Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Ron van Maanen's dimensions for the Oranje

I noticed, again, Ron van Maanen's amazing dimensions for the VOC ship Oranje, a retourschip, commanded by Bastiaan Centsen at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665. Ron's dimensions are 180ft x 52ft x 17ft, with a height between decks of 7ft. These are Dutch measurements in Amsterdam feet. To put these into perspective, let us convert these to English feet:
Dutch measurement:
Length from stem to sternpost: 180ft
Beam inside the planking:             52ft
Hold:                                                 17ft

English measurement:
Length on the keel:                       135ft
Beam outside the planking:           46ft
Depth of hold:                                  15ft

I would estimate the length on the gundeck to be about 175ft in English feet.

Herbert Tomesen, at Artitec, is using a much smaller set of dimensions:

Length from stem to sternpost: 170ft
Beam inside the planking:             38ft
Hold:                                                 18ft

This would translate into English measurement:

Length on the keel:                       127ft-10in
Beam outside the planking:           33ft-8in
Depth of hold:                                  15ft-11in

estimate length on the gun deck: 166ft

This actually seems more reasonable than Ron's dimensions.
Ron is pretty consistent, though, with his large retourschip dimensions.
I have yet to find the source, however.

  1. James C. Bender, unpublished manuscript "Dutch Ships and the Relationship Between English and Dutch Measure", 2003
  2. Ron van Maanen, unpublished manuscript "ZEELAND", undated

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