Page 245 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age

each yard, one of 11 inches, a cross of which the sheave is big 20 inches, with a metal bush in it to unload corn. Furthermore to the given ship belong 30 double tackle blocks for the guns, of 18 inches. 30 porthole blocks, and furthermore stool beds, wedges, w heels, etc. The parrel fall blocks are of 16 or 17 inches, 12 in number, and are used for the parrels of the three masts.
To a Fluyt of 100 feet,
This all will be in the proportion of the ship, onl y di ering in it, that some blocks mentioned above, will not be there.
The following contract contains information not only about the b locks, as announced, but also about many other things coming from other industries and tr ades: tops, caps, pumps, scuppers, sheaves in knights, halyard blocks and topm asts, bars for the c apstan in the boat, and the wheels, stool beds, wedges, and crowbars for the gun carriages.
(115 II 17) Contract of Blocks, of a Ship,
long between posts 114 feet, wide 28 feet,
deep 111⁄2 feet, as it was put out to contract.
This particular Ship will be tted out with 4 tops, the main top wide 101⁄4 feet. The foretop wide 91⁄4 feet, to be made from planks 21⁄2 inches thick, the two small tops 41⁄2 feet, to be made from planks 11⁄2 inches thick, the cap long 31⁄2 feet, wide 21⁄2 feet, high 16 inches: the fore cap long 3 1⁄4 feet, wide 2 1⁄4 feet, high as required . Themaincapandfurthermore alltheotheronesas required, everythingmadefromthecon tractor’s own wood and nails. 3 Pumps, 2 abaft, next to each other, and one with the mainmast, with all that be- longs therewith. The pumps from good sound wood , for every pump 3 buckets and 6 haertjes. The scuppers should be well drilled, as will be the knights, supplied with pockwood sheaves. The sheaves in the ramshead block and the topmast top rope sheaves and the sheaves in the foot of the topmasts, should be delivered . The costs of the pockwood are for the commissioner’ s ac- count. All the blocks to nish, as big as required and as many as required.
The Ship shall be fitted, at the mainmast with seven pairs, at the foremast with six pairs of shrouds. The main topmast and the mizzen with 4 shrouds.
The fore topmast with three shrouds: and for each a tackle for tightening. Fore and aft with Spanish bur- tons. The mizzen halyard with two double blocks and the topsail halyard with a double block above, as there willbeforspareones.Asta ytackleandananchor tackle, on the lower and upper yards studding sail
halyard blocks, aft near the transom sheet blocks, and swifters, two winding tackle blocks, with a cat block to put in the guns, three snatch blocks with open sides, and backstays fore and aft.
The contractor will also be held to make pockwood sheaves in all topsail halyard blocks, topsail sheets and pendants below the yard , as well as all tackle blocks, and sheet blocks, mizzen hal yard sheet blocks, and clew-line blocks, as well as the garnet and anchor tackle, all pockwood paid by the commissioner.
The contractor will also be held to let the spindles of the sheaves be of ironwood of the right size. Also to deliver 6 commanders and as man y belaying pins as there are shroud fairleads, as will be necessary in tting out the ship. Still there are port-lid blocks, and every- thing that might be forgotten, necessary in tting out the ship. The burton lines fore and aft to tigh ten the shrouds, with a sta ysail halyard block, sta ysail dead- eyes, eight boat bars for the boat. The backsta ys fore and aft above and below with double blocks. The main deadeyes wide 101⁄2 inches, thick 41⁄2 inches, the ones in the fore shrouds wide 9 1⁄2 inches, thick 4 inches, wheels for 30 guns, tackle blocks, wedges, stool beds, crow bars of the mentioned 30 guns, of which 18 guns are on the lower deck, the wheels fore high 15, and aft 12 inches, thick 5 inches, on the upper deck there are 12 guns, of w hich the fore w heels are high 12 inches and aft high 10 inches, thick 41⁄2 inches. All the tackle blocks, of the upper and lower deck, with double blocks.
Contracts for Sails
Sails consisted of c anvas cloths sewn together . The lengths and w idths of the s ails were me asured in el ls of 69 centimeters, but sometimes, as we have seen, widths were expressed only in the number of cloths. The width of a cloth depended of the sort of material used and ap- parently was not standar dized, which is why c alculations of sail width are always uncertain. For instance, there was heavy Dutch canvas of 78 centimeters, lighter French can- vas for topgallant sails of 52 centimeters, Flemish canvas, Melis canvas (from Meppel, in northeastern Holland), and “clover cloth” (shamrock?), also for upper sails. Each had its own width, which was of course related to the siz e of the loom on which it was woven. In a time when so many different measurements were used in the various trade centers, some variation in the w idths of sailcloth is not surprising.
In chapter 2 the calculated widths of the cloths for the sails of Witsen’s pinas vary from 76 to 78 centimeters for the mainsails and 6 7 centimeters for the lighter ones.
Contracts as Historical Sources
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