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Zeemeter or Tobacco box of Pieter Holm

Dutch seaman's tobacco box or Dutch log by Pieter Holm with the inscription 'Recht door Zee'

Type of object:

Other instruments

Time period:

Gouden eeuw Nederland

Place:

Dutch

Date:

1729

Maker / Author:

Peter Holm

Publisher / Printer:

idem

Dimensions:

3,3x17x4,7 cm

Material:

Brass

Graduation:

Inscription:

'Regt door Zee' and 'Den eeuwigh duerende almanack'

Provenance:

References:

Scientific instruments Harriet Wynter, page 89, idem box with same inscriptions, from 1759
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/42937.html

Image by Austin Neill

Description

Dutch seaman's tobacco box of Pieter Holm, also known as the Dutchman’s Log, with a perpetual calendar on the top of the lid and a ship’s speed table on the bottom. In a publication of 1748 Holm claims to have devised this table in 1729. The top of the lid is further adorned with simple vignettes portraying Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII, who respectively in 45 BC and AD 1582 introduced the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar. The bottom carries a simple vignette of a person with a globe and a pair of dividers with the year 1497 who is tentatively identified as Amerigo Vespucci.
Beneath this is a table for calculating the speed of a ship against the time taken by a chip of wood tossed over the side to pass the distance of 40 ft between two marks on the vessel’s side.
On the bottom a short Dutch text, ‘Den eeuwigh duerende almanack’ (“The ever-lasting almanac”).
And on the frontside, ‘Regt door Zee’. (“Sail a Straight Course”).
‘Recht door Zee’ is also the name of his school he started in Antwerp after he retired in 1750
This box is of 1729, see the lid bottom right, and one of the first Holm has made.

Additional information

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