Prins Willem
 The stern of replica Prins Willem | |
| Career (Dutch Republic) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Prins Willem |
| Owner: | Dutch East India Company |
| Launched: | 1649 |
| Fate: | Sank, 1662 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 700 tons |
| Length: | 42 m (137 ft 10 in) |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Armament: | 32 guns |
The Prins Willem (or Prins Willim) was the largest ship at the time of the Dutch East India Company (the VOC).
History
The ship Prins Willim was built in 1649 in Middelburg in the Netherlands and sank near Madagaskar in 1662.
Curiously, the name on the ship was Prins Willim. Two possible reasons have been advanced:
- the ship's name is Middle Dutch
- lack of space for the name caused the "e" to be changed to a shorter "i"
The ship was the flagship of Witte de With in the Battle of the Kentish Knock during the First Anglo-Dutch War.
Replica
A replica with the same name was built in 1984-85 at the Dutch shipyard Amels in Makkum for the Nagasaki Holland Village (長崎オランダ村 Nagasaki Oranda Mura) theme park in Seihi, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. The building cost was 1.4 billion yen. [1]
In 2003, Huis Ten Bosch K. K., the operating company of Nagasaki Holland Village declared bankruptcy and the replica was sold to a Dutch company for 130 million yen. [2] [3]
In 2004, the replica became part of the theme park Cape Holland in Den Helder, the Netherlands.
In 2009, the bowsprit of the Prins Willim replica was being restored.
On the morning of 30 July 2009, the replica was lost to fire, probably due to an electric malfunction. The owner of the ship, the Libéma company, was to decide on a restoration.[4]
References
- ↑ 長崎オランダ村の復元帆船全焼 母国帰還後、地元観光に貢献. 47NEWS (in Japanese) (Kyodo News). 2009-07-31. Retrieved 2014-05-21.
- ↑ シンボル帆船が母国へ ＨＴＢの資産売却で. 47NEWS (in Japanese) (Kyodo News). 2003-10-20. Retrieved 2014-05-21.
- ↑ 浮きドックで母国へ出帆 長崎オランダ村の復元帆船. 47NEWS (in Japanese) (Kyodo News). 2003-11-04. Retrieved 2014-05-21.
- ↑ "Verwoest VOC-schip mogelijk gerestaureerd". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). 2009-07-30. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prins Willem. |