[MOC] 8-gun early pirate fluyt 'Anne Boleyn's Ghost'

[SteamSewnEmpire]

I've never seen one of these in Lego before, so I may be (close to?) breaking some ground here. Initial fluyts had a lot in common with galleons, featuring the same bow form (a 'beak' prow and high forecastle), though with far more pronounced tumblehome sides, and characteristically (almost absurdly) rounded pear-shaped stern. Later ships dispensed with the first front-end entirely and went with more of a bluff bow boasting barely any increase in height (if at all) over the central rails. On the advice of my wife, I decided to go with the earlier version because it was more distinct. 

I'm not sure why fluyts aren't more popular in Lego. They were the design that essentially single-handedly allowed for the Dutch to become a maritime power, and gave several centuries of stirling trade service. While terrible warships at-face (they were one of the few purpose-built trade ships of the renaissance, and normally mounted few [if any] cannon), my guess is that a fair number of them found their way into the hands of pirates regardless. Traders-turned-buccaneers would have at least been extremely familiar with the ships, and probably found them easy sailers, that had a low risk-to-reward ratio when faced with battle (it's a fluyt, not a big brig or baby frigate - if it sank and you made money, who cares?)

[JintaiZ]

Fantastic build!

[Jack Sassy]

When talking about ships, fluyts aren't very popular to talk about, it's possible maybe because they weren't used internationally (i'm not sure). They look indeed very similar to a galeon, so that might mistake them both. Anyway, good job on making this model, I like the simple look it gives off, I can see where you took inspiration from on this design besides the fluyts themselves

[Wurger49]

I like how you exaggerated pear shaped hull. interesting fact from wiki

"The pear-shaped vessel had a large cargo bay near the waterline and a relatively narrow deck above. In part, this design served to avoid high taxes collected by Denmark in the Øresund, assessed based on the area of the main deck. "