A small mini-serie inside this travelogue. Being in Amsterdam during Sail 1990, we learned about the building of the replica of a Dutch India merchant ship of the 17th century, the Batavia. The building site was in Lelystad, a little town on a modern polder not very far from Amsterdam. Here are some of the pictures I took there. There is an interesting article in Wikipedia about the ship following this link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(ship)

First , the technical data :
Career
Nationality: Dutch
Owners: Dutch East India Company
Builders:
Captain: François Pelsaert
Port of registry: Amsterdam, Netherlands?
Laid down: 4 June 1629
Launched: 29 October 1628
Christened: Not christened
Maiden voyage: 1628
Fate: Ran aground
General Characteristics
Gross Tonnage: 650 GRT
Displacement: c. 1200 tons tons
Length: 56.60 m
Beam: 10.50 m
Draught: 5.10 m
Power:
Propulsion: Sails (1180 m²)
Speed: Dictated by wind

Here, the main deck with the lower part of two masts already installed.
In workshop :
- a general view of the ship,
- a close up of the hull under construction.

PS Elements 5.0 + Neatimage

The side of the hull. Between the scaffoldings, you can see the very thick oak planks used for building the sides of the hull.

General view of the replica being built, from the rear and port side. The first two lower masts (masts being built in several parts at the time) are already in position.