Page 208 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age

Chapter Two
(173 I 43) The Sloop.
A Sloop long between stem and sternpost 42 feet, is wide 9 feet: its bottom is wide 7 inches, deep below the wale 2 feet, the rest deep 3 1⁄2 feet: the Stem is high 5 1⁄4 feet it rak es 61⁄2 feet: the Sternpost is high 51⁄4 feet, it rakes 2 feet: the Wing Transomislong6feet,itrisesfore2 1⁄2 feet:the Futtocks thick 3 inches, on the oor and in the turn of the bilge thick 2 1⁄2 inches, plank ed with wainscot.
The Mainmast long 24 feet, the Y ard long 121⁄2 feet, the sail deep 21 feet: the F oremast long 151⁄2 feet,theForeyardlong11feet,thesaildeep 101⁄2 feet.
The shape of this Sloop is depicted on two plates [figs. 2.235 and 2.2 36], in ve di erent ways.
. ..
(173 II 32) A Rowing Sloop.
Long 42 feet, wide 9 feet, deep on its W ale 3 feet, a topside on top of that 8 inches: the bot- tomwide61⁄2 feet,rises5inches:thestemhigh 51⁄4 feet, rakes 61⁄2 feet: the sternpost high 5 feet, theTuckison21⁄2 feet,theWingTransomlong 6 feet: the Futtocks 3 inches square, are 10 inches apart: the W ale thick 3 and 1⁄5 inches, wide 5 inches: the planking of Königsberg Barge planks, except 2 strakes below [probably above] the Wale, made of wainscot; with zoom- werck [zoomwerk: probably painted with decorative motifs].
135. The Boat and Sloop
In the seventeenth c entury the boat and sloop were in- tegral parts of every seagoing vessel. They were c arried on every ship th at operated independently—on deck or towed and sometimes even s ailed separately. Witsen does not give f ormulas for their sizes, but Van Yk states that the leng th of a ship’s boat is equal to w idth of the ship or one quarter of its length (p 271) and that the length of the sloop is four fifths of the length of the boat (p. 274). The length-width ratio according to Van Yk was less than 4 to 1.The boat on Witsen’s pinas should be a little over 3 3 feet long (134 ÷ 4), a size very consistent with the data for the vessel he inherited from his father.
The boat or ba rge was a fl at-bottomed vessel with a curved, raking stem and a str aight sternpost. Very early
types also h ad a cur ved sternpost. It had a fl at bottom, the sides were clink er-built, and it could be both rowed and sailed, for which it carried a sprit rig, or sometimes a bezan rig, like the boat of the Hohenzollern model of the Dutch two-decker. In the midship a heavy windlass was mounted, with which, for in stance, an anc hor could be brought out. In the stem was a sheave over which a rope ran, attached to the anc hor, which was hung underneath the vessel.
The boat was m ainly used to transport goods and wa- ter casks. Ships in those day s were seldom moored to a quay wall; they usually lay at anchor in a harbor. The cargo always had to be brought aboard by means of lighters and the ship’s own boat.
Sloops were ba sically for tr ansporting people. The vessel had some decorative touches, often in the form of prinsenwerk—a band of traditional red, white, and b lue triangles between the wales.
The sloop had a round c arvel-built bottom but was clinker-built on top . It could be rowed or s ailed. In c on- trast to the boat, the sloop was taken aboard and kept on deck. In the case of the pinas, the sloop was 27 feet long (4⁄5 × 33.5), which is considerably shorter than the sloops in Witsen’s illustrations.
136. Costs
(157 I 38) As for the costs and the money , for which such a Ship could be had , it cannot be discussed with certainty, because I lack experience thereof, and it is also a matter inconstan t, varying with the avail- ability of the workmen, p rice of the wood and other materials, necessary in shipbuilding, and not appro- priate for this treatise, but as not to be silen t about it altogether, I have followed a short cost register of a recently built Ship in this town.
Register of Costs of a Ship long 165 feet, wide 43 feet, depth 16 feet, above which 8 and then again 7 feet.
guilders
The Keel of 4 pieces will cost 2000 The Stem 300 The Sternpost 120, the Fashion Frames
200, the Wing Transom 60, together 380 2 Transoms 80, the Broeck-stuck 15,
the Stern timbers 36, together 131 7 Planks in the bottom, 41⁄2 planks long,
together 2460 5 Bilge Strakes of 5 gank [planks] are
50 planks 2100
190