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1 203 The data on the pinas, which we have seen in the prev ious chapter, could be called a contract. However, such elaborate contracts were rare. Strictly speaking, the contract was more than a collection of shipbuilding data. It was also a business contract in which costs and delivery date were stipulated. The Contract Witsen used the words bestek (contract) and charter (also cherter or certer, meaning “charter” but also “r ate”) indiscriminately. The difference between these terms is dealt with in chapter 1 (see the section “Contract Specifications”). Witsen describes a certer as a contract between client and contractor: (98 I 49) When Ships, made in this country, are ordered, it is common that the client or buyer dictates rules, and conditions to the Master Shipwright and Seller, after which he wants the ship to be built: w hich rules and instructions are called, with a foreign word, Certer. In his next chapter Witsen presents several contracts. However, a close ex amination reveals many differences. For instance, in the contract for the 125-foot ship in passage 98 II 5 (see “C ontracts for Hulls” below), business agreements are included with the s tructural and technical details, whereas the short contracts “made by Mr. Dirk Raven” (see “Contracts for Hulls”) are so concise that they appear to be no more th an notes made by the shipwright for his own use. Yet this important difference is not conveyed by any significant difference in terminology in Witsen’s text. In general the main dimensions of the ship were the fi rst issue to be mentioned in the c ontract: length, breadth, depth, and sometimes also the height between lower and upper deck. Occasionally the orlop deck is mentioned. Then the stem and sternposts are desc ribed: their height and r ake, thickness and width, and sometimes (for the stem) also the curve (i.e., the distance between the inner face of the stem and the diag onal line drawn from the keel to the top of the stem).1 The contract for the Mauritius of 1639 in passage 108 I 33 (see “Contracts for Hulls”) even states that the stem was to be more curved at the top and a little straighter below; in this case, a circle-arc is out of the question. In section 2 of chapter 2 Witsen describes the construction of a stem b y the aid of a flexible ฀three฀ Contracts฀as฀ Historical฀Sources Chapter Three 204 that the author of the contract recorded only such matters as those specific for the ship in question, s imply assuming all the other dimensions were unnecessary, since they could be derived with the use of the shipbuilding formulas , as discussed at length in the previous chapter. But if we model builders are to form a more complete picture of a specific ship, the c ontracts and formulas together are not enough: in par ticular, information about the sh ape of the hul l can seldom, if ever, be fou nd in a c ontract. However, by combining the contracts and formulas with the original building method a s described by Witsen, we can take a significant step toward the completion of the puzzle. The contract supplies the initial data, which are supplemented by the formul as. By adhering to the described building method and sequenc e, the builder w ill run into a number of practical problems; since he is working without drawings, he will need to solve these problems before continuing to the next step. Of course, there are no guarantees that the solutions we arrive at today are the same as or even s imilar to those of the seventeenth century. But we have a fourth clue—to lay down a ship’s bottom as was done in the seventeenth c entury. For instance , today’s model builder w ill have to m ake use of tools similar to the ones used at the time, suc h as the planking tongs that kept the planks in position. Not only does this produce the attributes that are so typic al of a hull fashioned by this method, but the builder will also inevitably encounter the same decision moments at which the seventeenth-century shipwright could influence the shape of the hull. These moments contribute decisively to the modern builder’s understanding of the subject. We do have the assurance that a ship built in this way will have the right...

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