Page 206 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age

Chapter Two
well tarred. All corners and scarfs of the planks, must joinwellandcloseo .
The Dressing, with w hich the ships are smeared , is made of bad resin, cod liver oil and sulfur: it is thought no worm penetrates through this. Sometimes it is smeared with bad tallow , mainly when the ships do not go west. This w hite paste protects ships for a long time from green growth of dirt. If they wan t to go far west, a good doubling is applied to the bottom, in which innumerable nails are hammered: it is made of cow hair: and also thin lead or copper is applied in between: and all this to avert the pests, which eat away the wood.
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When all the clefts are well
is tarred above the water; because tar will not hold in water. It would be a good thing if it were possible to plaster ships, inside as well as outside, to preven t dirt and water, and also against re.
134. Paintwork
In the merchant marine of the seventeenth century, there were certainly no rules about paint colors, although a few generalizations are possible. Gold leaf was seldom ap- plied; gold or yellow paint was more often used. Carvings were tinted with colors as natural as possible. Cheap and durable paints were favored.
Based on his anal ysis of p aint fragments from the works of the seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish mas- ters, A. Martin de Wild concluded that the following pig-
Model builders working to achieve historical accuracy should be aw are that the fol lowing pigments did not ex- ist in the seventeenth c entury (the date indic ates the year when the pigment was first introduced, according to de Wild):
Zinc white (1780)
Cobalt blue (1810)
Synthetic ultramarine (1810) Prussian blue (1700)
Naples yellow (1750) Chrome yellow (1800) Cadmium yellow (1820) Scheele’s green (1780) Emerald green (1810)
Zinc green (1780)
Below the w aterline the ship s were sme ared with a mixture of low-quality resin, cod liver oil, and sulfur , a coating intended to prevent the accumulation of algae and barnacles. The combination of the ingredients gave the hull a grayish white appearance. Above the waterline
(269 I 13)
lled, the ship
the woodwork was tarred w ith thin brown tar against the elements, darkening the wood.
135. The Boat and Sloop
to protect
(169 II 29) Next the Boats appear [ . . . ]. With the size of the parts in this vessel I give their names only, without poin ting them out in the Boat, which I judge unnecessary.
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(173 I 34 ) When Sloops and all kinds of other small vessels are built, the planks are forced with props, without the need of tongs.
When the Boats are secured in the Ships, holes in the oor are made to get rid of water , which can be closed with stopples.
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(174 I41) A boatmay be7, 8or9incheswider than the third part of its length. The Bottom is often found to be wide three fth parts of the length, for every 10 feet of length one foot for the depth, being afore the mast beam, being also 4 1⁄2 inches wider and one inch deeper than aft.
ments and c olorants were used in paints and 1700:16
between 1600
White: Blue:
Yellow Red: Green: Black:
lead white
chalk (plaster)
natural ultramarine azurite (copper blue) smalt (pulverized glass) ocher
massicot (lead oxide) vermilion
madder
terre verte (earth color) verdigris (copper green) lampblack
ivory black
bone black
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