Schiffahrt Museum Husum

[Maarten]

When I was briefly in Husum Northern Germany for bussiness last week I spend some additional time in the North Frisian Schiffahrts Museum.
It is a small 4 story museum and what I like about these is they show a lot of models. The large museum now adays all want to become an experience with large exhibitions but less and less models on display.
This regional museum tells the story of the maritime history of North Friesland, now Schleschwig Holstein Germany.

It is best to start with the top floor, then you build up the expectations.

In the attic the story deals with a lot of smaller models of 20th and 21st century ships.
They have an impressive collection of 1:1250 scale models here.


One floor down the collection expands with a lot of models in different qualities, a lot of these are build by local modellers. How great would it be to show your model in a museum .









On this floor there are two excuisit models I d like to show in detail.

 

[Maarten]

Number one the Wappen von Hamburg.
Build again by a local modeller in scratch in I think 1:48 scale.
The ship was build by a Dutch ship builder mid 17th century for the city of Hamburg to guide their merchant fleet in the North sea.

A very nicely detailed model.

 

[Maarten]

The next one is a fantasticly detailed build model of James Cook Endeavour. This model is really a pinnacle of moddeling with a lot of interesting details.
Look at the lines for the gun ports which are running outside of the hull towards the railing, very nicely executed. The rigging is just fabulous.
Look at all the tiny details in the rigging.
This shows a properly detailed rigging really can stand out your model.

 

[Maarten]

The next model took me 25 minutes to look at, I was at a bussiness trip so no Admiral present
This is for me the pinnacle of modeling .

This model showed the whaling history of the area in the 17th and 18th century. A lot of local people worked on Dutch whaling ships sailing from the North of Holland which was the centre of the whaling industry in those days with whaling stations up to Spitsbergen in the northern Artic Ocean.
These whaling ships were flutes or fluit in Dutch.
This example is a 95 Amsterdam foot fluit and there fore similar in size as my next project.
Build in scale 1:26, so I still reconsider maybe also change my scale from 1:36 to 1:28 .

This model is build in a semi navy board style, I guess in Box or maybe Elsbere or Ahorn as a lot of german builders use this maybe somebody can enlighten me here.
Just enjoy.

 

[Maarten]

Especially for Paul @dockattner


No sorry there are more pictures.

 

[Maarten]

This model is on the ground floor were there is a lot more to see.







If you have these tools you are all set to build your own.


Especially for @Heinrich

 

[Maarten]

For the museum the top is in the basement. A wreck of an early 17th century Dutch coastal vessel.
This is how the ship looked like.


And this is what it looks like now after 400 years.


This wreck has a lot of interesting features and building is more or less identical to larger ships.
What can we see.
First of all you can see it is build shell first.


How can you see that, this as there are no frames except for the centre frame where the frames are joined together. The frames are only attached to the hull planking which means the floor planking was first and the frames were fitted to this afterwards.

Next interesting thing to see is the way the ceiling is planked, again we modellers think we need nice and tidy planks of all the same size with planks joint in pattern. For 17th century Ditch ships let go that idea and just use what you have, this is what I have seen on all 17th century Dutch wrecks. From Vasa to a pinas, to a waterschip all up to this small coaster, all the same.


Planking on the outside more or less the same but a lot more structure then on the inside.
See for instance the scarph joint on the stern which goes from one row to two rows of planks.
If you would di this in a model and don t splice properly you will get some comments for sure .


On the stern you see again a splicing ending in a pointed tip, I have also seen this on Vasa. I had learned in the past a tip should be minimum 1/3 of the width of a plank, not the case in reality.



The rabbet yes it is enclosing the stern post.
Look at the depth markings in points.


All the plank joints are scarphed as normal on a dutch ship.

 

[Maarten]

But the wales are scarphed in a vertical plane which is interesting to me.


Hope this was interesting for you.
I certainly enjoyed this small museum and spend 2,5 hours there. It certainly is worth a visit.
Where it is? Here.

 

[Heinrich]

Thank you very much for this Maarten. I agree with you that the model of the Fluyt per se is a work of art, but exactly because of that it loses all character to me as a Dutch working ship. With the ornate stern it is as far from an ordinary Fluyt as I have seen. Also, the choice of wood - whilst beautiful when viewed in isolation - is completely out of kilter with the character of a Fluyt. When discussing the wreck, you actually said it yourself. No fancy planking, no strict adherence to a pattern - nothing of the sort - use what you have. To me the standout model is the Wappen of Hamburg.

 

[kalliboot]

What a pity, we could have met drinking a cup of coffee! I live only 20 km to the north.
Indeed it is a nice little museum , worth a visit, managed on a honorary basis.
Karl Ingwer

 

[Jwallkc]

Wow, what a great little museum

 

[dockattner]

Amazing report Maarten. By any chance did you get pictures of the furled sails on the Wappen von Hamburg?

Oh, and while I certainly see Heinrich's point - the fluit is jaw-dropping modeling brilliance - at ANY scale!

 

[Maarten]

Thank you very much for this Maarten. I agree with you that the model of the Fluyt per se is a work of art, but exactly because of that it loses all character to me as a Dutch working ship. With the ornate stern it is as far from an ordinary Fluyt as I have seen. Also, the choice of wood - whilst beautiful when viewed in isolation - is completely out of kilter with the character of a Fluyt. When discussing the wreck, you actually said it yourself. No fancy planking, no strict adherence to a pattern - nothing of the sort - use what you have. To me the standout model is the Wappen of Hamburg.

Hi Heinrich,
Actually the flute half deck and hut became wider at the end of the 17th century and into the 18th century creating this bigger and more ornate stern, to me this model represent that.
See below a painting of Abraham Stork 17th century whalers and below that of Jochem de Vries in 1772. Later into the 18th century this type of ship is called a bootschip but in principle it is a derivative of the fluit.


I agree with you this must be seen as a piece of art like a navy board model, this as the frame structure is certainly not that of a shell first.

 

[Maarten]

What a pity, we could have met drinking a cup of coffee! I live only 20 km to the north.
Indeed it is a nice little museum , worth a visit, managed on a honorary basis.
Karl Ingwer

Hi Karl,

That would have been fun, if I will be there in the future I will let you know.
Guess you have been there multiple times. I was suprised by what was on display for this small museum.

 

[Heinrich]

Hi Heinrich,
Actually the flute half deck and hut became wider at the end of the 17th century and into the 18th century creating this bigger and more ornate stern, to me this model represent that.
See below a painting of Abraham Stork 17th century whalers and below that of Jochem de Vries in 1772. Later into the 18th century this type of ship is called a bootschip but in principle it is a derivative of the fluit.
View attachment 314519View attachment 314520

I agree with you this must be seen as a piece of art like a navy board model, this as the frame structure is certainly not that of a shell first.

Thank you so much or this Maarten. Obviously, the later years make a big difference. I am stuck in the sixteenth century now!

 

[Maarten]

Amazing report Maarten. By any chance did you get pictures of the furled sails on the Wappen von Hamburg?

Oh, and while I certainly see Heinrich's point - the fluit is jaw-dropping modeling brilliance - at ANY scale!

Oeps unfotunately not, what I posted is what I have.
If you want to see some realistic and beautiful furling I would recommend you to look at Ab Hovings paper models. Then you know that it will be historically correct.

A 143 feet long Dutch warship from 1681. Cardstock [COMPLETED BUILD]

Perhaps you are interested in witnessing one of my builds. My system is fast and cheap and it hardly makes a mess of the workshop. Consider it as 'modelbuilding light'. It always starts with a draught. Many times, if there are no useful drawings available, I have to develop them from scratch...

shipsofscale.com

A 160 foot Dutch Eastindiaman (VOC) 1699 [COMPLETED BUILD]

Usually my models do not take more than a few months to be completed, but this one is another story. I started making the plans in the 80s of the last century, when I found a complete description of three charters of 'retour' ships in the book 'Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie'...

shipsofscale.com

 

[dockattner]

Thanks Maarten. I do have Ab's images saved. Remarkable.

 

[Uwek]

Great models - especially the big scale one fluit is amazing
Many thanks for showing us this museum - I really have to visit Karl Ingwer and make a stop over at this interesting museum

 

[kalliboot]

Yes, we talked about it. I would be delighted!!

 

[kalliboot]

The same goes for Maarten
K.I.