Abel Tasman’s Ship Modelled In Pine

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30364, 13 February 1964, Page 7

Abel Tasman’s Ship Modelled In Pine

A model of the Zeehaen (Sea Lock), one of the two ships led by Abel Tasman when he discovered New Zealand in 1642, has been made of pine by Mr M. Wickham, a public relations officer for the Tasman Pulp arid Paper Company, Ltd., Kawerau. Mr Wickham decided to make the model 12 months ago. For almost six months there was a steady stream of correspondence between Kawerau and other parts of New Zealand, Holland, Britain, the United States, and Australia, to museums, historical institutions, ship modellers, arid shipping archives. Details were fragmentary, hut gradually a picture took shape from the notes preserved in . the “Vitloopbqekie” (register of outgoing ships) of the Drawings and script published in “Abel Tasman’s Journal” were valuable, and other minor sources were used.

From these plans were drawn for a model of four, feet with a 12 inch beam, based on full-scale dimensions of 96 feet, including rig, 74 feet waterline, and 24 feet beam. Mr Wickham received valuable assistance in the early stages from Mr S. Hayward, a pattern maker and model builder. Pine 3/16 of an inch thick was used for planking the hull, glued and pinned on a frame cut from 4 inch pipe. The decking is 1 inch thick. The masts are of Douglas fir. The pine proved good material for modelling, handling easily, although it was neces-

sary to soak some planks in water to obtain more accentuated curves.

Mr Wickham's principal tool was a pocket-knife. He spent about 350 hours on the Zeehaen. The model of the Zeehaen has been presented to the company.