The vessels after 1500 become larger and the castles gain in importance. The projection of the forward castle, however, diminishes gradually and this castle reached only as far as the stem, by the middle of the XVIth century.
WITSEN, in the appendix of his remarkable work (pp. 8 and 10), gives a fine model of a ship at the end of the XVth century. It is a question of the reproduction of a vessel which, in his time, decorated the arch of the church at Diemer-lez-Amsterdam, built in the year 1500. The rigging of this vessel, as well as the pole mast supplied with tops and carrying large square sails, brings us back to the Middle Ages. The forward castle, which projects beyond the stem, and the after castle are higher than usual. These are no bends such as were used later; several heavy pieces of wood supported on brackets take their place. The sides are evidently smooth and, according to the constant practice of the period, the ship carried on the bow and on the sides pieces of wood for protection.
The stern alone is not clearly shown; there is no rudder to be seen, and this gives the impression that the drawing is at fault.
This vessel had no upper stern, in all probability, for our ships did not yet know this addition. There is a proof of it in the Noah’s Ark, reproduced in the Nürenberger Chronik, folio XI, of 1494, as well as in that of the ship which appears in the Ecclesiastical Painting of the Middle Ages in Holland, 1518-1525, no 14, and which shows Jonah in the water.
This last picture especially gives a magnificent type of boat of the beginning of the XVIth century. It is not so old as the ship of the Church at Diemer, as to which the rig furnishes proof: the pole of the mast passes through the top and, another characteristic, the forward castle does not project beyond the stem. The ram has been broken off near the frame. Besides, the human figures, as compared with the ship, are exaggerated. The sides of the vessel are smooth. It brings admirably to mind the Flemish miniature of 1482.
These reproductions are most interesting in view of the development of the ship; we see in them the forms of the castle become more precise, the rigging improve and increase and the vessel itself gain in size.
Attention is called to the fact that the ships in all these drawings carry a bowsprit which was used at first only to hoist the anchor, as is the practice still on the large river lakes.
Let us now turn our eyes to Breugel’s pictures of which F. Huis has left some superb engravings.