LAMANTIJN Dutch Smalschip 1/44

[Iterum]

Hello friends, I was saved from doing an error...

The book of Dutch 17th Century Ship Models is full of very interesting ships and a plenty of big temptations.I ask Ab Hoving of the

Dutch fregat POSTILJON would be less stress than my started AKERBOOM to complete; and he changed my mind not to aim for a two-decker but to train in the beautyfull Smalschip- he already successfully built from card:

It is a construction of limited breadth to pass the channels inside the Seven Provinces avoiding the long journey of the blue water coast. So I took the plans and did work on a way to realise the upscaling from the original drawings in an A4 sheet in Ab's 1/77 scale to the 1/44 scale I do need for my bad eyesight.

Here I do deal with a 60DutchFeet/16,98m long freighter, a typical Dutch construction - a blunt bow and a interesting rigg. As I do stay with the Dutch scale system based on "One feet is eleven inch!" So my scale becomes 1/44 and the model will be 385,9mms in Lpp.

Ab said to me I should figure out a ficitious name for this ship and so it is the beautyfull Dutch word for seacow it is LAMANTIJN.

I am thinking about a second build for a different rigg to call it MEERMIN - as the seamen thought the very Rubens' like shape of the seacow was a woman with a fish tail - that does happen If you stay too long away from women...





Ab Hoving shows the contemporary sources as N.Witsen and Dutch baroque painters. Due to this we do get an instruction how to build this model. I also looked for paintings and drawings of Smalschips for references.

Here a very nice example of the Smalschip with an altered rigg:

As you do mention it is the very same hull;

As atop this hull it is possible to place different riggs, so you do get several boats from the very same plan - this have the idea ton me to build a pair of them parallely. Perchance dealing with the length and topping of the main hatch and cabin to get a more distinguished result.


In Ab's book you do find 12 pages in DIN A4 for the plates with drawings in 1/77 and due to the scale gauge on every single plate, you can change the scale a you need up and down. The closest scale between Dutch and Imperial system would be 1/77 and 1/76, 1/66 and 1/64 so as 1/99 and 1/100.

Here an interesting way to place the flag at the pole:

So I do hope you do like this project - I will need some time to start with her, as Berlin's public traffice is unable to deal with winter...

But I do think this humble'er project is better than the next unfinished two-decker or fregat!

So next Stop: Copyshop!

 

[Iterum]

Started to compute the measurements:

10.000mm / 77 = 129,87
10.000mm / 44 = 227,27
129,87 × 1,7509 = 227,26682
so I do have to enlarge the drawings by 175,09%
to come as close as possible towards my intended scale of 1/44...

...so LAMANTIJN becomes a big Lady in particular the mast does becomes a tremendous pice to build:

The sails are quite a square of fabric:


So here we are - I do need 3mm (2×1,5mm) thickness for the centerboard and 2mms for the bulkheads. So the next stop is the applying of the drawings ontop the cardboard.
So I do get 386mm of length...

Stay to scale,
Christian

 

[Iterum]

I did Run through the threads about Dutch ships and got a first question:

On his 160foot VOC retourship @Ab Hoving showed the technic of the stem, keel, and stern by doubling the cardboard:


The link to the keel is very prominent shown - but are the stem and stern allways a complete pice of a grown tree? So I do have to treat it as a single pice of timber with a complete lining of grain?
At @Maarten 's build of his wreck reconstrution the stem is a two pice construction. But the fleut is a larger ship.

The sternpost is a combined pice again.


My first question comes from the madhouse's idea to clad the cardboard by 0,5mm plastic sheet, giving it an imitation of grain by a wire brush - so darker ink will make it prominent later in the build. My idea is to clad the hole hull as the scale does shout for more detail. I tried it on the Heller's stand of SOLEIL ROYAL some years ago by sind sandpaper, stiching awl:



My second question is an economical about the antifouling paint: Is it so thickly plastered to the hull that no wooden structure was recognizable? So I do not have to deal with the deeper detailing of the planking below the CWL at all?

Me, trying to read something without my glasses...

As you can see a bigger scale is a blessing for the eyes and curse for my creativity - so my mind does developing solutions in a mass...

Thank you very much!

 

[Maarten]

If the stem is one piece or multiple is depending of the size of the piece of wood needed to fabricate it and the availabillity of the wood. The stem of the fluyt is in reality much bigger then of the lamatijn and therefore in two pieces.
If I look at for instance a botter which is comparable in size to the lamantijn the stem is in one piece.


So in your case if would be fine to go for a one piece stem.

 

[Iterum]

Thank you very much, Maarten! Yes, that is very helpfull. But the "ironbar" afront of the keel is a modern additive?

 

[Maarten]

This is most probably done to reinforced the stem top as the fwd stay is fitted there in a single point.


On the lamantijn this is also the case but the force of the stay is spread with a block to multiple ropes.

 

[Iterum]

Dear Maarten, thank you very much, that was very helpfull.

b.t.w.
my 1,5mms bookbinder's cardboard arrived today hopefully the purchased 30 pices of

DIN C3 (envalope sized ) sheets will be enough for this build and big enough not to piece everything togeather. I had had to glue the A3 copied sheets togeather as the 1/44 sized scale drawing nearly everone was reaching into the blind edges of the photocopy, so I copied in A4 and glued it onto.

 

[Robboxxx]

I will follow this with interest.

 

[Iterum]

Today's progress:

I took all the numbers for the materials thicknesses from the text and I have to do the computing them by ×1,75 to getting my numbers for 1/44.
More will be done tomorrow.

 

[Iterum]

Here some further contemporary pictures:

A Spritsail but the hull Looks a bit different without the three wales.


Here an other spritsail with a top sail - are this fenders are not looking like wood?

Here a Smalschip with a much longer yards and only pair of wales - but a bowsprit?
Today I did found no real time to build only to search for more sources of detail.

 

[Ab Hoving]

the hull Looks a bit different

No wonder, it's another ship type, probably a kaag. It's smaller ship, often used to transport personnel to and from ships at anchor off shore.

are this fenders are not looking like wood?

Certainly, they are made of wood.

A mast with a sprit rig can be made longer by a tied topmast, so a top sail can be used. Mostly this was done on bigger ships, like 'wijdships'. The topsail was used without braces, lifts, clews or brails, so the sail actually carried the yard. It was stored on deck if not in use. Just a halliard to hoist it and two sheets, attached to the lower yard, running through blocks at the corners of the sail.