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Abstract
This paper presents a model of a royal yacht in the Portland Collection whose existence has, despite having been included in a published nineteenth-century catalogue, remained unrecognized for over 300 years. It is the first Navy Board style yacht model to come into the public domain for nearly a century. It is the first yacht model, and one of very few seventeenth-century ship models, which can be identified and connected to a real vessel. It is identified as the Henrietta, a royal yacht built for King Charles II and launched in December 1679. This article explores the evidence that allows this attribution to be made and describes many of the significant features of this beautiful example of the modeller’s art. It concludes that the hull of the model is contemporary to the Stuart period but the masts and other features are later additions.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the owner for allowing access to the model during the cleaning and restoration project and to the staff at the Portland Collection for their help and support. Thanks must also go to Dorin Paul Bucur who, being resident in Romania, was unable to view the model and who acted as a ‘silent partner’ in this enterprise. They would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments.
Notes
1 The collection of the Dukes of Portland, housed on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire. Work on a new gallery to display the collection meant that conservation of the object was under way when the authors were working on this paper, so images of the model reproduced in this paper were taken during that process and show it at various stages.
2 One of the finest examples of a photographic essay is Culver, Contemporary Scale Models.
3 NMM SLR0375, SLR0377, SLR0378 and SLR0379.
4 USNAM HHRC nos 4 and 15.
5 MNM 9 MG 2
6 A model previously in the collection of the Earl of Sandwich, sold by Timothy Sammons Ltd in 1996.
7 A visual description of the types and rigs of seventeenth century vessels may be found in Robinson, The Paintings of Willem Van de Veldes, vol. 2, 1127–36.
8 Charles Sergison, Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board, 1690–1719.
9 Anderson, ‘The Cuckfield Mss. and Models’, 154.
10 See, for instance, Culver, Contemporary Scale Models, 16.
11 Moneypenny and Bucur, ‘The Royal Yacht Henrietta’, 132–46.
12 Moneypenny and Stephens, ‘A Proposal for the Nell Gwynn Yacht circa 1676′, 275–88.
13 For a full discussion of the style definition see Franklin, Navy Board Ship Models.
14 The exact description of these cabins and decks varies in contemporary documents. The titles suggested here are ones that are commonly encountered.
15 Moneypenny and Bucur, ‘The Royal Yacht Henrietta’, 133.
16 Robinson and Weber, The Willem Van de Velde Drawings in the Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, 306.
17 For an exhaustive discussion on this topic refer to Franklin, Navy Board Ship Models, 45–52.
18 The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA) ADM8/1, List Book (showing the disposition of Ships, names of Officers, &c.).
19 TNA ADM 180/19, Lists of ships and lists of the navy.
20 For an excellent account of the life of Willem Bentinck see Grew, William Bentinck and William III.
21 British Library, Egerton Manuscripts, 1708 fos 277–80. A summary of the earl’s possessions estimated at his death in 1709 may also be found in Onnekink, The Anglo-Dutch Favourite, 90.
22 Catalogue of the Ornamental Furniture, Works of Art, and Porcelain at Welbeck Abbey (privately printed, 1897).
23 Personal communication, Portland Collection staff.
24 Kriegstein and Kriegstein, 17th and 18th Century Ship Models, 133 and Lavery and Stephens,
Ship Models, 39.
25 For Charles II’s involvement in the planning, design, construction and enjoyment of his ships and yachts see Davies, Kings of the Sea, 9–13 and 66–80.
26 NMM PAF 6624.
27 Franklin, Navy Board Ship Models, 41.
28 During the Nine Years War, when several royal yachts were converted to act as cruisers, additional guns could be placed in these areas. See, for instance, TNA ADM1/3558, 10 Jun. 1689, for the Navy Board’s suggestions for converting the Charlotte yacht for this function.
29 Franklin, Navy Board Ship Models, 114
30 Reference to the Van de Velde drawings in and above give a good idea of typical late seventeenth-century yacht lanterns.
31 A binnacle is, for instance, present on the Wilton House model which is believed to represent the Third Rate Essex of 1679.
32 In this context the upright stem refers to a stem which exhibits a small forward rake and is joined to the keel either with a short tangential curve or with an acute angle.
33 TNA ADM/24, 27 Jan. 1673, for instance.
34 Moneypenny and Bucur, ‘The Royal Yacht Henrietta’, 141–4.
35 t’ Hooft, ‘The First English Yachts’, 108–23.
36 Bonhams Lot 11TP, 8 Dec. 2016.
37 Private correspondence with Grant Walker of the USNAM also confirms that the HHR model no. 21 (a Sixth Rate from the late 1720s) has s similar kind of chimney funnel. Also model no. 22 (another Sixth Rate, of 1727) has one very much like it.
38 TNA ADM106/346 fo. 604.
39 TNA ADM106/346 fo. 546.
40 Tanner, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Naval Manuscripts, IV, 519–21.
41 For instance, TNA ADM106/3118, a repair estimate for the Merlin yacht on 6 Dec. 1675 ‘to take up the canvas over the Stateroom and Lodging room, to be made good under and laid with new canvas’.
42 Lavery, The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War, 202. For instance TNA ADM106/3118, a repair estimate for the Portsmouth yacht on 24 May 1678 ‘to put in 2 new piss-dale pipes’.
43 For instance, TNA ADM106/3118, a repair estimate to the Navy yacht on 12 Dec. 1676 ‘to mend the lead of the ports’.
44 For instance, NMM model SLR0379 shown in above.
45 NMM model SLR0002.
46 Franklin, Navy Board Ship Models, 75.
47 The authors are indebted to Dima Sidorov for this connection.
48 ‘Soesdyke’ refers to William’s favourite hunting lodge in the Netherlands.
49 The contract, if it still exists, has not yet been discovered. It may have simply been a verbal instruction from Charles to proceed on dimensions close to those agreed.
50 See Davies, Kings of the Sea, 66–80 for a discussion on Charles II’s direct involvement in ship design and construction.
51 For further discussion of this problem refer to Moneypenny and Bucur, ‘The Royal Yacht Isabella’, 411.
52 Moneypenny and Bucur, ‘The Royal Yacht Henrietta’, 141–4
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Effie Moneypenny
Effie Moneypenny is a private historian specializing in archival research with special emphasis on the Stuart period and the royal yachts in particular. She is the founder member of the Stuart Yacht Research Group and contributor to papers identifying the Henrietta (1679) and Isabella (1683) yachts built for King Charles II as well as identifying the possible purpose of the Henry Huddleston Rogers Collection Model no. 4 as being a proposal as a yacht for Nell Gwyn.
Simon Stephens
Simon Stephens is the curator of the Ship Model and Boat Collections at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Joining in 1978, and remaining with this collection to date, he is an author and co-author of a number of books and publications about ship models and in particular Ship Models: Their purpose and development From 1650 to the present, with Brian Lavery (London, 1995) and Ship Models: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Ontario, 2009).