the Boat

For a long time I have been fascinated by boats, large passenger boats.
When I was younger I often used to visit the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam.

I enjoyed looking at the shipping models in the museum. Especially the models made of ships from the late 1930’s. Those ships offered the
fastest connection between New York and the rest of the world then. They were fascinating.

For some, the ships offered an escape who were looking for a new life somewhere else; for others a luxurious way to travel. The ships were also
an essential part of an international postal network.

I liked the contours of those vessels very much. That’s why I chose the SS Nieuwe Amsterdam as starting point for a project proposal: a full
scale representation of the contours of this boat, realized in steel: 10 meters wide, 6 meters deep, almost 250 meters long, and 45 meters high.
Initial calculations revealed that such a line could be built. Although the project received a warm welcome and might possibly have become a
Rotterdam landmark, in spite of hundreds of meetings, The Boat has not been realized yet.