English French German Italian Portuguese Russian Spanish
Print
Bottle 536 - Europa (a)
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 the sails only on the main spars. For the other spars I made sails bounded on 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. Making bounded sails: Mostly I used very thin linen for the sails. That is not possible when you want to have bounded sails. I made the bounded sails of mastic acrylique, colour white. You need a injection needle. You have to put some of the mastic acrylique in the needle. You have to take of the iron needle (it is to small to let the mastic true) than you make series of lines on a piece of plastic. You start very thin and than make it thicker and at the and you have to make it thin again. I make several lines, short wanes, shorter wanes en long wanes. If you make al lot of them you have enough fore many years. If they are too long you can cut them of with a sharp knife. The bottle: The bottle is specially made for a S.I.B. The glass is used by tools used in laboratory en is very clear. It does not have the circle on 1/3 of the bottom. That line, almost every bottle has one, is the result of the process of making bottles by machines. These kind of bottles are expensive (30 euros for the bottle of the Europa) and difficult to get. Size of the bottle: Length - 30 cm, Wide - 14 cm, Opening - 24 mm. Size of the S.I.B. "Europa," Length - 175 mm, Wide - 24 mm, High - 105 mm.
Type: 3 mast Square rigged Ship   Maker's Name: Dekker, Frans
Category: Sailing Ships   Made Where: Beemster, Holland
Bottle Size: 30 cm x 14 cm   Year Made: 1999
Bottle Type: Laboratory Bottle  

BACK