flying_dutchman2

Several pictures of what I have presently finished and the next installments will be the masts.  My neighbor has hemmed and stitched the sails and all there is left to do is to dye them brown.  She did an excellent job on the sails of the Bounty.  It is something I have to do myself one of these days.

Rope coils added onto the deck.

When I first read this thread and read "De Sperwer", I thought of Hendrick Hamel.  Born in Gorinchem in the 1600's.  Worked as an accountant for the VOC.  He boarded the Sperwer in Batavia and due to a sudden storm the ship broke on the rocks of an unknown island which was South Korea.  He kept a detailed dairy which is well known. He was the "discoverer" or explorer of Korea.
 
The Sperwer was a Yacht.
 
Here is a link where you can read about it and it has line drawings of what the boat looked like: http://www.hendrick-hamel.henny-savenije.pe.kr/holland18.htm
Marc

I'll give you $100 for your copy right now!
 
This morning on Amazon.com   New $4128.88  Used $2002.39. I am asuming they did not print as many as the others. I can't imagine that it is because that one is so much more interesting
 
I better buy the used one. It looks like a bargain

I don't have to change to English as I am fluent in Dutch.
 
Your pics from the replica........ did you work on this boat?
 
Marc

more images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

one of the most complex pieces of naval architecture: the dredging
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you for your appreciation!  :-)
 
I also started the assembly of the aft
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

after a first scraping:

 

 
the stem, that good!

 

 
 

Nice, and lots of parts.
Going to be a big boat - 1.30 meters
Good luck and this is going to be a beauty when it is completed.
Marc

Hello to you all fellow builders,

As you know , Mobbsie has ordered the HMS Agamemnon for me and finally she is in dry dock in Schiedam.
I will not start on her .
I have first finish the Le Mirage.
But when you have a new kit in the house , you want to show it.
That's the reason why I open a build log…...
First of course a little history lesson and later on the pictures of all the stuff that is in the box.
When I start on her I know I need a lot of help and advise from all of you.
I have a few great examples of other Aggy's and I know that Mobbsie will be there for me if needed.
So let the lesson begins and hopefully it will not take to long when I can start building her.




Caldercraft HMS Agamemnon 1781 1:64

HMS Agamemnon 1781 64 Gun 3rd Rate Ship of the Line 1:64 Scale.




The Agamemnon was one of seven ships built to the same design, drawn by the same naval architect that designed the famous Victory, Sir Thomas Slade. Agamemnon was the third to be built in the class, the first two being Ardent in 1762 and Raisonnable, laid down in 1763. Third was Agamemnon, followed by Belliqueux in 1778, Stately in 1779, Indefatigable in 1781 and finally the Nassau in 1783.




A Third Rate ship of the line like Agamemnon was an expensive warship to build. The construction of the ship’s hull with yards and masts fitted cost the Admiralty £20,579 (in today’s terms, approximately £12 million), a figure that did not include ordnance, sails, hemp, copper plating and other hardware.




For three of the most crucial decades in British naval history, Agamemnon always seemed to be at the centre of the action, having no less than eleven battle honours.




Agamemnon’s maiden voyage was on 9th July 1781 under the command of Captain Caldwell. Her first engagement was at the battle of Ushant on 12th December 1781 where the British fleet under Rear Admiral Kempenfelt defeated the French fleet and captured a significant number of ships, including the convoy the French were escorting. Agamemnon’s next major engagement was at the Battle of The Saints on 12th April 1782 where Rodney and Lord Hood’s fleet defeated Comte de Grasse’s French fleet.




On 7th January 1793, Nelson learned from Lord Hood that he had been chosen to command his first ship of the line, the Agamemnon. Although initially disappointed that he had not been given command of a 74, Nelson soon grew fond of Agamemnon. Nelson wrote to his wife, Fanny. She was, he said, "Without exception one of the finest ships in the fleet, with the character of sailing most remarkably well". He also wrote after twelve days in a storm in the Mediterranean in "Gales and lumping seas but in Agamemnon we mind them not; she is the finest ship I ever sailed in, and were she a 74, nothing should induce me to leave her while the war lasts". Even a French Commander Admiral Alemand expressed the view that Agamemnon was one of the fastest ships in the British Navy. That, coupled with Nelson’s inspirational command made her a very potent fighting unit.




Nelson commanded Agamemnon, or "eggs and bacon" as her crew affectionately called her, until 10th June 1796. In that time Nelson had proved to be a great Commander, tactically and physically.




It was during his command of Agamemnon that Nelson lost the sight of his right eye. When at the Siege of Calvi in 1794 during the morning of 10th July, Nelson was hit in the face and chest by splinters, stones and sand that were thrown up by an enemy shell that hit a battlement during a shore action. On 13th June 1796, Nelson’s broad pennant was transferred to the 74 gun Captain at anchor in San-Fiorenza bay. He watched the worn out Agamemnon sail to England for a much-needed refit. She was refitted from the bottom up at Chatham. When re-commissioned in 1797 she was ordered to join Admiral Duncan’s squadron off Yarmouth, which was keeping watch on the coast of Holland. She was immediately caught up in the naval mutinies of that year. Agamemnon was however considered untrustworthy by Richard Parker the leader of the Nore mutineers and had the guns of the mutinous ships trained on her to ensure she did not ‘blackleg’. Subsequently in the proceedings that followed all thirteen of Agamemnon’s crew who were tried were pardoned.




Agamemnon’s next major fleet engagement was the battle of Copenhagen on the 21st April 1801. Unfortunately she was grounded on a shoal for most of the action, but Nelson won the battle and a truce with Denmark was negotiated. On the 21st October 1805 Agamemnon took part in the battle of Trafalgar. When Nelsons favorite ship hove in sight a week before, with Nelsons old friend Sir Edward Berry in command of the Agamemnon, Nelson was delighted "Here comes that damned fool Berry! Now we shall have a battle." At Trafalgar the 27 British ships of the line defeated the Franco Spanish fleet of 33 line of battle ships in a victory that ensured British supremacy of the sea for the next 100 years. Later in Agamemnon’s career, she served in the West Indies, taking part in the battle of Santo Domingo, and then in South American waters. Agamemnon was wrecked in Maldonado Bay off the coast of Uruguay on the 16th June 1809. Divers have recently discovered the remains of HMS Agamemnon on the bottom of Maldonado Bay, after a six-year search by marine archaeologists. Strewn around the site are hundreds of copper plate, as well as a 24 pounder cannon, parts of the pumping devices as well as a significant amount of shot, bolts and copper nails. Also discovered was a silver pocket seal, complete with fob chain. On its face of translucent stone it bore a star shaped emblem with the name ‘Nelson’ in mirror image incised in a curve above.




Agamemnon was laid down at Bucklers Hard in May 1777 and launched on the 10th April 1781. Her dimensions were as follows;




Gun deck - 160 feet 2 inches


Keel- 131 feet 10 1/4 inches


Beam - 44 feet 5 inches


Tonnage - 1384 tons


Guns;


Twenty-six, twenty-four pounder - Gun deck.


Twenty-six, eighteen pounder - Upper deck.


Twelve, nine pounder - Quarterdeck.


Complement - 491 officers and ratings.




The Caldercraft Agamemnon kit features: Double plank on bulkhead construction, Keel and bulkheads are CNC cut in Birch ply as are all the major constructional parts. Extensive use of CNC cut Walnut has been employed for the majority of visible structures and fittings.


The wood strip pack contains Lime wood for the first planking, Walnut for the second planking and Tanganyka for the decks. Ramin dowel is supplied for the masts and yards.


Walnut and etched brass stern gallery windows, with the remaining tafrail decoration in finely cast white metal. Scale brass cannon barrels with walnut carriages.


Rigging thread is supplied in natural and black to rig the model as depicted in the photographs. Beechwood deck gratings and Walnut Blocks and deadeyes. Shroud cleats, trucks, stunsail yard brackets as well as CNC cut Walnut tops, crosstrees, trestle trees, mast caps and a wealth of unique detail parts. Copper plates are provided to sheath the hull bottom.


Fully detailed full size plans and a comprehensive construction manual.



Specifications:


Scale: 1:64


Length: 1300mm


Width: 490mm


Height 945mm


Planking: Double

Hi Marc!
 
I love the ornamentation on this yacht. Such a cool little boat! Nice job.
 
Best wishes,

Several pictures of what I have presently finished and the next installments will be the masts.  My neighbor has hemmed and stitched the sails and all there is left to do is to dye them brown.  She did an excellent job on the sails of the Bounty.  It is something I have to do myself one of these days.

Most of the gold painted ornaments are glued and nailed on the Mary.

Since about the 1840s virtually all iron-work that is exposed to the elements, as well as iron fastenings, was hot-dip zinc-plated. In addition, the iron-work could be painted to suit the decorative scheme of a boat. While this anti-corrosion treatment is quite efficient, when not done very carefully, the plating can be porous, so that the iron can rust underneath. The corrosion products, iron(hydr)oxides, can diffuse into the zinc layer tarnishing it into a yellowish tint. Vice versa, a porous zinc layer can soak up e.g. tar-based paints, making it look yellowish, even when the paint has been removed.
 
Seawater-resistant bronce would normally not be painted and is indeed not easy to paint, as paint does not very well adhere to this material.
 
wefalck

As far as I know, Billings is the only manufacturer of a wooden kit of this yacht. A current kIt is available in Europe but not the USA. Older Sperwer kits do turn up on eBay in the USA though. 
 

I've always been attracted to old Dutch ships and yachts. They have a sense of style all their own. At first I thought the yachts were a bit odd and looked like sandals with masts. Then they grew on me and now I think they're cool because,...well they look sort of like sandals with masts. Maybe it would be more appropriate to say they resemble wooden shoes with masts!


 
The boeier is a type of coastal shallow draft boat that originated in the 1500s. The first yachts are said to have been boeiers. The Sperwer (Dutch for Sparrow Hawk) was built in 1885-1886 by Eltje Holtrop van der Zee of Friesland who was considered the best at building boeiers in his day. The Sperwer was built for A.E. Jurjens of Amsterdam. Apparently the Sperwer was a hot rod in its day and in 1892, won the New York Society Cup in a race in Sneekermeer located in the Friesland region of the Netherlands.
You can see quite a few historic pictures, the plans and modern photos of this boat by doing a Bing image search for “boeier de sperwer” (Google didn't pull up as many).
 
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=boeier+de+sperwer&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=boeier+de+sperwer&sc=1-17&sp=-1&sk=
 
The James Bond connection to this boat begins when it was purchased in England by Merlin Minshall in 1931. Merlin set out to sail across Europe to the Black Sea following a route of rivers and canals. During this trip he spied on the growing Nazi activities and reported back to England. He was joined during his voyage by a beautiful German girl who turned out to be a counter-spy that tried to kill him. After this, Merlin began working for Special Branch of British Naval Intelligence reporting to Ian Fleming who later wrote the James Bond books. Merlin's designation number was 007 and he carried a Walther PPK. Merlin was an accomplished marksman, judo and karate expert and an accomplished race car driver. He wrote an autobiography entitled “Guilt-Edged”. Here's some links to an article and a radio interview with Merlin.
 
http://www.persakwurmfeld.com/press/westlawnmasthead24_dec12.pdf
 
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/film/the-birth-of-bond/the-real-james-bond-1.html
 
 
 
The De Sperwer now resides at the Zuider Zee Museum in Enkhuizen in the Netherlands.
 
http://www.zuiderzeemuseum.nl/?language=en
 
The following are color photos of the De Sperwer and are courtesy of this site's wefalck who has a great website of his own. His site contains a lot more info on other Dutch boats as well.
 
http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/
 
Part 1 of wefalck's De Sperwer pictures:

Excellent work, the small metal custom made pieces, I love the figures (reminds me of old pictures my grandfather had), the sails.  Everything about this boat looks pleasing to the eye.
 
The resin model looks a lot like the kit from Authentic Ship Models which I crudely built as my first wooden boat in 1984.  This one is so much better.  I also love the old equipment you restore and then use on your models.
 
Excellent job.
 
Marc

Thanks. I have been collecting (and restoring) these machines for about 25 years now. The machines themselves are between 50 and 100 years old (I guess).
 
Next installment will come soon.
 
wefalck

Given the problems with the spill, it was cut completely from the moulded hull in order to be rebuilt as a separate item. Square holes and recessions cannot be easily machined from the solid. Therefore the spill was built up from a number of parts that would allow machining, The
0.5 mm x 0.5 mm holes for the handle bars were cut as slots into a section of 4 mm round brass bar.
 

 
 
The ratchet wheel was cut on the milling machine with a dividing attachment:
 


 
All parts had a 1 mm hole drilled through to take up a 1 mm brass rod. Brass was chosen in order to be able to soft-solder all parts together for the subsequent machining operations and to provide an axle.



 
The cigar-shape of the spill was turned with the Lorch free-hand turning device:



 
The piece was then transfered back to the dividing attachment (http://www.wefalck.eu/mm/tools/dividingapparatus/dividingapparatus.html)
on the mill and the eight sides of the winding drum were milled on.



 
Here the completed spill stem:



 
And installed in the hull:



to be continued ...


Wefalck

A Botter in the Zuiderzeemuseum (Enkhuizen, The Netherlands)
 
History and context
Looking at old maps it is amazing to see how land and water intertwined once in the northern part of the Netherlands, Noord Holland and Friesland in particular. It is even more so, when one drives through Noord Holland and reminds oneself that this once was a patchwork of islands and shallow stretches of sea. The Dutch fought - and continue to fight - the sea and at the same time a good part of the populations lived off the sea. The Zuiderzee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuiderzee'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuiderzee) once was a vast bay of the North Sea, reaching deep into the country, nearly down to Amsterdam. It served as throughfare for transport and as a rich fishing resource. However, pressure on  the scarce land was high and the sea was a constant menace to the low-lying shores and islands. As part of their struggle against the sea, the Dutch dammed up the bay by a large dike, the Afsluitdijk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk), completed in 1933. This put an end to much of the fisheries. The already in its southern part brackish Zuidezee finally turned into a large freshwater lake, the Ijsselmeer.
Over the course of history there have been various types of sailing fishing vessels with numerous local variants. The best-known is probably the Botter (and its larger variant Kwak). At one stage it was estimated that there were over 1000 in operation at the end of the 19th century. The places around the Zuiderzee with the most botters were Enkhuizen, Volendam/Edam, Monickendam, Marken, Bunschoten and Urk. Spakenburg was an important building place.
Man's tools to win a lifelihood constantly change and are being adapted to changing circumstances, new needs and fashions as well. Thus methods of fishing evolved in order to increase efficiency and in response to changes to the fishing grounds and other environmental circumstances that influenced the availability of the resource 'fish'. The history of the botter is not easy to trace as no artefacts have survived and artistic renderings are not so reliable bevore say the late 18th century. As with all small boats, they were built without any drawings well into the 20th century. The botter or its somewhat larger version the Kwak as we know it today developed over the past two hundred years.
Sizes vary, but a typical botter has a keel of about 34 feet long.
Sources
There are quite a number of comprehensive printed works on the botter and its history (see below). These include also drawings. Some original drawings are preserved in various museums in the Netherlands. However, like so many traditional small boats, botters were usually built without any drawings. The museums also preserve various model built from about the early 19th century onward. There are also surviving quite a number of original botters, the oldest being from the last quarter of the 19th century.
These boats survived because they have been adapted as pleasure craft. Obviously a lot of concessions had to be made in this case to accomodate the modern leisure-boaters and therefore these boats are not useful for a reconstruction. In more recent years some of these have been reconverted into a state that is more like their original workday appearance. Also, from the end of the 19th century onward some botters had been built als pleasure craft for private owners. They usually deviate somewhat from the work boats and are often fitted with a cabin, as is found e.g. on boeiers.
The Zuiderzeemuseum (http://www.zuiderzeemuseum.nl/home/?language=en) in Enkhuizen preserves a late botter in its boat-hall. The Zuiderzeemuseum also has a large collection of ship- and boatmodels, including several botters. Some of the models appear to be contemporary, while others have been built in more
recent times.
The Model
The model is based on the resin kit produced by Artitec ( http://www.artitec.nl[/url]) in 1:90 (HO) scale. This company has developed a real mastery in casting complex and large resin parts. In addition to the hull, the kit contains castings for the mast and spars, for rigging blocks and, somewhat strangely perhaps, the taken-down sails. Of course, these kits are mainly meant as accessories for model railway layouts and people not knowing a lot about these craft. The kit also contains a small fret of etched parts, mainly for the ironwork of the rigging. While the etched parts are well made as such, they are for the most part not really useful for representing the forged ironwork. For instance, masthoops are, of course, flat in the horizontal direction, while they should really be short tubes. Other parts simply lack the needed plasticity. Hence most of the etched parts will not be used. Similarly, the cast rigging blocks will be replaced by home-made ones and 'real' sails will be made. I bought the kit 'second hand' and the at some stage the characteristic high stem head was broken off and a new one will have to grafted on. Various other details will be improved for better definition of the shapes. Although the casting is well made, there are certain limitations due to the casting process. A company policy of Artitec is to limit the number of parts and to cast-on as many details as possible. Thus for instance the spill is cast onto the foredeck. There are limitations to undercuts in the silicone rubber molds, hence the barrel is not completely free. I shall have to remove the material underneath the barrel using a scalpel etc.
 

The main cast resin item, the botter’s hull
Not only are Artitec masters in casting kits, but also in painting them as is evidenced for instance by the diorama of the
Texel Roadsted (http://www.dereedevantexel.nl) and models in various other museums around the Netherlands.
 
To be continued ....
 
 
wefalck

I just browsed Shapeways website and checked out there video's.  So cool.  My dilemma is should I carve all the figures for my next built (Statenjacht Utrecht) or just design it in TurboCAD  pay a price and have them make me the objects.
Think of the possibilities with this technology.  Anything can be created.
Now I will sit back at let my mind process this technology and see what it can do.
Marc

For comparison on French  ships in the 1700 tar was black and in 1780 they used  a better quality one from Stockholm and it was reddish brown.
99% of the lines were tarred  as well for standing and running rigging,  and the blocks were not clog. It was not black pitch as we have today.

Thank you for the suggestions and they are a great help.  Will do the dark colors and the running rigging a shade of tan.  Makes sense that the running rigging is un-tarred as that would clog the blocks.
 
Marc

Yeah, they are very useful. The only disadvantage is a price of better materials (ultra detail an such) but I hope with progress of technology that will get better, too.