Scale: 1 cm = 35 cm
Batavia was built as a new return ship for the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC). The VOC’s ships were specially built to sail to Asia and back. They were small enough to cope with the Netherlands’ narrow waterways and sandbanks, but strong enough to last four or five round-trips between Asia and Europe.
Batavia’s upper deck was 160 Amsterdam feet long. One Amsterdam foot measured 0.28 m and was divided into 11 thumbs, making Batavia’s deck about 45 m long. Its total length was 56.6 m.
How many Amsterdam feet tall are you?
Builder’s notes
Designed by: Liam Tullett, Will Durkatz and Greg Koutoumis
Built By: Liam Tullett, Greg Koutoumis, Stephan Froden, Luke Cini and Gus McLaren
The most difficult aspect of the build were the masts and sails. Whilst using brickbuilt sails looks great, it does make them a lot heavier than cloth sails. This meant the masts had to be built using pieces with a hollow centre to allow for the addition of metal rods that run the length of the mast, all the way into the base, to keep the boat secure. For the sails, I designed them using plates facing outwards to achieve a smooth, flowing shape, and allowed the sails to be slightly filled by the wind.
The cutaway shows the cargo onboard the ship. All of the minifigs were a lot of fun to add, there's lots of animals, funny scenes and hidden details among the chaos! You can see Commander Fransico Persaert talking to Lucretia Jans, leaving merchant Jeronimus Corneliszoon to start planning a mutiny behind his back.
Building the details on the back of the boat was challenging as there aren't many specific detailed elements in gold. It meant we had to get creative, using unusual elements such as crowbars, roller skates and frogs! We also used an octagonal diamond tile in Transparent Opalescent, a new and very uncommon colour.
Model facts
- This model took 186 hours to make
- It uses 17,615 bricks
- It weighs 50 kilograms