Hi guys,

I wonder if you know any other sites about ship-moddelling. And then of ships from the 17th century... I want to finish my model of the Vasa in the near future, and a fellow modeller has just bought a model of this ship, and wants to make it look real good..

Also, I myself am thinking of buying both the "La Sirene" and the "Soleil Royal" as long term projects. The last one is IIRC a huge model (over 1500 parts)... Can anyone of you please help me out ?

Thanks in advance...

Harm

edit I have found a site with wooden models, among them of one of my dream kits to build one day..: the "Sovereign of the Seas" (mid 17th century, a four decker, over a 100 guns originally, and the most splendid decorations ever seen). Unfortunately, at 510 pounds Sterling (so make that about $800,-), it is a bit over budget, they might have guilded the decorations much like in the original)... but damn does this one look good...

Hi DutchBird,

I've been building a Mantua kit of the Victory on and off for about 5 years now. I've got a couple links you might check out. Not sure how much help they are, but the pics on at the MSN group are sure nice. Check out Longridge's Victory.

http://groups.msn.com/WoodenShipModels/shoebox.msnw

http://www.arrakis.es/~mny/directory3.html (Scale Model Ship Directory- has a section on builders).

Good luck with your building. I've seen pictures of the Soverign of the Seas...what a monster of a project.

Cheers,
jason

Thanks for the links Jason !!

This Rogers collection...where is it located ?

Thanks a lot, and good luck with your project !!

Harm

Hi Dutchbird,

The Rogers Collection is at the US Naval Academy Museum. Here is some info.

U.S. Naval Academy Museum
118 Maryland Avenue
Annapolis, MD 21402-5034
(410) 293-2108
Fax (410) 293-5220

http://www.usna.edu/Museum/modgallery.htm

Located on the lower deck of the Naval Academy Museum, the Class of 1951 Gallery of Ships houses one of the world's finest collections of warship models from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Each of these priceless models was constructed within a few years of the ship or ship type it represents. For example, the 96-gun ship-of-the-line St. George was launched in 1701, and her model was completed about a year later. The models were crafted with remarkable precision. Careful attention was paid to detail, especially the carvings and fittings above and below decks. This supreme craftsmanship rendered the models into exquisite works of art, and today they often constitute the only surviving physical record of ships built during the classic Age of Sail.

I remember the Vasa. It sank in the harbor on it's maiden voyage, right? At least it didn't hit an iceberg... Beautiful piece of work though. Have you been to the museum where it is housed?

Cheers,
Jason

No, I have never been to the museum, unfortunately... It is certainly on my to-do list...Visiting the Victory is another. The Vasa indeed sank on her maiden voyage, in port. And her hull was raised in the 1960's.

I have been to the Batavia, in Lelystad (Holland) a numer of times, it is as close as the original 1628 ship as you can get (yup, built in the same year as the Vasa). It was built largely using the original techniques... The original sank of the western coast of Australia in 1629, IIRC. THen there was a mutiny, which eventually was surpressed when the captain returned with a rescue vesssel (he made the voayeg in a 30ft (max) open sloop all the way to Batavia (now Jakarta) Indonesia. Some of the mutineers that were not executed were dropped of on the Australian mainland (so these were the first white settlers of the continent). Pieces of the original can be seen in Perth or Freemantle, Australia, as the wreck was discovered a few decades ago, and some pieces were salvaged. The replica was in Sydney during the Olympics, and went to sea a few times, where they sailed it (even beyond what the insurance coverage allowed for), and performed better then expected. The only problem is that the ship is slightly warped, as construction took such a long time that the influence of the sun on the ship has played a role... Construction-time of the replica was over 10 years, while the original was built in about 6 months.

Presently they are building the "Zeven Provincien", the 80+ gun flagship of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, which he used during the raid on Chatham, where they captured the English flagship, and burned a number of other ships (we still have a piece of the English flagship on display in the Rijksmuseum). He also used it in various other battles...

If reconstructed, it brings back one of the more famous and proud ships in history... the only other ones mising would be the Sovereign of the Seas and the Soleil Royal.