VOC retourschip Batavia AD 1628 built in oak

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Aug 9, 2020
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Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Batavia from Kolderstok in oak


The VOC retourschip Batavia has had my attention for over 35 years. Living in the Netherlands I can visit the replica ship in an hours’s drive. From 1985 to 1995 I visited the Batavia shipyard once or twice a year. I have seen laying the keel and ten years later I saw the ship sailing into the port of Amsterdam.

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Batavia’s beakhead as it looks now. Not really like an orderly English ship, isn’t it? ;)


In order to gain some more experience first, I have been building the VOC ship Halve Maen for the past three months.

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Like the Batavia a replica of the Halve Maen is moored in Holland. Building the Batavia will be much more challenging, but with this experience, the knowledge from a few good books and these build logs I am confident.

On Dutch forums many excellent build logs regarding the Batavia can be read. On Ships of Scale, Heinrich is writing an excellent clear building log.

The Batavia which I have now started building, will be the first Batavia from Kolderstok in oak. Up till now I have decent experience in manufacturing wooden furniture. I love working with oak! I love the colour, I love the grain. But working with oak requires special attention.


A few examples:

Bending the oak planks wil require special attention. I will make a series of molds with which I can bend the planks in consecutive steps.

Simply nailing oak wooden planks 4 mm wide is not recommended. If needed I expect to have to pre-drill.
 
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Starting

I ordered the Batavia with oak planking and including a sail set. I wil not discuss the kit because this has been done in excellent way by Heinrich, but I was very satisfied when I opened the box.

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The frames are precise lasercut, and a bit fragile.

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Building starts with gluing parts no. 20 on both sides of the false keel. Although lasercut, during assembly I found out parts no. 20 are NOT symmetrical so I had to adjust both in order to get a precise symmetrical bow in a later stage.
 
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Welcome to the Batavia Club Ron. Yes, they are indeed not symmetrical. Have you made sure that you DO NOT line up the laser cut pieces with the bottom of the false keel, but with the slots?
 
Frames and oak keel parts

Al frames and auxiliary deck are glued on the false keel. No sanding or filing was required because of precise lasercutting. The material is very fragile so a few parts broke wile placing the auxiliary deck :rolleyes:

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Also the oak lasercut keel parts required no sanding and had a perfect fit. I will sand the dark laser char outside in a later stage.

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1,6 mm gap to fit the outside planking.
 
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Good., Ron! Keep the dark laser char on the spanten - when you fair the hull, they actually give you a very accurate line that way,
 
Good point Heinrich. Are you having a break with the Haarlem? My wife is very fond of your Falconet Leudo. She wants to build one of their ships, so now waiting for her birthday ;)
 
Yes the Haarlem is just resting for a while (or more correctly, I am resting for a while :D ). I am very glad that your wife is fond of the Leudo - so is Anna! It will be great if she could build it - it gave a whole new dimension to our hobby. I hope to have quite a substantial update ready in two days' time.
 
Interesting book:
Building the reconstruction of an East Indiaman, the Batavia


At the Batavia shipyard I bought a book written by Batavia’s shipwright Willem Vos. It is written in Dutch, I have not found an English translation on internet but maybe it’s out there.

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The book has many interesting full colour drawings. These drawings are informative even if you do not speak Dutch.

Particular of interest for me now are the drawings of the outside hull. The exact form of the planking is shown. An example:


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These drawings are very helpful when planking. I wil show some more details later during planking.
 
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Yes the Haarlem is just resting for a while (or more correctly, I am resting for a while :D ). I am very glad that your wife is fond of the Leudo - so is Anna! It will be great if she could build it - it gave a whole new dimension to our hobby. I hope to have quite a substantial update ready in two days' time.
Although on the Halve Maen I worked for just three months and mostly during my long school holidays, I too needed a break before starting working on the Batavia ;)

My wife persuaded me to finish this for her diorama:

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Interesting book:
Building the reconstruction of an East Indiaman, the Batavia


At the Batavia shipyard I bought a book written by Batavia’s shipwright Willem Vos. It is written in Dutch, I have not found an English translation on internet but maybe it’s out there.

View attachment 186750


The book has many interesting full colour drawings. These drawings are informative even if you do not speak Dutch.

Particular of interest for me now are the drawings of the outside hull. The exact form of the planking is shown. A few examples:


View attachment 186751

View attachment 186752


View attachment 186753

These drawings are very helpful when planking. I wil show some more details later during planking.
Hoi Ron,

Can you write a review of this book in the books section? Looks like a very promissing book. Think I will buy it
 
Hoi Ron,

Can you write a review of this book in the books section? Looks like a very promissing book. Think I will buy it
Hello Maarten,


I bought this book just last week at Batavialand. At the moment I am reading this book, after I have finished I will write a review. At first sight it is a good addition to the book written by Ab Hoving.
 
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Gun ports and back wall for the gun ports

For the back wall Kolderstok supplied oak planks. Instead of oak I used some leftover Obachi 7 x 1,8 mm. Very easy to bend.

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Gun ports almost ready, just one to go. For gluing the gun ports I experimented with three types of glue. The gun ports are made of tiny thin mdf parts. UHU hart turned out to be most suited.
 
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Hi Ron. This was one of the challenges during my build. I used the walnut strips as per instructions but they simply did not fit into the available space. Glad to see yours went well.
 
Aaahhh! I now see the thinner plank in the centre! :) Same as mine!
 
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