A Paper Fluit. ... by Ab Hoving. Introduction

Transcription

1 A Paper Fluit..... by Ab Hoving Figure 1. Paper model of a 134-foot long pinas. All images by the author unless otherwise indicated. Introduction Nicolaes Witsen s book Aeloude en Hedendaegse Scheepsbouw en Bestier (Ancient and Modern Shipbuilding and Management) of 1671 is a surprising and inexhaustible source of useful knowledge of old time Dutch ships. The reliability of what he wrote was proven a long time ago in my work on the 134-foot pinas (the ship he described in detail as an example of Dutch shipbuilding), published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and the Nautical Research Journal. But how about the rest of his material, like his freehand sketches and drawings of other ship types? They served as a basis for several models of relatively simple vessels, like the flat-bottomed fishing boat, the pink, and the smalschip (narrow-ship), all described in 17 th Century Dutch Merchant Ships by Cor Emke and myself In this article I will try my hand at a more intricate, often depicted, but still enigmatic vessel: the fluit. The project was partly triggered by the fact that I discovered paper and cardboard as materials to make a reasonable ship model in very little time. It NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 209

2 is nothing new to use these materials many were there before me but for me, having worked in wood almost all of my life, it opened new possibilities, such as the production of a set of vessels in the same scale within just a few months to judge and compare them to each other and, possibly, turn them into a scenic model. Paper as a construction material is not entirely new to me. As a lover of cardboard kits, especially aircraft and military vehicles, I made many such models as an unpretentious, but most rewarding pastime alongside my professional work as a ship model conservator. Like all hobbies, this one has a popular internet site: I do not remember how I got there, but it opened my eyes for new shipbuilding possibilities. Preparations My first serious shipbuilding effort in paper was Witsen s pinas to 1:77 scale. (Figure 1) I will not go into much detail about that model, but, as a first attempt, it gave me reason to continue on my newly-discovered path. In particular, the fact that I was able to finish the hull within a month gave me food for thought. The rigging done more or less conventionally in wood, rope and cloth took more time, but once the traditional way to make a model was abandoned, I did discover some tricks that, although they were not historical at, also saved a lot of construction time. The building of the hull was much simplified by the fact that I worked together with my Belgium friend, Rene Hendrickx, for several years to make an intricate virtual 3D model of the ship intended to give the internet user the possibility to watch it being built, to navigate around and inside the hull, to highlight construction elements to obtain information, and, possibly, some further features. The Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency) is working on its transfer from the free program, DELFTship, in which the virtual pinas was created, into a program that makes internet use possible without downloading large files. See: /studenten-maken-digitaal-3d-model-17eeeuws-schip-online-toegankelijk/ (Once the program is operational I will write a proper introduction.) Figure 2. Plate LX from Witsen's book Aeloude en hedendaegse Scheepsbouw en Bestier (1671). 210 Vol. 61, No 3 FALL 2016

3 Figure 3a. Frame plan of a normal ship. After the pinas we made a second virtual model, Witsen s fluit, which, as said, was great help during the build of the paper model. The creation of the virtual model of the pinas was characterized by experiments and research into useful systems and materials that prepared the way for building of the fluit, the subject of this article. Figure 3b. Frame plan of a fluit. both forward frames of the two compared ships at the same location. It was customary to draw this first frame at the joint of the stem and the keel. As Witsen gave the fluit a stem with much less rake than a normal ship, his first frame should be shifted forward to the extremity of the keel, which was about twelve feet. (Figure 4) First Steps The basis for the model was Witsen s drawing LX. (Figure 2) In reality, he never intended this sketch as the starting point for a design but, instead, just as a comparison of the ungainly lines of the fluit with what he calls a normal ship. Therefore, he drew a side plan of a ship in which he indicates several frames, showing the fluit s frames as complete lines and the normal ship s frames as dotted. Figures 3A and 3B compare the frames. We fed the fluit frames into the computer, using the DELFTship program, and ended up with a shape that was not to our satisfaction as characteristic for a fluit for two reasons. The first was that Witsen drew Figure 4. The front frame of the fluit was replaced as a result of the lengthening if the keel. NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 211

4 Figure 6. Section at widest point. Figure 5. Digital design of the fluit by Rene Hendrickx. The second reason we were not satisfied was that the DELFTship program is so good that it made the lines in the extremities, fore and aft, too sophisticated. It took some pushing and pulling but, in the end, we had the right shape without changing anything in Witsen s drawn frames and lines, and the 3D fluit proved comparable to paintings of such vessels. (Figure 5) We discovered the remarkable fact that, in this ship, the main frame was not the widest part of the vessel. In the section on the left side of the drawing a dotted line shows how the aft part, where the skipper s cabin was located, protruded beyond the main frame. (Figure 6) The Hull The 3D image of the ship readily facilitated the printing of a lines plan, including the location of the decks, and the first step was to cut a longitudinal midship element, into which the frames were inserted. It was made of two layers of 1-millimeter cardboard, glued together with 1-millimeter strips on both sides of the keel and stem and stern to shape the rabbet into which the outside planking fitted. The frames were cut to the level of the top of the bulwarks from 1-millimeter cardboard stock and I perforated them at the height where I planned to show the decks. (Figure 7) After all frames were aligned and glued, a horizontal stringer was Figure 7. All basic parts of the fluit are cut from cardboard. inserted into the frames at waterline level to keep the keel straight and the frames in line. (Figure 8) Next, the sides, made of 0.5 millimeter cardboard, were glued to the upper parts of the frames (above the waterline). On the inside, I reinforced this skin with an extra layer of 1-millimeter cardboard snugly fitting between the frames. After that, the frame parts above deck level were easily removed thanks to the previously-made per- 212 Vol. 61, No 3 FALL 2016

5 Figure 8. The frames are lined and fixed with a waterline stringer. Note the comparison to the model of the pinas. forations. The remaining gaps in the inside layer, left by removing the frames, were filled with narrow cardboard strips. Thus, the upper sides of the model were kept in shape without the aid of the frames. (Figure 9) A great aid to keep the shape of the sides of the ship as wanted was acrylic varnish, which stiffened the cardboard. The visible decks were inserted and painted with Humbrol 94 Brown-Yellow Figure 9. NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 213

6 Figure 10. The decks are inserted and below the waterline the frames are reinforced. Figure 11. Plate LXI from Witsen's book, showing three steps in the upper deck. 214 Vol. 61, No 3 FALL 2016

7 Figure 12a. Original internal arrangement with a short steering stand. matt paint. The lines of the planking were scribed on with a black fine-liner. (Figure 10) I somewhat changed the original internal layout for the model. Witsen showed a very short horizontal deck aft, where the skipper s cabin was located. I enlarged this zone to provide a horizontal floor for the steering stand in front of the cabin. This also created room for two guns on each side, as we often see on pictures. This change added more detail to the model, but I was not satisfied. Another Witsen drawing shows us the top view of a fluit. (Figure 11) There are three steps in the deck aft. I raised the deck level to make a compartment to house the crew, and as an entrance to the steering stand right in front of the skipper s cabin. The steersman was given a view of the sails through small windows in the second step. These ships probably were steered Figure 12b. Improved internal arrangement with a longer steering stand and a crew's compartment. by tackles, connected to the tiller, which entered the ship just above the skipper s cabin and below the floor of the cabin above. (Figures 12A and 12B) Next came planking the part of the hull below deck level. In preparation, the openings between the frames were filled with tightly fitting pieces of cardboard to receive the planking and prevent the ship s sides sinking between the frames. The edges of the frames were first covered with pieces of 0.5-millimeter cardboard to provide a firm base for the 1-millimeter planking. The computer-based layout of the planking was a wonderful aid in this process. Polyester filler was used on places where the seams between the sections showed. With two layers of planking, the hull was remarkably sturdy for its paper construction. (Figure 13) To make the hull look like wood I Figure 13. The hull below the waterline has been planked, treated with filler and sanded. Masts are prepared. NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 215

8 Figure 14. The hull covered with strips of self-adhesive film. Figure 15. The plastic film painted and treated with dark brown. 216 Vol. 61, No 3 FALL 2016

9 Figure 16. The decorations done with kneadable steel. The colors will get a light brown wash to get more defined. used a method shamelessly copied from our Eastern European paper modeler friends: I bought some self-adhesive plastic film with a wood imprint. There is great variety of woodprints available, and I tried several of them, but nothing was to my liking; all looking too plastic. In the end I used white film with an imprint of wood grain (Figure 14), which I painted Humbrol 63 Ochre above the waterline. After letting it dry for a few days, I brushed on a dark brown paint called Van Dyke Brown (Rembrandt Artists Oil Paint 070). With a rag, I immediately wiped off the dark brown paint and what was left of it in the grooves of the imprint gave a very nice wood impression. Weathering was very easy with this material and gave the model a natural look. Learned from experiences with the pinas model, I gave the plastic film a coat of primer from a rattle can beforehand to make sure the paint would not wear off during handling. (Figure 15) The decorations were made from an epoxy material called kneadable steel. This Figure 17. Preparing the masts before fitting can save a lot of time. comes in a tube-like shape, blue on the outside and white on the inside. One slices off a suitable amount and kneads it until it is uniformly light blue, after which one has five minutes to form the shape one wants. After hardening, the material can be cut and shaped, and small pieces can be added as it adheres well to the foundation. The decorations, therefore, can be executed in situ, which works well and is fast. The material also takes paint very well. (Figure 16) Working with paper and cardboard proved to be an easy and quick job. I succeeded in finishing the hull within a month, about 150 hours of work (as a retiree I can spend most of my day modeling). The costs were negligible. The rigging There are no real time-saving tricks to making as intricate an element as the rigging of a sailing ship, only a few short cuts. NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 217

10 Figure 18. A set of punches to make the dead-eyes. Basically, it might be possible to make paper masts and spars, but I am not a purist. I am only interested in a reasonable, quickly fabricated model, so I made them out of wood, except for the tops, the dead-eyes and the flags, which were all made out of paper. One way to shorten the time needed for the rigging was to prepare the masts and sails together off the ship. Holding a mast in a vice allows working without bending oneself into impossible attitudes or wearing out ones arms by working too high for too long a long time. (Figure 17) While working on the masts I noticed that the ropes tended to fold and stretch the carefully-shaped sails out of position, so I applied a drop of glue to the lines running through each block, thus preventing the sails to be deformed while handling. Belaying the ropes after stepping the masts was a very simple job after this precaution. For making the deadeyes I used a very handy set of punches that I purchased from a small Belgium company (mailto:hvbuynder@skynet.be). Two layers of 0.5-millimeter cardboard sandwiching one 1-millimeter thick disk of slightly smaller diameter quickly produced acceptable deadeyes, which I stropped with a thin metal loop, using a jig for the long shackle to mount the twisted part into the channels Figure 19. Preparing the sails. 218 Vol. 61, No 3 FALL 2016

11 Figure 20. Willem van de Velde, Whaling fluits. and the end into a small hole drilled in the ship s sides. A drop of cyanoacrylate glue kept them perfectly in place, even when the tension on the deadeyes was considerable. (Figure 18) The small blocks were made out of strips of dense wood from old rulers. For the thicker ropes I used Irish linen, spun up on a home-made rope-walk in a variety of diameters from 0.8 to 2.5 millimeters. The thinner lines came from spools of thin, waxed shoemakers thread. The sails were cut from very thin unbleached cotton, which was dyed in strong tea. Boltropes were glued on with white PVA glue, after which the lines of the cloths were drawn on with pencil. Then the sail was stretched in a frame and sprayed with laundry starch from a spray can, after which my wife s hair dryer produced the appropriate billowing. (Figure 19) I like billowing sails, but in this case I wanted to do something more atmospheric, by depicting the fore topsail lowered halfway and flapping in the breeze and clewing up the fore sail. The main topsail and the mizzen have caught the wind, while the main and the spritsail were furled on their yards. I took my inspiration for this arrangement from a drawing by Willem van de Velde depicting some whaling fluits. (Figure 20) Figure 21. Lieve Verschuier, whaling fluit off Rotterdam (detail). NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 219

12 Figure 22. Abraham Storck, whalers (detail). Turning the Fluit Into a Whaler Figure 23. A vacuum box was used to make the whaleboats. As for the flags: at the stern we see the Dutch flag (red-white-blue). Usually the flag of the skipper s home town was flown from the mizzenmast, in this case, the flag of my present town, Alkmaar. The flag of the Noordsche Compagnie (Northern Company) flies from the mainmast; this cartel had a monopoly on Dutch whaling. At the fore mast flies a double Dutch flag, usually seen on men-of-war, and on the bowsprit is the flag of the County of Holland. Most of these flags were copied from a painting in my modest archive by the Dutch artist, Lieve Verschuier, depicting a whaling fluit off Rotterdam. (Figure 21) Shipbuilding was a flourishing business in Holland, especially in the Zaan area, north of Amsterdam, where thousands of ships were built. In 1707, someone counted 308 ships on the stocks on one day. The shipbuilders did not wait for customers. They built their ships and left the hull waiting for a buyer, after which the vessel was finished according to his wishes. If no buyer turned up, the shipbuilders equipped their ships as whalers to participate in one or two fishing seasons off Spitsbergen, after which the ships were sold to be used as traders. Halfway the project I decided to turn my fluit into a whaler to enliven the model more. Fenders were nailed to the hull, to prevent the walvissloepen (whaleboats)from damaging the ship when hoisted aboard. To facilitate hoisting the whaleboats at the stern of the ship a strong beam with blocks was attached over the poop deck. Also, usually the mainmast was a little larger in diameter than normal, and a doubling at the bow below the waterline gave some extra protection against the ice. There were no major problems with 220 Vol. 61, No 3 FALL 2016

13 these adaptations, but the construction of the whaleboats was a different story. We do not know much about them, because nothing is written about them in the literature. We know they were of different construction than the usual sloops and boats. On Verschuier s painting we see a whaler being unloaded. We can see a cask filled with whale-oil being shipped into a smaller vessel, a smalschip (narrow ship). The fluit is of the same size as the one Witsen drew. There is, however, one difference: Witsen s fluit did not have Figure 24. Figure 25. Figure 26. NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 221

14 Figure 27. a beak-head and this one does. For our project that is not a problem. On the same picture to the right we see the characteristic lines of another whaling-fluit without a beakhead; both variations were used in the trade. We see the underside of a whaleboat well enough to get a fair image of the shape and, in another painting by Abraham Storck, we see how they were used: six or seven men rowing single-banked. The front man was the one who threw the harpoon once the whaleboat was close enough to the whale, the aftermost acted as the steersman, 222 Vol. 61, No 3 FALL 2016

15 Figure 28. using his oar as a side rudder, while the four in the middle were still rowing. (Figure 22) I copied the shape of the boat Verschuier depicted as well as possible and made a wooden plug. To make the three whaleboat hulls, I used a home-made vacuum-forming box, a simple apparatus made from a wooden box with a perforated top and a connection for a vacuum cleaner. With tape, I fastened a plastic sheet in a frame that fitted the top of the box. Then I heated the plastic with a paint heat gun and, when the sheet began to sag over the plug, I turned on the vacuum cleaner, which caused the plastic to be sucked down onto the plug. I made three shells, and glued planks to the outsides, and ribs, clamps and benches on the insides. (Figure 23) One sloop was to be stowed on deck, one to be suspended at the stern of the ship, and one was to be depicted in the process of being hoisted aboard. Additional blocks, therefore, were attached to the ends of the two lower yards. The whaleboats were hoisted aboard using rope slings attached to stem and stern. Every whaleboat had a white shield painted on the bow with a letter (probably the first letter of the name of the mothership) and a number, to distinguish the boats of each whaler. For one of the boats I made a harpoon with a rope attached to it, coiled down in a tub. (Figures 24 to 29) Conclusion This is not the first time the reliability of Witsen s book on shipbuilding has been proven. Besides shipbuilding, Witsen had another interest: mapping Russia, the country he visited when he was young. Scientists who studied the information he collected about the country discovered exactly the same thing: Witsen as a source is unique and most trustworthy. The fluit as a ship type may look bizarre, with its narrow decks and bulbous hull, but the logic of the design shows in NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 223

16 this reconstruction. The popularity of the vessel is well-known and it continued being built up into the nineteenth century. Paper and cardboard as materials for building ship models are very useful, and allow the builder to produce a model in a relatively short time. This model was finished after about 400 hours of work, which is remarkably short for a complicated subject like this. I am most interested to find out how long a model made of these materials will last. Figure 29. Photoshop image by Emiel Hoving. This model was bases on a thread I posted on papermodelers.com. See: Many thanks to Rene Hendrickx for his digital support. Interested readers can contact me to obtain a pdf of the linesplan of this fluit. abhoving@planet.nl Neptunia No. 283 (September 2016) Table of Contents N N E P T U N I A NEPTUNIA Histoire du patrimoine maritime REVUE ÉDITÉE PAR LES AMIS DU MUSÉE NATIONAL DE LA MARINE Prix : 11 A little known collection of ship portraits: the work of Joseph Brichet (c ) By Jean-Pierre Mélis Bicentenary of the birth of Dupuy de Lôme ( ); creator of the first ironclad By Michel Mantin and Yann Gateclou-Marest Early photographs of Toulon shipyard: the Lentilhac collection, exhibited at the musée de la Marine By Bernard Cros The maritime collections of the Koç museum (Istanbul) By Patrice Decencière Traditional Japanese fishing craft, as represented in classical prints of the Edo era By Jean-Pierre Mélis Building a model of the battleship Fuso (part 3) By Michel Mantin 224 Vol. 61, No 3 FALL 2016