuseum, Henk van Veen coorsitter van het Nationaal Comite Willem Barentsz and archeologist Pieter Floore of the Instituut voor Pre-en Protohistorie of the Universiteit van Amsterdam examined these remains in Moscow. At that early stage, no ship's name had been attached to it, but obviously as a result of the continued research that the Russians had been doing, and in the light of new discoveries they had made and additional information gathered, they were subsequently confident enough to label the fragment as part of the Mercurius,

In my mind that is conclusive proof of the fact that as far as the Russian Research Institute for Cultural and National Heritage is concerned, there is no doubt that Barentsz's ship during the Third Expedition was called De Mercurius.
 
Now it is, of course, very interesting to compare the existing drawings/plans that I have of the WB to those of the Russian model builders.

Let's just look at the top views of the hull shapes.

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Hoving

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De Weerdt

Let's compare the above two Dutch versions to the Russian interpretations.

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Captain Naumenkov

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Half-Breadth drawing by Vladislav Zhdan.

You will see that the Russian drawings show a much wider hull amidships than the Dutch ones. And even here, the puzzle makes sense. You will recall that the 2012 expedition salvaged 4 frame parts of the ship (probably from what I can gather) the futtocks.

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The above frame is borrowed from my Bluenose box, the futtocks are indicated by the black lines.

Now let us assume that these futtock parts were in actual fact longer than originally thought, that would explain the wider hull amidships. Also, we are no longer talking about a ship of 30 last, but of 50.

And this is another Russian interpretation of a full POF build of the Mercurius. (Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the modeler, nor do I have any other information about him.

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pingu57 said:
The Russian Version looks a lot rounder ( so to speak ) as you say Heinrich, and the windlass went back to the rear of the front canopy i see.
They are looking great bye the way.
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You are 100% right my friend. They are indeed much rounder and look exactly like De Veer's drawings. You are right about the windlass - in fact there are many points on which the Russian versions are the same as the @Kolderstok kit and very close to my first build of the WB. They also have the helmsman's hut, a kolderstok instead of a whipstaff and the center canopy is closed with the two doors. The only big difference is the hull shape.

And, of course, the thing I love is the railings which are on the Russian versions!
 
@pingu57 ; @GrantTyler ; @Pathfinder65

Hold your horses, gentlemen. :) Actually, I would be lying if I said I did not consider it, but it raises again the question about the uncertainty of my future in China. If I did do something like this, I would like it to be in a bigger scale (maybe 1:36), but that would mean a relatively large model which is a problem for me if the model has to travel.

Jan, POF would be nice, but seeing that I would still plank the entire hull, (a partially planked hull would be completely out of place on a model like this) it wouldn't really make a difference.

Let me ponder it some more, while I continue the rigging of the WB. ;)
 
RDN1954 said:
No matter what, POF it is...
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Absolutely. The drawings of Zhdan are not plans per se - creating a POF model from the drawings would call for a VERY accomplished modeler (read, not me). The construction plans of Ab Hoving though, would be perfect for a POF Build.

So, Johan, if you would like to build Hoving's version of Willem Barentsz ship or De Witte Swaen, I you just need to get hold of Hoving's book.
 
Heinrich said:
So, Johan, if you would like to build Hoving's version of Willem Barentsz ship or De Witte Swaen, I you just need to get hold of Hoving's book.
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Tempting, Heinrich, very tempting. I also saw some ideas floating about (some guy building a fluyt) to cut a few openings in the hull to show the ship's innards.
But, here's my current sequence; first complete my YQ Bluenose, followed by the build of a plastic kit of the Fokker DVII. The next model on my wishlist is a metal skeleton Mustang P51D and after that one I could be very well tempted to start a WB-model. To make matters worse, I also once stated that I would do a waterline cut Bluenose, maybe I could change that for a WB-model, we'll see. It's a good thing I'm retired....
 
RDN1954 said:
Tempting, Heinrich, very tempting. I also saw some ideas floating about (some guy building a fluyt) to cut a few openings in the hull to show the ship's innards.
But, here's my current sequence; first complete my YQ Bluenose, followed by the build of a plastic kit of the Fokker DVII. The next model on my wishlist is a metal skeleton Mustang P51D and after that one I could be very well tempted to start a WB-model. To make matters worse, I also once stated that I would do a waterline cut Bluenose, maybe I could change that for a WB-model, we'll see. It's a good thing I'm retired....
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Joahn, all I can say is cherish the opportunity that you have to plan your long-term (health permitting) future builds. I wish I could do the same - then De Mercurius would be a no-brainer.
 
As far as retirement goes, I can only hope when the day comes that I get to retire, that I still have my eyesight and hand skills. Because with all the extra time I could certainly build a lot of models!
I too have a list of models that I have on hand, just waiting for their turn. A few wooden airplane kits, a few plastic airplane kits, and some plastic car models…and of course a wood ship.
My next ship build is either a Viking Drakar “Oseberg” ship or the Fluyt. ;)
 
Dean62 said:
As far as retirement goes, I can only hope when the day comes that I get to retire, that I still have my eyesight and hand skills. Because with all the extra time I could certainly build a lot of models!
I too have a list of models that I have on hand, just waiting for their turn. A few wooden airplane kits, a few plastic airplane kits, and some plastic car models…and of course a wood ship.
My next ship build is either a Viking Drakar “Oseberg” ship or the Fluyt. ;)
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It's so nice that you have your future builds outlined to this extent, Dean. I am afraid the WB has ruined me for life with regards to any other ship build. :)

As to your choice of the next ship, all I can say is that the Fluyt is the challenge of all challenges - especially in oak.
 
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