The most typical of all the Dutch small ships was a tjalk (tjalka). The name of the ship came from the old Dutch language. Tjalk was a flat-bottomed cargo ship with shallow draught and good qualities for use in the rivers and coastal waters of old Frislandia. Because of the flat bottom she was supplied by side sheet anchors. Mostly she was rigged with a removable mast. Only in the 19th century some of tjalks were provided with an additional small mizzenmast. The displacement of a tjalk was from 30 to 80 t. Besides the sprint mainsail the tjalk carried a sprint topsail, a fore staysail and a flying jib. By the beginning of the 19th century the sprint rigging of tjalks was often changed into usual for them gaff rigging, at that the main trysail was comparatively low with a short gaff and a very long boom. (Link)
A interesting find has been discovered.
A sunken ship that dates back three centuries has been discovered during the construction for the Nordstream gas pipeline project. Scientists want the ship raised before any new work is started on the pipeline.
The ship was discovered in the Gulf of Finland near the island of Gogland, along with the remains of five other ships from a fleet of Russia’s ships which sank after a storm in 1713.
“It’s a so-called tjalk, a military transport ship built to Dutch blueprints,” said Andrey Lukoshkov, the consultant for the project. It was also the time when Sweden and Russia fought each other over supremacy in Europe’s North,” this he told a local TV station in St Petersburg.
The ship is small at only 16 meter-long. The ship lies 54 meters deep and is almost unaffected by the passage of time. The captain’s cabin even still has his personal possessions and tableware.
The tjalk is one of the few remaining vessels from the period when Tsar Peter the Great was creating Russia’s navy. Scientists are scambling to find funding to safely raise it to the surface and move it to a naval museum in Kaliningrad. (Link)
It must be done before the construction of the pipeline starts on the site, which would be certain to damage it.
This seems to me to be a very important find and I hope that they can get the funding to raise the ship.
Kyle & Svet
comments always welcome.
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