KOLDERSTOK BATAVIA / HAARLEM

Vooral in het Limburgse land, zo net na de carnaval blijft dat lang na- weeën

 

gewoon hollands of engels ,de beste taal om gewoon te lezen.

 

Dear Friends. Thank you so much for your comments. I think there has been a greater discussion on the use of Afrikaans on this forum, than what it takes place in South Africa! And this is absolutely wonderful to me - also the strong support for the language.

Beste Ronk. Ek is bly dat jy Afrikaans prachtig vind. Ja, die boereoorlog bly n seer punt in Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis. My oumagrootjie, byvoorbeeld wou niks meer van my hoor toe sy hoor ek studeer Engels nie! Die boeke van Penning en Pakenham is werklik standaarde oor daardie deel van die geskiedenis.
Vriendelijk groet - Heinrich.

 

Dear Gino. I appreciate your comments! This is most interesting as in Afrikaans culture, many of the songs have Flemish origins! I could also read the Flemish without problem! That just shows how closely related Afrikaans is related to Dutch and Flemish. Afrikaans, was of course, seen as a form of "kitchen Dutch" and was looked down upon by Hoog-Hollanders at first! But then ... and this is most interesting ... as Dutch evolved, it actually moved closer to the original Afrikaans!

 

Now back to the build. As some of you already know, I am also doing a build log on the Ships of Scale forum. Many of the things I mention in my build will be old news to all of you as you are very familiar with Kolderstok models and their build. However, to write two different logs in two different languages will be so much work that I wont get any building done! So if I say things, that are already old hat to you, please forgive me - maybe there is something that a first-time builder might find useful.

During the weekend I did not get as much work done as I would have liked due to work commitments and unfortunately this week does not look much better either. However, I did assemble the stern or Spiegel.





The term Spiegelschip is derived from the upper-and lower spiegels - two flat (or almost flat) surfaces that closed the stern of the ship. It has become accepted practice to refer to the complete stern of a Spiegelretourschip as the spiegel, but strictly speaking, this is not correct. In truth, the spiegel (3) only refers to the section between the “hakkebord” (2) directly above it and the “wulf” (4) directly below it. The “wulf”, in turn, is the curved section of cross-planking at the stern that is situated below the spiegel (4).

Boven Spiegel

The richly decorated upmost part of the spiegel is referred to in Dutch as the “boven” or upper spiegel (1). This part was usually reserved for the coat of arms of the city that was the ship’s homeport.



Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

In case of the Haarlem, the coat of arms consists of the crest which contains a red shield with silver sword and golden handle under a white Jerusalem cross and flanked by 4, six-pointed, white stars. Above the shield is the Imperial Crown of Austria underneath barren branches holding two Damiate bells. Underneath the crest appears the Latin inscription “Vicit Vim Virtus” which translated, means “Virtue Conquered Violence”.

The barren branches refer to the burned trees in the Haarlemmerhout, which were burned repeatedly during various sieges, most notably during the siege by the army of Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, in 1428.

The two bells refer to the Damiaatjes which were given to the St Bavochurch of Haarlem. These two bells ring every night between nine and nine-thirty, to signal the closing of the city’s gates and to commemorate the conquest of the Egyptian city of Damietta during the Siege of Damietta in 1218. Significantly, not only the bells, but also the sword and the Jerusalem cross owe their appearance on the coat of arms of Haarlem to the Siege of Damietta.

According to local legend, the original shield of Haarlem contained simply the four stars on a red background. However, as a result of an heroic cutting of the harbour chain of Damietta by a Haarlem “saw ship”, the Crusader-fleet was allowed to attack and conquer the city successfully. In recognition of the heroic deed, the Holy Roman Emperor granted Haarlem the usage of a sword and the Patriarch of Jerusalem granted the use of a cross. This story is known as the "Wapenvermeerdering", or "Addition to the Arms".



Both the Jerusalem Cross and the Sword owe their presence on the shield to the legendary cutting of the Harbour Chain at the Siege of Damietta in 1218.



The capture of the Damiate. This painting by Cornelis Claesz von Wieringen, circa pre-1628, illustrates the cutting of the chain. (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem).

 

On the Kolderstok model the Spiegel or stern assembly consists of a number of parts which I will explain at the hand of photographs.



Firstly, the two parallel supports are glued to the rearmost bulkhead. The way that the slots are cut into the bulkhead and the angle of the supporting pieces, makes it impossible for them to be attached at an incorrect angle. Fitment was, as usual, very tight with minimum sanding required.



Two footpieces (one on either side) are attached to the bulkhead so that they line up with the edge of the bulkhead on both sides.



Viewed directly from the rear, the assembly of the rearmost bulkhead looks like this.



The lower part of the rear bulkhead (or wulf) which house the rear cannon ports are then slotted into its designated space in the hull. Fitment is as secure as one could possibly hope for.



The upper part of the assembly, (the one that I showed the assembly of in the first three photographs is then hooked (via the two hooks shown in the first photograph) into the second from last bulkhead and slid into position. Testimony of the accuracy with which Kolderstok executes its laser-cutting is the alignment of the upper and lower parts - absolutely perfect!



To this then is added the extreme or uppermost part of the Upper Spiegel assembly which will house the hakkebord and Bovenspiegel. This part will also play host to the coat of arms of the City of Haarlem. And, voila! Everything is done. For the time being, everything is dry-fitted because of three reasons:

1. On the Kolderstok model, the two rear gunports are designed to be closed, but I may choose to install cannons. This will obviously require some fiddling of parts.
2. Most model builders paint the rearward facing part of the last bulkhead black to create an illusion of depth when the windows are installed. I may still end up doing the same, but would first like to experiment with giving it a wooden finish.
3. The Wulf or lower part (which house the gunports) have to be planked vertically at an angle of 72 degrees. At this stage I am still contemplating if its not going to be easier to do while the wulf is not attached is to the ship.



The last task of the weekend was regluing all the crossbeams (which had been removed earlier prior to the fitment of the help deck) back into their position. This photograph shows the absolutely perfect symmetry of the hull and alignment of the deck beams.

At the conclusion of this phase, I remain a very happy and satisfied camper.

Thank you all for your interest and for following.
Vriendelijk groet - Heinrich

 

Good evening (China time) everyone. If am this quiet, you must know that I am busy on the scheepshelling.

Next up was the installation of the vals wand, the construction of the geschutpoorten and their corect placement on the vals wand. This was a task I was not looking forward to as it would see me try my hand at my first “plank-bending” exercise. And to add even more adrenalin was the fact that the “plank-bending” was not only the normal bending that you would use when planking a hull, but also “vertical” bending. And potverdorie; the Batavia gave me my first challenge ... but more about that a bit later.

For the vertical bending part, I used the method as described by Ships of Scale forum member, Glen Barlow, which, I must say, worked great!.

In a nutshell, I first immersed the planks in hot water for about a minute and thereafter laid it on its designated place on the full-scale plan. With the help of clamps the wet plank is then shaped into its exact shape and curvature. After about 10 minutes, I “ironed” the planks with a steam iron. The steam worked well as it ensures that there is no burning of the planks. While doing this, the planks visibly change colour as they become drier. Once done, leave the planks for another 10 minutes or so clamped and remove. Voila! You have a perfectly bent plank which can be glued immediately.



While I was ironing wood, the Admiral added in a few pieces of her clothing as well to be ironed. It is dangerous for a man to be caught seen with an iron in the hand!

The instructions provided me with a bit of a headscratch to figure out what exactly is meant by “verspringen” of the planks in the vals wand. Luckily the full scale drawings provided a good clue of what was meant, but even then, I still found it necessary to run my interpretation by some fellow forum members first. @ Leensen: Thank you very much for clarifying this perfectly for me.



With the idea of "verspringen" understood, I could carry on!

I inserted the short plank between spanten #14 & #13 and proceeded by gluing the first full-length vals wand plank into position.



The first full-length vals wand in the clamps.



Verspringen completed and first full-length plank glued. Viewed from port side, all was good!



Second, full-length vals wand plank in position (starboard side). All was good and I was very happy that there were no gaps between the two planks!

Third gunwale plank: CHALLENGE!!!

No matter how many times, I measured, the available space for the third plank was NOT 6mm - it was less - in some cases, only 4mm. Sure I could plane the plank to 4mm, but I possess neither such machine nor hand-planer and with 90% of all shops in China still closed because of the Coronavirus, I couldn't buy one. Trying to file or cut open the slots would, in my opinion, result in too weak a joint between the bulkheads and deck beams. So I did the only thing I could think of. I glued a full-sized plank behind the first two gunwale planks to the maximum height it would go and made it run all the way from bulkhead #14 to #3 for maximum strength.

Obviously this means that some of the geschutpoorten boxes will not sit flush all the way against the vals wand - there will be a 1.5mm gap (the thickness of the planks) between the back of the boxes and the third plank. To eliminate this gap I simply inserted custom-cut pieces of planking as required. What I do have are two gunwale sides that are very strong and solid being effectively double-planked.

I contacted Hans about the issue and the Admiraal came back to me immediately. Obviously the thickness of the planks vary from supplier to supplier and are sometimes wider than the 6mm they are supposed to. Hans already has some very good ideas about future modifications to the Batavia kit that will solve the problem of variances in plank width, permanently. Once again, the customer service that I received from Hans, was Prima!



All three vals wand planks in position. I was very happy with the line that the two vals wanden followed, because they were absolutely identical.


Next up was the making of the geschutpoorten boxes - a fiddly and fidgety job, but one that gave me a slight break after all the headscratching with the vals wanden. So far 13 have been completed - still 9 to go.



The boxes next to a one Yuan coin!

Hopefully, I will be back soon with an update. Thank you all for your interest and for following!

Vriendelijk groete - Heinrich

 

Dear Friends

Time for an update ... (no I did not plan on it being this soon). Yesterday, I know I said I am working on the cannon boxes - and indeed I was / am. Nineteen are now completed. But this morning, I was dying with suspense to see if my gunwales were in order and if any further work is needed. And ... the only way to know that is to attach the boxes to the gunwales and to dry-fit the cannons. So, off to work I went ... and 10 uninterrupted hours later, the starboard side is complete. I know it's a long time, but I hate CA with a passion and try as much as possible only to use PVA. This means that there is quite a bit of drying time involved.

I have to mention here that with the cannon boxes I deviated from the instructions. According to the latter, you first have to installed the back
plate of the box on the gunwales and then the whole box gets assembled around that. Whilst that is no doubt good for accuracy, I just did not see myself fit to it that way. I therefore first assembled the boxes and then glued the completed box to the gunwale. After meticulously measuring out the exact locations of the holes on the plans, I transferred the markings onto the gunwales. Luckily the holes for the push-in cannons are pre-drilled in the back plate of the boxes, so once the holes had been drilled in the gunwale, it was a simple task of just aligning the two holes.



For drilling the holes, I used the Kolderstok-supplied drill holder and a 2mm screw bit. This worked very well and there was no splintering of wood or anything untoward.



The Haarlem has TEETH!!! An no fewer than 11 of them on the starboard side - cast-iron 36-pounders. Obviously the cannons still have to blackened. NOTE: The cannon second from last towards the stern sits purposely higher than the rest - as per the plans.



Close-up of the three cannons at the bow. That is enough to make any would-be pirate or English ship think twice! Note that the cannons were just fitted loosely without any adjustment of the holes for alignment.

However, despite that ... just look at the curvature!



From the stern ...



And the bow. Absolutely perfect !!! Phew!!!

Tonight, the coffee is going to taste extra good!

Thank you all for your interest and for following.
Kind greetings - Heinrich

 

Niet zo opscheppen Heinrich, ze zijn niet echt.

Maar dat daargelaten ogen ze wel mooi recht. chapeau.

 

Haha - verslavend, zo'n bouwdoos....
Overigens is het borensetje een extra item - zit dus niet standaard in de doos.

 

Dear Stephan

It's called a mixture of relief and excitement! Maybe you have forgotten what it felt like to build your first ship!
Kind regards-Heinrich

 

ik zal het nooit vergeten. Sterker nog, tot op de dag van vandaag is dit gevoel nog niet weg. tijdens het bouwen dromen we soms weg over de wilde baren.

 

Prachtig! word mooi!

 

Baie dankie vir jou mooi woorde, Ronk. Ek waardeer dit.
Vriendelijk groet - Heinrich

 

Kijk dat gaat goed vooruit Heinrich, knap hoor: duimen omhoog:
[QUOTE = "Heinrich, post: 4024722, lid: 68143"] Het kanon op de voorlaatste van de achtersteven ligt doelbewust hoger dan de rest - volgens de plannen. [/ QUOTE]
Heeft dat te maken met het ombouwen van de Batavia naar de Haarlem ??? Want bij de Batavia ligt de voorlaatste poort in lijn en de achterste lager ....
Zomaar een vraag hoor uit interesse, geen kritiek

 

Dat is ook wat Heinrich bedoelt denk ik. Ziet er tot nu toe prima uit in ieder geval, en netjes volgens tekening.

 

@Jacques. Dear Koos, thank you for your kind words - it is always appreciated. I regard you as one of the Batavia stalwarts and as value your opinion highly.

As far as the cannon layout goes, Danny is right! I expressed myself badly. The second last cannon follows the line perfectly - it is the one closest to the stern that sits lower. as far s this goes, there is no difference between the Batavia and the Haarlem.

The difference lies in the number of cannons - some sources say that the Haarlem had 32, others say, 40. But whichever of the two numbers is correct, she had two stern cannons that were used in case she was being chased. So that will be a difference. I am trying to make contact with Dr. Bruno Werz - the Dutch archaeologist in South Africa who has been looking for the wreck for the last 30 years, to find out whether he has any detailed drawings.

The other difference is obviously in the stern ornamentation. Here, Admiraal Hans has already started to work his magic, but I will keep that news under wraps for the time being. All I can say is that it looks very promising.

Vriendelijk groet
Heinrich