The Navy board model in the heersgeschichtlichen Museum and the changing in stern design"

[schifferlbauer]

One day ,as I was standing in the Navy Room of the heeresgeschichtlichen Museum and looked again the English third rate navy board model,
what looks like one of the 70 gun ships of 1677 building program, the deputy director of the museum came to me, we had a little small talk and
than he asked me, if I could find out what ship the model could show and the connection to the austrian navy. I told him that I can try this, but I would
need all the facts and papers, the museum have about the model. His answer was like a little strike on my head, because he told me there was nothing
about the model known. He had found the model dusty in a paper box in one of the depot in the cellar. He gave it Mr. Helmut Bartel to clean and restore
it and since this time it was standing in the navy room. The only help could be the little brass plate with the information- Built in Deptford dock yard an
was a present to the German emperor Charles VI. Habsburg.
Whit this small information I was starting my tricky job.
At first I made photograps of the model and hope in my Books, Pictures and Papers to find a little bit to come closer to my problem.
The first pictures of the model

 

[schifferlbauer]

My first step was to search for in my books -Catalogue of Van de Velde drawings in the National Maritime Museum and the Catalogue Van de Velde drawings
in Boymans-van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam. I compared my pictures of the model with the drawings and was a little bit disappointed that I found no drawing that fits to the model. I called the deputy director Dr. Gabriel on the phone and told him that I must take the model out of his case, to take the main dimensions
of the model to compare it with my ship lists. He told me I can do this, but only on a day if the museum is closed for public.
I was very happy as the model stands out of the case on a table and I could look all details so close. I thought, as I was starting with my measurement the gun deck
length would be 150 feet, as the given length for 70 gun ships of the 1677 establishment and so I was very surprised, that the gun deck length was 157 feet,
the bread extreme 41 fet and dept in hold 18,2 feet. This measurement fit not to a 70 gun ship of 1677 establishment. In my ship list was only one ship with this
dimensions- the ROYAL OAK. I was a little confused, because I know a drawing by Van de Velde of the stern of the Royal Oak and this drawing show a very different
stern.

 

[victorT.07]

Brilliant! Over the moon you've started this thread Willi.

 

[schifferlbauer]

The next problem was the date 1684. The Royal Oak was built 1674. I was helpless and don´t know what I could do. I thought may be the model was built
as a gift for anyone person and not as a model for a real ship. Disappointed I drank a glas of red wine, smoke my pipe and looked of my bookshelf. I took
the book "Great ships" by Frank Fox down and as I flick through the pages I saw on Page 156/ 157 two black and white pictures of the Vienna Model with an important Information.
Dockyard model of an unidentified 3 rate ..... The information I need was down the text in very small letters:

Photos USNA museum model last noted in the Vienna Museum of Technology

This was my missing link. I know now that the model must have been in the museum of technology before it came in the Heeresgeschichtlichen Museum.
Next day I called the museum and told a man on the phone my problems and that I need all information I can get. The man on the phone said friendly
that he would like to help me, but I must give him the museum number of the model , because without this number he was unable to help me. The number
should be on the body of the model. She would be a tiny little number and by ships most near the stern. So I call again Dr. Gabriel, take the model out of the
case and find the number 1789/9. Next day I walked proud in to the museum of technology and got all the papers the had about the model. But the greatest
was a s I asked about photos of the model like the pictures in Frank Fox book, the find old glass negatives and made 4 pictures.

 

[schifferlbauer]

 

[schifferlbauer]

The pictures was a great help for me, not only that the was in big size, but the shows the model before restoration. On the backside of one of the negatives
was a little note - Altes LInienschiff, engl. a.d.J 1675 vermutlich Royal Oak. ( Old ship of the line date 1675 probable ROYAL OAK ). With the Papers of the model
I became a smal paper with the same note. Now was the measurement I had made from the model a fact, but the question was the same like before. How it could
be, that the Van de Velde drawing and the date on the dolphins was so different to the model. I must find the reason. By a closer look off one picture
I could see that the date was changed. It looks at the first sight like 1684 but by a closer examination I could see that from the number 7 was made an 8 and
show the date 1684

 

[schifferlbauer]

According the facts pointed more and more that the model could be the Royal Oak, the clear evidence was lack. On the brass plate in the case of the model
was named the Deptford dockyard. Jonas Shish .who built the Royal Oak, had worked 1674 in this dockyard and so I must bringing the evidence that the model
was real built in this dockyard. The Son of Jonas, John Shish had built the Lenox and the Hampton Court 1678 in Deptford dockyard. There are very well drawings
of the two ships by Van de Velde. The ships built from the Shish family after 1677 show a very similar Taffrail. Two big female figures was the main decoration.
The same Taffrail show the Vienna model. The two ships by John Shish was built at the new establishment of 1677 , the show two rows of windows
like all the other 70 gun ships and not the big Stuart Coat of Arms, like the ships before. Now also the date 1684 make sense. The model could be the Royal Oak
but with the stern design ordered 1677, probably as a design for the repair of the ship. The Royal Oak launched again 1691 probable with There is also the Wilton House model made by John Shish with the same female figures and the Taffrail looks very similar to the Vienna model. An example for changing the stern design
ist the Van de Velde drawing of the Happy Return

 

[Martes]

Do you know if the museum plans to make a 3d scan (photogrammetry) of the model, like the Swedish museum has done with Riksapplet?