Build the Batavia

- by Frans Dekker

This time I will send you the information about the ship Batavia. This ship became very famous all over the world because of the disaster that happens when the ship wrecked in 1629 on the cost of Australia. A number of books are written about is (I have some  of them) When the Batavia wrecked on the “Abrolhols”  every one was  rescued.  About 20 men of the ship went out for looking water. The dit not find it en de decided to sail to Oost-indien. When they arrived they organized a ship en the returned tot the place the left a few months earlier. The found a lot of people dead. They were murdered by a very religious man and his helpers.

I built this model in 1995. That means that it was ready in 1995. I started in 1994. It took me 1 ½ year to built i. It was a very difficult ship to built because of the fact that the hull was made in fore parts. De size of the income was not great enough to let de hole hull true. As you can see on the pictures it was a mess when it came in to the bottle.

All the wires that came from the top of the masts is going inside the hull. In the center of the hull, on both sides, I made a small tunnel. All the wires are coming out on the front under the galleon. As you can see on the pictures, I made de galleon whit the bowsprit and a part of the keel as one part. After the 4 parts of the hull were put together and the masts were standing in the right position  I put some glue into de tunnels were the wires came out. After drying I cut the wires of en put de part of the galleon and bowsprit on front of the ship.

During the building of the Batavia I saw that some parts were not as the shout by. I decided to make a second model after a finist the first one. I made that second one but I sold is to a men that became a very good friend. So the model you see on the pictures is not as it should by. For the people that now nothing of these ships the can not see it but for de people ho now.

I was very lucky that de replica of the Batavia was made in a shipyard only 45 minutes driving from my home. So I visit the shipyard many times. I  have made a lot of pictures during the building and I was lucky to find some books where I good see how a model of the Batavia (seize about 1.40 meters) was built. In Holland the distance to the most of the shipyards are not so great.

The first picture is the model with and without paint

The second one you can see ( if you look very good on my nail) how big the block is (is that word correct, I mean a part of the rigging ware the ropes are going true)

Below are several pictures of the ship and construction steps.