Yes, I know—I had previously announced that I would stop building and rigging three-masted ships. Problems with my hands and eyes forced me to do so. Yet, I find it difficult to give up a hobby I have pursued for some seventy years. Even after the last three-masters had been delivered to a few museums and a private collector, I couldn't resist the temptation and built a small frigate; it sat in my cabinet for a long time because I dreaded the rigging process. I built it purely for the pleasure of crafting a beautiful hull.

My average time for completing a three-masted ship used to be around three months—rigging included—but those days are gone. I did recently finish this model, though; yet if I ever stood a chance of getting into heaven (assuming such a place actually exists), I have utterly destroyed that prospect by rigging this particular ship. I am glad no one had to witness the blasphemous, vulgar outbursts and curses I unleashed whenever I had to repeat the exact same step for the fourth or fifth time in a row. The inability to perceive depth makes complex rigging tasks nearly impossible—and, come to think of it, simple ones too—while trembling hands certainly don't add to the joy of the work.

In short, the work is no longer fun, and this is where it ends. I’ve run out of steam. Despite myself, I did build one last small frigate this spring; Emiel can now take over by placing it in a historically accurate setting. Photos are attached.

It is an intriguing little vessel—one of the small frigates that took part in the Raid on the Medway (often referred to as the Raid on Chatham) in 1666. Its name is 'De Brak'. I hadn't realized it before, but a 'brak' is a type of hound; today, we know the breed as the 'beagle'. Naturally, knowing this was crucial for designing the ship's stern. This time, I decided not to sculpt the design in relief but simply to paint the image. I am a painter's son, yet my (partial) color blindness has always prevented me from using that technique on a ship model. I put a great deal of effort into the sails, as I wanted to depict them in a specific configuration. If Emiel does his job well, we will see an impression of the moment De Ruyter's fleet was ordered to muster for the attack—hence the red-white-red-white-red-white flag on the mizzenmast. And all this during a sudden squall...

The crew figures were supplied by the company Artitec. The owner, my good friend Herbert Tomesen—himself an excellent model maker—printed them especially for me in my preferred 1:77 scale. I am delighted that the model is finished and has turned out exactly as I had hoped.

Does that mean I will stop building altogether? I cannot imagine that. Over the past year, I tried to build a model of a cutter with a relatively simple rigging setup, but even that is beyond my capabilities now without compromising my own principles or offending religiously minded colleagues. O, I nearly forgot. I also made this model, because the original Dutch name was 'de Brak', just like the 1661 frigate I built recently. It was a Dutch ship, built after British example, but bigger. The British renamed her into 'Braak' (for unclear reasons) after it was taken and rebuild and re-rigged to make it suitable for English naval services. The ship sank off the American coast in 1798. It was ketch rigged by then, because the new owners found working with her too heavy. There is no mentioning of such complaints when it was in Dutch hands....

What I do still make are ships that require no rigging—dockyard models—even though these are, by definition, of English origin. Moreover, due to the material chosen (cardboard) combined with my physical limitations, they are far from flawless; still, they do at least somewhat resemble a ship model. I recently fitted three of them with display cases, as I previously mentioned; these lend the models a certain status. ('See my thread An experiment, etc')

I thank my followers and readers for their stimulating words and positive reactions to my work, and I will continue to use this forum at least as a reader, hopefully for a long time to come.

It‘s always a pleasure to see a new model from your shipyard. I like the small frigate.

Such a lovely model, and I really like the mid 17th century aesthetics!

Very beautiful work

Very pleasing result, especially the decks look lively, the figures are very lifelike!

Hope you will adapt, a dockyard model from you would definitely be an eye candy 😊

Great! This is that old style; they don't do it like that anymore, unfortunately.

Ab,

It's great to see a new build of yours! And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who spews vulgar outbursts of curses while rigging. In my case it's because I'm relatively new at it, and some aspects are more difficult than I expected.

The sail position is always so dynamic on your builds. It gives a sense of action and motion. How big is De Brak compared to Postiljon? I know Postiljon was fairly small at 100 x 24.5 x 12.25 feet. Is De Brak smaller?

I'm looking forward to seeing what Emiel's seascapes look like with the De Brak. You'll have to post them in the gallery.

Erik

Hi Erik,

The Brak was a little bit bigger, 106 feet long. For the lines plan it made no difference in shape, although I altered the hight of the stern a little bit, mostly because of clumsiness.😉

Once again a wonderful model.

Will you continue to write books in your semi-retirement?

Haha, hard to say @Redshirt, when the building stops, so does mostly the material to write about.

But I learned never to say never a long time ago. Do you have a favorite subject?

3 hours ago, Ab Hoving said:

Haha, hard to say @Redshirt, when the building stops, so does mostly the material to write about.

But I learned never to say never a long time ago. Do you have a favorite subject?

I am glad to hear that there is still a chance for new books from you.

My favourite subjects are smaller trade- and workboats/ships (for which we have your great "17th Century Dutch Merchant Ships").

While such vessels might appear to be less impressive than the great ships of the line i believe that their historic importance cannot be overstated.

One day soon (hopefully) i will finaly have the time to build your Galjoot (and perhaps despair of it's dutch style planking :D).

As promised: here is Emiel's version of the small frigate, while the Dutch fleet is gathering for action during an upcoming squall"

Hope you like it as much as I so.

Ab,

Emiel did a great job! I particularly like the little details like the seagulls in the foreground.

Erik

And you have done it again! Wonderful model!

Very impressive