Page 162 - Kennemerland VOC ship, 1664 - Published Reports

NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY,20.2
Figure 7. Four of the golfclubs from the Kennemerlandsite.Drawing: Dr Colin Martin.
The dimensions and weights of the five club heads are given in Stenuit’s table (1991: fig. 1). They are essentially similar in most respects, much of the variation being attributable to the different state of preservation of the objects. The club heads (Fig. 7) consist of a central wooden core around which there is a lead alloy shell. Although the shafts have not survived, it might appear that these clubs were constructed by cast- ing the leaden exterior around the hooked end of a wooden shaft, and this is how the manufacture of similar clubs has been described (van Hengel,
1982).However, a slight ridge on the base of the clubs, and the fracture lines on the less well- preserved examples, suggest that construction may also have involved wrapping the metal around the central core and then smoothing the joint. This would account for the fairly uniform thickness of the lead shell (Fig. 10). There are three faces to the clubs: the front face which is flat and set at approximately 9” to the perpen- dicular; the bottom which is again fairly flat; and the curved rear side which is decorated. The full decoration on the clubs is only apparent on the best preserved example, 78-K-49. (Figs 7,8 and 9). A pair of striated lines, 3.5mm wide, borders
the edge of the club head next to the shaft, with a further pair of lines, almost parallel, 17mm away.
Between the two sets of lines are three crosses with ten small + marks in the interstices. Whilst the three crosses may be decorative, they may possibly reflect the three saltires of the coat of arms of the City of Amsterdam. Outside these lines are three stamps of a crowned rose which seems to be the hallmark of the metal, and also a touchmark, presumably of the maker which reads ‘DI’.It may be noted that in 1660,by ordi- nance of the magistrates of Leiden for the club- makers guild, clubs made or traded in that city had to be marked with the stamp of the city in which they were made and the master who had made them (van Hengel, 1982). The other three complete club heads were eroded to varying degrees but they all have indications of some of the decorations of 78-K-49 suggesting that they bore the same markings. The fifth, crushed club head was completely eroded on its decorated face and any evidence of markings has been obliterated.
The fine condition of 78-K-49 suggests that the clubs were new when they were taken on
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