a fully rigged model of the dutch armed merchantman or fluit "de witte valk"

BY GER VAN BENTEN

Details

a fully rigged model of the dutch armed merchantman or fluit "de witte valk"
By Ger van Benten
Scale 1:50, with bound masts, yards with stun's'l booms, stitched linen sails, anchors with bound stocks, catheads, belaying rails and pins, bitts, capstan, the open hold loaded with logs, rope coils, two guns in carriages, bell, steering pole, companionways and other details, the hull with planked bulwarks and decorated stern, finished in brown and pale blue with 'gilded' decoration - stand
91.5cm. x 96.5cm.

Exhibited

Westfries Museum, Hoorn, "Naar Oostland willen wij varen", Sept-Dec 1996

Lot Essay

The "Witte Valk" was built in Hoorn in 1629/30 and was designed to carry wood from Norway to the sawmills and lumberyards that were so abundant in the 17th Century in North Holland. The 260-ton ship rapidly became very popular: the shape created stability and sufficient room for bigger shiploads. The ship was relatively cheap to build and easy to sail. In 1595, a few years after the launching of the first fluit, a historian writes that "in eight years time more than eighty of these ships were launched in Hoorn".
The model has been built after drawings and an engraving on glass kept in the Westfries Museum, in Hoorn

See illustration

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