This wooden three-master, 150 feet long and with 32 cannons, is a full-size replica of the East Indiaman Amsterdam. In the eighteenth century, cargo ships like these – the biggest of their kind – carried merchandise between Asia and Europe. In 1749, the Amsterdam left the island of Texel bound for Batavia on its maiden sea voyage. There was a crew of 203 on board, along with 127 soldiers and 5 passengers. However, a severe storm in the English Channel wrecked the ship off the south coast of England, where a large part of the hull still remains. Archaeologists have raised items left on board the ship, some of which are now in the National Maritime Museum’s collection. This reconstruction was made between 1985 and 1990 in Amsterdam. Blueprints for a similar ship from the museum’s collection were used for the design, along with an eighteenth-century model ship from the Rijksmuseum’s collection.

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