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17th Century Galleon Wodnik |
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Sunday, 21 January 2007 |
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Wodnik from Plany Modelarskie Having read and participated in model ship building forums made me think of building model of historical ship. I have got quite a few sets of plans from different periods, but all seemed to me to be complicated for the first attempt like that. I have spent literally days looking and the plans, pictures on the web and in the end I made my choice. Galleon Wodnik (Aquarius), also known Meerman. It is typical galleon from that period, built most probably in 1623 using Dutch methodology. The most famous and documented event with Wodnik is Battle at Oliwia, outside Gdansk (Danzig) harbour.
On 28 November 1627, the Polish fleet engaged the Swedish blockading squadron. The Polish ships were more numerous, but only 4 galleons had full combat value, the rest were smaller ships. The Swedes had a longer tradition of a seamanship, while the Polish navy was new-born. Wodnik attacked the bigger Swedish galleon Solen. As a result of deck battle Swedish captain of Solen blew his ship up rather than allow its capture. The remaining 4 Swedish ships escaped and a pursuit failed. In the battle, both Admirals were killed. In 1632 after fall of Wismar, Wodnik was taken over by Sweden and had been given name Meerman. Wodnik is typical galleon of that times, so for drawing hull lines I also used scans of Roter Löwe that I found on the web. When you look at the pictures, they are basically the same. Some basic facts: - Draught - 200 tons
- Length - 86 ft
- Width 24 - ft
- Guns - 17
- Crew - 45 to 49
- Speed – around 7 knots
The hull was built from oak, masts and spars from spruce and decks ware made of pine planks. Wodnik was not painted with exception of underwater section which most probably was something like dirty cream colour but not really white. Gun ports in the colour of the hull i.e. natural oak. All metal parts on the ship were black.
I am building the model in 1:50 scale. It is scratch build based on plans published in Polish Plany Modelarskie nr 31 from 1969.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 April 2007 )
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