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Europa (b)
Date Added: 26 March 2007
From the artist, Frans Dekker: "I built this ship after reading the book "EUROPA" by the hand of Arie Metzelaar. He was a Dutch seaman in training and his first voyage was on the 3 mast square rigged ship EUROPA. He was sailing with her for a trip around the world. After 2 years she came back in Holland. The Europe and her twin sister "Nederland" are among the last great square rigged sailing ships of Holland. She was built in 1897 on the Dutch shipyard "Huygens en van Gelder" in Amsterdam. She was 268 feet long and 40 feet wide. She was 23 feet deep. Although she was not the fastest ship of Holland (she made even so trips that were very vast) she was at her time the most beautiful ship of the Dutch fleet. After she returned she was sold to different owners. She get lost on May 5, 1917 sailing with ballast on her way from Belfast (Ireland) to New York. Probably she was sunk by an German submarine. All the seaman where rescued. I decided to built two ships at the same time. One with all sails on each spar and one with sails only at the main spars. This is the model of the ship with all of the sails flying from the spars. The system I used making these ships is the same as I described by making the Preussen. The hull is made from Lindewood; the sides of aeroplane triplex; and the mast and spars of beukenwood. At this SIB it was even so not possible to let de mast fall backwards from the deck. That was because of the deckhouses. I drilled little hole’s in the deck at the place were the mast belong to be. When the Europe was in the bottle I pulled the masts up with the stags. I put the feet of the masts on there place with a long piece of iron that was hooked at the end. The bottle is 30 cm x 17.5 cm. The neck has a Turk's Head knot and the ends are sealed with red sealing wax. There is a tag that says: :F Dekker, 29-11-98" for the name of the artist and the date this model was completed.
Type: 3 mast Square rigged Ship   Maker's Name: Dekker, Frans
Category: Sailing Ships   Made Where: Beemster, Holland
Bottle Size: 30 cm x 17.5 cm   Year Made: 1998 Nov. 29
Bottle Type: 3 liter