![Chameaux mg 5072](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Chameaux_mg_5072.jpg)
A ship camel is an external flotation tank that can be fitted to a ship to increase her
buoyancy
Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the p ...
or reduce her
draught. Its inner walls may be concave and curve to fit the hull of the ship. The ship camels are partially sunk using water
ballast
Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within a boat, ship, ...
, fitted to the ship in opposed pairs, and the water is then pumped out again. The increased displaced volume provided by the camels allows the system to float at a reduced draught.
History
The ship camel was invented in 1690 by
Meeuwis Meindertsz Bakker to allow large
ships of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colum ...
to cross shallow banks that isolated the harbour of
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
from the open sea. In April, he tested the device with the large
ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...
''Princess Maria'', which was sailed over the shallow waters of
Pampus
Pampus () is an artificial island and late 19th-century sea fort located in the IJmeer near Amsterdam. Pampus now belongs to the municipality of Gooise Meren and is open to visitors.
Together with the artillery battery on the lighthouse isla ...
in the
Zuiderzee
The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (; old spelling ''Zuyderzee'' or ''Zuyder Zee'') was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km (60 miles) inland and at most 50 km (30 miles) wide, with an o ...
. The
Admiralty of Amsterdam
The Admiralty of Amsterdam was the largest of the five Dutch admiralties at the time of the Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven ...
awarded a reward to Bakker for his invention.
The camel was mostly used in the
Dutch Golden Age
The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...
for accessing the shallow waters at Pampus, which were unreachable for large merchant ships. Instead of a real ship camel, sometimes light (sailing) ships were used to lift a ship. The merchant ship was raised from the middle and after that, if the direction of the wind was successful, the ship could sail on to
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. The difficulties of getting stuck in the Zuiderzee led, in the beginning of the 19th century to build a canal through ''Waterland'' (a Dutch region) and
Marken
Marken (; Marken's dialect: ''Mereke'') is a village in the municipality of Waterland in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It had a population of 1,745 as of 2021, and occupies a peninsula in the Markermeer. It was, until 1957, an isla ...
. After failure of that project, the
Noordhollandsch Kanaal
The Noordhollandsch Kanaal ("Great North Holland Canal") is a canal originally meant for ocean-going ships. It is located in North Holland, Netherlands. The canal was of great significance in Dutch history.
Location
The canal is about 75 ki ...
was dug.
In the early 19th century, French engineer
Mathurin-François Boucher
Mathurin François Boucher ( Nantes, 22 November 1778 – Marseille, 31 March 1851) was a French naval engineer. He is notable for his adaptation of the technique of ship camel to large 74-guns, and for designing the ''Surveillante'' class of 60- ...
went to Holland to study the system, and successfully applied it on the
74-gun
The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...
ships
''Rivoli'' and
''Mont Saint-Bernard'', allowing construction of 74-gun ships in Venice harbour by lifting them to cross the pass of
Malamocco
Malamocco ( vec, Małamoco) was the first, and for a long time, the only settlement on the Lido of Venice barrier island of the Lagoon of Venice. It is located just south of the island's center and it is part of the Lido-Pellestrina borough of t ...
.
In
C. S. Forester
Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (27 August 1899 – 2 April 1966), known by his pen name Cecil Scott "C. S." Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series depicting a Roya ...
's 1945 novel ''
The Commodore
''The Commodore'' (published 1945) is a Horatio Hornblower novel written by C. S. Forester. It was published in the United States under the title ''Commodore Hornblower''.
Plot summary
Having achieved fame and financial security, Captain Sir ...
'', set in 1812, one of the vessels under the command of
Horatio Hornblower
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films, radio and television programmes, an ...
uses camels to reduce its draught during bombardment of French troops besieging
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
in the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
.
Ship camels were also used on the barge
''Louqsor'' to facilitate her crossing of
Bogaz.
[''Neptunia'' n°263, Septembre 2011]
See also
*
Sponson
Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing.
Watercraft
On watercraft, a spon ...
Sources and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
The sailing routes of the VOC*{{in lang, nl}
Water transport in the Netherlands
Portages
Nautical terminology
Buoyancy devices