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

Dear Friends

There is still one last piece of unfinished business with which I will conclude my research. Throughout the history of researching the ship of Barentsz, no man has done more than Dmitry Kravchenko. He was the first person to have discovered a piece of the ship in the 1979 and the last person to do so in 2012. He has indeed his whole life to this ship and has done more for Dutch Marine Archeology than any Dutchman. He is rightly the #1 authority in the world on the ship of Willem Barentsz.

Bear with me as I pay homage to my personal hero in this saga.

Dmitry Fedorovich Kravchenko
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Kravchenko in 1979 when he discovered the first part of the WB.

Full member of the Russian Geographical Society. Historian. Traveller. Arctic Explorer.

As a teenager, Dmitry began his career as a seafarer. Having received a diploma in long-distance navigation, he sailed the seas and oceans all over the world. A passion for History and Archeology led Dmitry to the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. Today he has dozens of scientific expeditions and important discoveries under his belt. Sailor and historian - this unique fusion of professions turned out to be necessary for Dmitry's long-standing passion - underwater archeology.

Where did the dream arise to raise the sunken caravel of Willem Barents from the bottom of the Kara Sea? "Many years ago, Gerrit De Veer’s journals fell into my hands. I plunged into this book, written by a companion of Barents, and I have not been able to ‘emerge’ from it until now. "

For 12 years, Dmitry Kravchenko has been organizing research expeditions to the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya which marked the place where Willem Barentsz’s ship was trapped by the ice during the Dutch expedition of 1596-97. During this time, more than 2500 relics of the Dutch expedition (weapons, dishes, shoes, ceramics, etc.) were collected and studied. The collections were deposited to various museums around the country.

In 2009, for the first time in the world practice, Dmitry Kravchenko, his associates and students reconstructed an architectural monument of the sixteenth century Dutch explorer in the high latitudes of the Arctic and restored the wintering place of the Dutch.

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Kravchenko during the 2012 expedition.

And some rare video footage:

 
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Heinrich said:
The party was a great one!

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This fellow escaped the gallows - well at least as far as we were concerned.

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Peking duck - the real McCoy!

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Hmmmm ... ROTF
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Hello Henrich, Late again, Happy Belated 60th Birthday, Sorry I knew it was soon but I was thinking it was tomorrow. Looks you and your family had a great time with lots of great sea food. That Prince cigarette lighter sure is very nice and you will enjoy using it for many years to come, Say hello to Anna for us.
Regards Bernadette and Lawrence
 
Canoe21 said:
Hello Henrich, Late again, Happy Belated 60th Birthday, Sorry I knew it was soon but I was thinking it was tomorrow. Looks you and your family had a great time with lots of great sea food. That Prince cigarette lighter sure is very nice and you will enjoy using it for many years to come, Say hello to Anna for us.
Regards Bernadette and Lawrence
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Thank you very much Lawrence. Please convey my thanks to Bernadette as well - it is much appreciated!
 
GrantTyler said:
Good afternoon Heinrich. That is all so special. There is no doubt you had a fantastic and rewarding birthday. Stunning gifts……and some delicious oysters ROTF. Cheers Grant
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Thank you, my friend and apologies for the late reply. I had an amazing birthday to say the least. There is one other gift which has a very strong nautical theme, but "discretion" prevents me from showing it here!
 
pingu57 said:
This was fascinating reading Heinrich, from you as well as from the Russian expeditions.
Thank you so much for sharing all this with us.
By the way, your homeland flag changed??
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Thank you very much my friend. I am glad that you enjoyed the research. I still have a lot of information available re the length, width and shape of the ship, but before those are published there are still many ducks that have to be placed in a row. I can tell you though, that it differs from the calculations of @Ab Hoving and Gerald de Weerdt.

For the Russian research, I had to acquire VPN, so each time that I have that switched on, my IP address changes to the UK.
 
Tobias said:
Sorry Heinrich that I didn't congratulate you. I'll make up for it here with, happy birthday belated. I hope you had a great day with family and friends.
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No problem, Tobias. Thumbsup Thank you very much for the birthday wishes - they are much appreciated!
 
Dear Friends

I thought you would find this interesting.

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Above: Hoving Top View

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Above: De Weerdt Top View

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Captain Naumenkov. On this Russian interpretation I have removed the scale measurements. It is clear that the ship is much wider midships and also longer in length than either the Hoving or De Weerdt interpretations. This lends further credence to my belief that Barentsz was on the bigger of the two ships. It is interesting that Naumenkov's plan as well as Zhdan's build, are dated between 2014-2016 - just after the 2012 expedition. Makes you think doesn't it!
 
pingu57 said:
It might be possible that they found more parts of the Mercury caravel then what they have shown to the rest of the world???
Or am i now completely wrong ;) ;)
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No, my friend, you are completely right! They said to the public that they found parts of four frames. In reality they found 20 frames, the keel and parts of the rigging. This I know because I have the reports that were sent to the various state departments.
 
Fascinating, the interest of the Russians for the history of Willem Barentsz and Nova Zembla. Also their perseverance gives food for thought. Too bad there was no (apparent) interest from the Netherlands to participate in the Russian endeavors.
I'm still left with a burning question though...Speechless
 
In that case, one might tend to believe that their hullshape might be closer to the truth then the hulshapes from the Weerd and Ab Hoving
Heinrich said:
No, my friend, you are completely right! They said to the public that they found parts of four frames. In reality they found 20 frames, the keel and parts of the rigging. This I know because I have the reports that were sent to the various state departments.
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So basically there are now three significantly differing configurations of supposedly the same vessel.
The Russians may be on the right track, if proof can be found, linking the finds to a ship, participating in Barentsz' expedition of1596/1597 and more specific, that the finds can be traced back to belong to Barentsz' ship.
If the Russians are proven to be correct, than I foresee the build of a third WB somewhere in China (and an extensive re-do somewhere in Harlingen... ;))
 
RDN1954 said:
Fascinating, the interest of the Russians for the history of Willem Barentsz and Nova Zembla. Also their perseverance gives food for thought. Too bad there was no (apparent) interest from the Netherlands to participate in the Russian endeavors.
I'm still left with a burning question though...Speechless
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Johan, it is interesting that you mention the apparent "lack of interest" of the Dutch. I had the same thought, but @Kolderstok Hans pointed out to me that Nova Zemlaya (Nova Zembla) is part of Russia and that the Dutch wouldn't be able to conduct expeditions there on their own. That seems like a feasible reason, but I cannot help but still feel that more should have been done - at least as far as keeping up to date with what has been discovered.
 
pingu57 said:
In that case, one might tend to believe that their hullshape might be closer to the truth then the hulshapes from the Weerd and Ab Hoving
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That is a logical conclusion, my friend - however one doesn't know. But what is a fact is that both De Weerdt and Hoving created their hull shapes on what they thought was a ship of 30 last, whereas the Mercurius was a bigger ship (50 last). De Weerdt has calculated that the 50 last ship would have been approximately 20% longer than the 30 last one. The 30 last ship - according to Hoving - was 67.5 feet or 19.3m. Applying the 20% rule, would have made the 50 last ship 81 feet or 23.2 m.
 
RDN1954 said:
So basically there are now three significantly differing configurations of supposedly the same vessel.
The Russians may be on the right track, if proof can be found, linking the finds to a ship, participating in Barentsz' expedition of1596/1597 and more specific, that the finds can be traced back to belong to Barentsz' ship.
If the Russians are proven to be correct, than I foresee the build of a third WB somewhere in China (and an extensive re-do somewhere in Harlingen... ;))
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As to the three configurations - it would seem so. Bear in mind though, I have not found any plans drawn by the Russians - merely detailed drawings.

By means of the radiocarbon analysis, the Russians have proven that what they have found, belonged to a Dutch ship of the late Sixteenth Century that was wrecked at Nova Zembla. To me, that sounds about 100% conclusive, Johan. Willem Barentsz's ship was the only Dutch ship that was wrecked at Nova Zembla during that time frame.
 
Heinrich said:
The 30 last ship - according to Hoving - was 67.5 feet or 19.3m. Applying the 20% rule, would have made the 50 last ship 81 feet or 23.2 m.
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And could we, from behind our computer, say anything about de vessel that was build by the Russian modellers?? For instance about the scale and therefor about the size in real life??
Another question, could it be possible that Ab Hoving might still have some contacts in Russia? perhaps to come in contact with mr. Krafchenko, who was there from beginning to the end??
 
pingu57 said:
And could we, from behind our computer, say anything about de vessel that was build by the Russian modellers?? For instance about the scale and therefor about the size in real life??
Another question, could it be possible that Ab Hoving might still have some contacts in Russia? perhaps to come in contact with mr. Krafchenko, who was there from beginning to the end??
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Very good questions, Peter. Yes, I know the scale the Russian modelers have used, so based on that, I can and have calculated the length and width of what the real ship would have been. :)

About what Ab knows and doesn't know and what contacts he still has - I have no idea. I do not even know if Kravchenko is still alive.
 
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