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Abstract
Model-making has been part of the history of the world as a scaled-down, and often simplified, version of an object. This form of representation has had different functions including validation, creative solution, communication and decoration among others. Models depicting ships are known at an early date from ancient Egypt, although some of those boats had funerary ritual symbolism. More than four millennia later the ship models of the eighteenth century were conceived at a time when naval power was reaching a new chapter offered by technological advancements. Such items, made for shipyards and wealthy patrons, showed details that otherwise would have been missed from the plans and became a physical record of the constructive accomplishment. When other data such as plans are missing, the details from these models are vital to determine the otherwise obscure provenance in the same way as details associated with written or pictorial accounts. The purpose of this paper is to determine the origin of the model SLR0436 stored at the National Maritime Museum’s model collection at its Chatham site. The features of the model will be discussed as well as the merits of the different hypotheses, including the historical context. Finally, it proposes that the most credible provenance, given the evidence, is the Vittorio, a ship built in Deptford in 1716 for the Savoyard navy.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Simon Stephens, curator of the Ship Model and Boat Collections of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, for his invaluable support and access to the model. Also, thanks are due to the historian Aldo Antonicelli for his useful insights into the procurement of the Vittorio, the support of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, the Naval Dockyards Society, and the Museo Naval of Madrid for their support regarding the archives. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their input into this article.
Notes
1 Stephens and Ball, Navy Board Ship Models.
2 Arellano Torres, ‘El Real Astillero de Quatzalcoalcos’.
3 The cost to import raw material, including iron, also added to the fate of the shipyard.
4 Béthencourt Massieu, ‘El Real Astillero de Coatzacoalcos’, 371-428
5 Arte de fabricar reales (1688), Proporción de las medidas arregladas a la construcción de un bajel de guerra de setenta codos de quilla (1712), Proporciones más esenciales para la fábrica de navíos y fragatas (1720).
6 Codos de ribera
7 García-Torralba Pérez, Navíos Real Armada 1700–1860
8 Fernandez Duro, A la mar madera. Disquisiciones Nauticas.
9 Length derived from Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793–1817.
10 National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (hereafter NMM): Ship plan ‘San Damaso’ (captured
1797), ID: ZAZ1313.
11 INAH and SEMARNAT, Escudo Nacional. Flora, fauna y biodiversidad.
12 The myth of Aztlán encompasses the peregrination of the Aztec people from the land of Aztlán until they reach Tenochtitlan where they encountered their prophetic vision of ‘an eagle, perched on a prickly pear, devouring a snake’.
13 Martínez Rodríguez de Lema, ‘Pervivencia del mundo clásico’, 39–74
14 Juan José Navarro, who was the first Marquis of La Victoria (1687–1772), began to write this work in 1719 and finished it in 1756. The manuscript consists of 112 plates showing Spanish shipbuilding in the eighteenth century, from the forest to the shipyard, making it a documentary masterpiece in the history of shipbuilding.
15 Chamorro Esteban, ‘Las galeras de la Escuadra de España’, 78–82.
16 Based on an analysis of Mejias Tavero, Navíos españoles.
17 Stephens and Ball, Navy Board Ship Models.
18 Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793–1817.
19 NMM: object no. SLR0367.
20 Stephens and Ball, Navy Board Ship Models.
21 Westlake, ‘John Player’s Figureheads’, 60–3.
22 Antonicelli, ‘Ottavio Scarampi del Cairo’. 1–26.
23 Prasca, La marina da querra di casa Savoia.
24 Boeri, La Guerra di Sardegna e di Sicilia; Garcia-Torralba Perez, Navíos Real Armada 1700–1860.
25 Antonicelli, ‘Ottavio Scarampi del Cairo’, 1–26; Boeri, La Guerra di Sardegna e di Sicilia; Garcia-Torralba Perez, Navíos Real Armada 1700–1860.
26 Antonicelli, ‘Ottavio Scarampi del Cairo’, 1–26, refers to it as a 40-gun frigate. If so, it could have been equivalent to a Fifth Rate.
27 Prasca, La marina da querra di casa Savoia.
28 Stellardi, Il Regno di Vittorio Amedeo II di Savoia, 317.
29 Antonicelli, ‘Ottavio Scarampi del Cairo’, 1–26.
30 Stellardi, Il Regno di Vittorio Amedeo II di Savoia.
31 ‘Ristretto del Bilancio attivo e passivo del Regno di Sicilia per l’anno 1716’ in Stellardi, Il Regno di Vittorio Amedeo II di Savoia, 238.
32 Extracts from the balance sheet of assets and liabilities show the incorporation of a 60-gun ship in 1716 and the addition of 2 more ships the following year. Stellardi, Il Regno di Vittorio Amedeo II di Savoia, 238–40.
33 Stellardi, Il Regno di Vittorio Amedeo II di Savoia, 453.
34 Ibid., 356.
35 Vincenzo, Vera, e distinta relazione de’ progressi dell’ armi spagnuole in Messina.
36 Campbell, Lives of the British Admirals, vol. 6, 113–51.
37 Antonicelli, ‘Ottavio Scarampi del Cairo’, 1–26.
38 Archivio di Stato di Torino: Sezione di Corte, ‘Negoziazioni con Inghilterra e Olanda in Materie politiche per rapporto all’estero [Inventario n. 94]’. Additionally there is a collection of letters from the exchange between the king or his ministers to Trivie under the title ‘Materie Politiche per rapporto all’estero, lettere ministri, Gran Bretagna, mazzo 22’.
39 Castro, ‘Tonnages and displacements in the 16th century’, 1136–43.
40 Antonicelli, ‘Ottavio Scarampi del Cairo’, 1–26.
41 Rodriguez Gonzalez, Corsarios Españoles.
42 Espinosa-Rodriquez, ‘Some Reflections on the Three Views of Valleta’, 201–4.
43 Ströhl, Heraldischer Atlas.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jaime Pérez-Martínez
Jaime Pérez-Martínez is a student member of the Society for Nautical Research, and holds membership in other Societies including RINA, SNAME and AINE. He holds master’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, in Spain. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the Department of Naval Architecture, Construction, Ocean and Naval Systems of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Jaime has publications in the field of naval engineering, history and diplomacy in national and international journals with broad interdisciplinary collaborations.
Rodrigo Pérez Fernández
Rodrigo Pérez Fernández CEng, CMarEng, FRINA, FSNAME, FIMarEst, holds both PhD and MSc in naval architecture and marine engineering. He is currently a senior director for software engineering at Siemens Digital Industries Software. Combining his activity in the industry, he is a professor in the Marine Engineering School of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)