Loading guns and lacing on the fore bonnet

Four sketches of outboard loading depicting a man standing on a channel sponging; kneeling on a channel ramming; standing on a channel astride a gun sponing and sitting astride a gun sponing. There is also a depiction of a man holding a sponge and rammer. There is a rough sketch of part of the fore course hauled out to a bowline, showing hands lacing on the bonnet.

This is a pencil, pen and brown ink drawing by the Younger. It is signed in brown ink with part of the signature ‘W.V.VJ’. The pen-work suggests a date as late as 1701, but the signature with no loop to the ‘J’ is in the same ink and is of a much earlier period. The earlier date is confirmed by the absence of a cathead, signifying a Dutch ship, the unlikelihood that a large ship would have had a bonnet in 1701 and the fact that other drawings on the same paper are dated 1664.

Object Details

ID: PAF6464
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Velde, Willem van de, the Younger
Date made: 1664?
People: Velde, Willem van de, the Younger
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection
Measurements: Primary support: 140 mm x 280 mm; Mount: 406 mm x 559 mm