East Indiaman in Miniature | Maritime Innovation in Miniature Series 2 скачать в хорошем качестве

East Indiaman in Miniature | Maritime Innovation in Miniature Series 2

This model is of an unidentified Swedish East Indiaman from the mid-eighteenth century. The model was built in the last quarter of the twentieth century by Woldemar Konga, an Estonaian refugee who escaped to Sweden during the Second World War. Its construction was based on original drawings by the famous naval architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman who constructed a number of vessels for the Swedish East India company. This was a period when the science of shipbuilding reached new heights and Chapman – uniquely a mathematician AND a shipwright - led the way – he is considered to be the grandfather of naval architecture. Mathematicians who studied shipbuilding lacked the practical skill to implement their own ideas; while shipwrights lacked the mathematical understanding. The first person who combined those two skills was Frederick af Chapman. Chapman made it possible to predetermine and assess mathematically different attributes of vessels – such as stability and sailing qualities. Born in Gothenburg in 1721 to immigrant English parents, his father had served in the Swedish navy before becoming the manager of a shipyard in Gothenburg. His mother was the daughter of a London shipwright. He was therefore born into a life of ship design and construction and He was ten when he designed his first vessel. By 23 he ran his own shipyard maintaining and repairing Swedish East Indiamen. The Swedish East India company had been founded in Gothenburg in 1731. The Swedish were late in joining this wealthy trade importing to import silk, tea, furniture and other distinctive and luxury goods from the east. – by then the Dutch East India company had already been in existence for 129 years - and the British East India company for 131. But now that the Swedes had committed to this trade, they embraced it. The Swedish East India company swiftly became the largest trading company in Sweden. East Indiamen such as this hold an important position in the history of ship design and innovation – here is a vessel that linked the two most physically distant and culturally distinct parts of the world together. #maritime #history #historylovers #scalemodel #scalemodelling #scalemodel #eastindiamen #eastindiacompany #shipmodel #maritimehistory #18thcentury #ww2 #shiphistory