The Dutch Boeier De Sperwer- The 'James Bond Yacht'

[Salty Sea Dog]

 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:

[Salty Sea Dog]

Part 2 of wefalck's pictures:

 

 

Thanks wefalck!

[Salty Sea Dog]

The following pictures are courtesy of Ina Groot, the librarian at the Zuiderzee Museum. She asks that if you wish to use these photos in publications, you ask the museum for permission in advance. Ina was so generous with her time and provided a massive amount of detail shots that will be invaluable for anyone building this boat. I had asked her for a few interior shots of the cabin, but the interior had been stripped in the past. I told Ina I would be building a model of this boat and these are the pics she sent me. Thanks Ina!!

 

The photos will be spread across the following posts with 10 photos per post.

 

  

 

  

  

 

Edited June 1, 2013 by Salty Sea Dog

[Salty Sea Dog]

Ina Groot's pictures continued:

 

   

   

   

 

  

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2013 by Salty Sea Dog

[Salty Sea Dog]

Ina Groot's Pictures continued:

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

[Salty Sea Dog]

Ina Groot's pictures continued. The color shots are of painted murals along the sides of the cabin at the ceiling (there are 3 per side and they overlap) and a couple more in the interior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Salty Sea Dog]

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. 

 

[Stevinne]

Very cool. Thanks for posting

[Salty Sea Dog]

Your very welcome Stevinne. Glad you liked it. There had been a build log on MSW1 that got me hooked on this yacht!

[druxey]

Neat. It's always nice to see something more unusual featured.

[wefalck]

Thanks for publicising my pics 

 

Perhaps the most comprehensive treatment (albeit in Dutch) in literature of the boeier is this one:

 

VERMEER, J. (2004): De Boeier. – 528 p., Alkmaar (De Alk & Heijnen Watersport).

 

The books contains numerous lines drawings, including one for DE SPERWER, if I am not mistaken. Larger versions of these and other drawings are available through the Dutch Modellers' Association: http://www.modelbouwers.nl/tekeningen.php

 

wefalck

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi wefalck!

 

Thank you for giving me permission to use your pics! Your picures of the front and rear do a great job of showing how narrow the planks taper down to. I'm guessing that some of them are only about 2" ( around 5cm) wide or less at the ends. That will be fun!

 

Best wishes

[Anja]

Hello Buck,

 

Thank you for sharing this with us. Great article.

 

And a thank you to Wefalck and Ina for the pictures.

 

Take care,

 

Anja

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Crackers!

 

You are very welcome and thank you for the kind words.

 

BTW, I'm sure most of you already know this, but you can click on any of the pictures to blow them up for even more detail.

[Aa-schipper]

Thanks for the great collection of pictures!

I'm building the Billings kit model (my 1st build) but want to improve a bit on it (to draw attention away from all the beginner's mistakes I'm making). One of the things I cannot see from the pictures is which types of metal are used for:

* the metal bands around the rudder and the leeboards;

* the fancy metal on the doors to the cabin.

Should I colour them as iron, as brass, or ... ?

 

Another concern I have is the length of the mast: the 1:23 model drawing shows a mast that in reality would be 9.08m tall above the deck. From a drawing in Vermeer's 'De boeier' I concluded that the mast was 10m above deck. The actual wooden model has a mast that falls short of the kit's drawing by .5cm (in reality: 11.5cm). I'm confused... What length should I build up in my model?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Edited December 31, 2013 by Aa-schipper

[Aa-schipper]

And as a contribution to the visuals on the Sperwer, I came across a short film item on sailing historic ships in Enkhuizen, which at about ¾ of the 1:24 minute movie shows the Sperwer--vaguely (not fit for enlarging to the full computer screen): http://eeuwvandestad.nl/archives/1603.

 

Hope you like it!

[hexnut]

This is very cool.  Looks like it will be a great excuse to crank up all of those luthier skills!

[Salty Sea Dog]

Aa-Schipper,

Thanks for the video link. That is so cool to see her actually under sail! As far as metal coloring, I think the door is a decorative wrought iron color and the rudder hinges would be a blackened brass color above the water line (painted black below the water line). These are just guesses though. Since you live a lot closer to the museum, it would be great if you could visit there and add info about those and any other helpful details to this thread that you could. I hope you start a build log too!

 

Bob- I am planning to use guitar binding to get the crisp black and white lines when I build the kit!

 

Happy New Year and best wishes,

Edited January 1, 2014 by Salty Sea Dog

[Dee_Dee]

I have 'Gretel' on the shelf and have been thinking about using guitar or violin binding as some of the trim.    

Would it be possible to use a purfling cutter to cut strips of wood from a sheet?

 

Thanks,

Dee Dee

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Dee Dee!

 

It would be possible but it can be difficult to master really thin perfect strips when the grain is less than straight. If you are doing a high contrast multi-line black and white stack using very thin lines, any thickness variations really stand out. I avoid the headache and buy perfectly sized strips!

 

If you already have a purfling cutter though it would be a nice accomplishment to make them yourself.

 

Happy New Year!

[Modeler12]

I also want to send you my thanks for those great pictures. It is (was) a wonderful class of ships.

 

What I also found interesting is that the 'lee-boards' of those sailing ships was not just for 'show'. For those not familiar with the North Sea in this area, the depth of the waters west of Friesland (north-east of Amsterdam) are shallow and, because of tides, boats will often run aground. A center board would be dangerous and the lee-board remedies that. When a boat runs aground on a sandbank, you just wait. 

 

All of this is besides the point, but I do like all the details presented here with those neat pictures. Thanks again Wefalck

[Aa-schipper]

Thank you, Buck, for the advice on the Sperwer's metal. Some years ago, when I started building, I have been to the museum where the Sperwer lies, and could not understand the metal then, too. There was no-one from the museum around to ask, at the time.

 

You must be right: the doors to the cabin have fancy metalwork that must be wrought iron. Iron was the usual material for such uses. But iron does not go well with water, so the bands around the leeboards and rudder will probably be brass, which has been heavily discoloured, to the point of being almost as black as iron.

 

It seems a bit late for me to start a build log: my progress has been very slow but by now most of the building of the hull has been done and I'm starting to put on the finishing touches. And more importantly: I'm starting to think about a second ship model, to make a better build (better quality kit and better quality execution  ). 

 

If anyone has questions about Dutch ships, I'll be happy to give them a try, even though I'm a landlubber and an absoute beginner in wooden models.

[wefalck]

I am inclined to think that structural metal-work would be zinc-plated iron that has been painted black. However, on yachts one never knows; the owner may have opted for bronce, though its mechanical strength tends to be lower than that of iron. My photographs unfortunately do not help to decide on this and now I am living several hundred kilometers further south.

 

wefalck

[Aa-schipper]

Greetings, Wefalck!

Zinc-plated iron—I did not think of that option. I'll look up my pictures over the weekend to see if the look of the metal bands might be zinc-like. Will post, of course, if I get any clues...

[wefalck]

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

[mtaylor]

Aa-Schipper,

 

Any chance you doing a build log on this ship?

[flying_dutchman2]

I love these boats as well and have build several of them.  I am finishing up the Royal Yacht "Mary" and after that my first scratch Het Statenjacht - Utrecht.  Other future boats are all Dutch.

 

Marc

[Aa-schipper]

Hi all,

Searching my old photo collection, I found some details of 'Sperwer' that may add to your (and my) modelling of the ship. The 25 pictures are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfw-photo/sets/72157639437576296/.

Enjoy!

[NAZGÛL]

Very nice history and reference pictures. Thanks!

 

Will this put your Vasa build even further in the future?

 

 

 

/Matti

Edited January 5, 2014 by NAZGÛL

[Salty Sea Dog]

Hi Matti,

The plan is finish the whaleboat, then the Golden Hind then the Vasa. You've set the bar so high with your Vasa, it will be a tough act to follow!

 

The De Sperwer will probably be a side build.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Salty Sea Dog