Page 42 - Nicolaes Witsen & Shipbuilding in the Dutch Golden Age

Chapter 1
It is also importan t to watch, that the holes, in which the pins are struck, are made with a sharp drill, and are evenly round, smooth and not shriveled, when the holes are rough and uneven water will leak in through there, and bugs, jumpers (a species of small animals) will eat through the wood much more easily. This is why, on a ship, one sees these holes rot sooner in the sides where the drill cut against the grain, than above or below where it cut along the grain.
(184 I 50) When one burns the wood to bend it, and it gives ne coal, this is a sign that it will bend well and is pliant; coarse coal gives sti and unbending wood . It is well to pay heed when using birch or other woods in Ships, to al ways take it 4 to 6 inches longer than the measured circumference would suggest, because otherwise one will be short.
I will conclude this subject with the fol lowing list, which shows Witsen’s fascination with comprehensive details:
(184 II 8) Special conditions of Norse wood.
Balks [large, roughly squared lengths of timber] from Vlecker [Flekkerøy] are ordinarily about 23 to 24 feet long.
Those from Groenwijk in the Vlecker are about 24 to 25 feet in length.
Balks from Maer usually are 22 feet long.
Balks from the East Rijssen [present-day Ryen?] have a length of 22 to 23 feet. Those from W est Rijssen reach a length of 25 feet, yet are weak and thin.
At Koperwijk, where it is usual to count 1,100 parts for one thousand, they are broad about 10 inches.
In Anslo 63 parts are reck oned to a shock [a bundle of twelve sheaves], yet two shocks mak e one hundred.
In Drontem [Trondheim] and Norme one counts 60 to a shock.
Spruce- rsparsarecounted11forten.
Balks from West Kiel are in general 26 to 2 7 feet long.
Balks from Langezon t [Langesund] are 2 7, 28 to 29 feet long. Beams from K operwyk are 21 to 22 feet long, or 29 to 30 feet.
In Frederikstad planks are coun ted 63 to a shock, and more often than not are hard and cracked.
At the Sande there is all sorts of rubbish, bad planks, spars, balks and all kinds of buck ets [transla- tion questionable].
At Holemstrant and Witsteen all kinds of good
wood are found, but the planks are of inferior quality. Helves are sold by the tult, twelve go into a tult.
Staves for buckets come by the shock, a shock con- sisting of 60.
Iron and Coal
Iron was imported from Spain, Sweden, and the Har z Mountains in Germany. It was often bought as partially processed material, such as “Nuremberg steel,” “Goth- enburg bars,” and “Han s Musiker steel.” Through the alloying of Spanish and Swedish iron, the proper ties of the material could be c hanged to m ake it more suit able for special uses. The quality of the intermediate product was indicated on the material with an ass ayer’s marks. Coal was imported from Scotland, England, and Liege in Belgium.
(119 I 26) While not onl y anchors, but man y other parts of the Ship are made of iron, it will not be with- out importance to men tion here, w hich is the best, so that the shipwrigh t, when building the Ship, will make the best choice; and so make his Ship stronger.
The at and square bars, w hich are mark ed with the letter F, are taken to be the best: the crowned H is the next best; the uncrowned H is third.
The Orgel-gront-yzer [high-quality iron from Öre- grund on Sweden’s northeastern coast] is taken for the same prime quality as the iron marked with the F.
Stockholmiron,ingeneralisnotasgood ,asthe Spanish iron.
Danzig iron, w hich comes in long bars, is better than Stockholm iron.
As the square and long Gothenburg bars are better than the Stockholm ones.
Nuremberg steel, marked with a r tree, is the best; that carrying an hourglass follows, then the halberd , then the trefoil leaf, straight or bent.
Swedishsteelisvaluedtentoah undredfoldless, than Nuremberg steel.
Hans Musiker steel, which is brough t to us from Bergslandt and stamped with two cog wheels, is esti- mated in between Swedish and Nuremberg steel.
Ship anchors are made with rude iron, mixed with Spanish iron: which blend very well together. Spanish ironalone,istoosoft,andhasnosti ness.
(119 II 24 ) The coal with w hich this iron and steel is welded and heated, is brought to us from N ewcastle, which is thought to be the best: Scottish coal in gen- eral is more meager , yet some is quite as good . Liege coal is though t of the same quality as N ewcastle. It
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