REINIER NOOMS CALLED ZEEMAN

A  HARBOUR VIEW

After Willem van de Velde the Elder, Reinier Nooms was the most important painter, draughtsman and etcher of ships of the 17th century.  He depicted his ships so accurately in his paintings and etchings that they are used to identify the most common types of ships around 1660. It is assumed that Nooms was indeed a sailor although the evidence for this is lacking to date. It is certain, however, that Nooms was a draughtsman with the fleet commanded by Michiel de Ruyter, which sailed in 1661 to protect the Dutch merchant fleet from Turkish and Barbary corsairs in the Mediterranean. [1]

The painting shows from left to right:

1. A) A warship. [2]
2. B) A flute with a coaster next to it. [3] The flute lies keeled.
3. C) A coaster. This was a flat-bottomed working vessel equipped with a heavy mast and capstans. The workboat was used to place masts on ships and to pull large ocean-going vessels onto their sides (called “keeling”) so that one could clean, caulk or repair the underwater hull.
4. D) A working barge.
5. E) In the middle a three-master.
6. F) Far right probably a narrowboat.

[1] E. de Groot, The World of a Seventeenth Century/ Collector/ The Allas Blaeu- Van der Hem, p. 247 fig. 101, pp.238-249. [2] Verscheÿde Schepen en Gesichten van Amstelredam, Naer ’t leven getekent en opt Cooper gebracht door Reinier Nooms alÿas Zeeman. See etching Nooms b 3. [3] Ibidem.  See etching Nooms c 11.