Engels talige editie van: Scheepshistorie 5 ISBN 978-90-8616-035-8
The aim of Maritime History is to use the ship model as a reference for creating a reconstruction of the maritime past. This means that the information relates to the appearance of a specific ship or a ship type and her uses, but it can also be the story of a unique, contemporary ship model as a valuable object of national cultural heritage. Even the restoration of a unique ship model is a good reason for taking a closer look at the cultural-historic significance of the object. Maritime History features the ship model as a testimony to a fascinating past, accompanied by descriptions about the character of the age or an unusual history linked to the original ship or scale model.
Maritime History is compiled by employees of the Dutch maritime museums, private collectors, and professional and semi-professional model builders. These individuals are the heirs and successors to an illustrious lineage of model builders, who have 'written' history with their creations in a manner comparable to that of the artists and sculptors of their day.
This makes Maritime History a unique form of communication between individuals from every conceivable sector of society who are interested in maritime affairs, and features an object that forms a mutual focal point: the scale model as a reconstruction of our maritime history.
These books serve as an essential document for maritime museum visitors and offer special additional information on the history of the objects on display.
In this volume, two unique models from the collection of the Maritime Museum Rotterdam are featured. The Batavier II from 1921 owned by shipowner Wm.H. Müller & Co, and an exceptional eighteenth-century sloop of war, which originally belonged to the private collection of Prince Willem Frederik Hendrik of the Netherlands and also bears his name.
The third subject features Witsen's pleasure yacht and gives a retrospective on the results of research into the building methods described by Nicolaes Witsen in his book published in 1671 'Aeloude en Hedendagsche Scheeps-Bouw en Bestier' (Ancient and Modern Shipbuilding and Conduct) and compared with the instructions of Witsen's contemporary, Cornelis van Yk.
