Triplane (ship)
In shipping , three-decker is the name for the type of liner with three battery decks . This type of ship was in use from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The counting of the battery decks is independent of the number and counting of the ship decks. Variously (e.g. in the Swedish Svärdet (1662) ) the forecastle and bulwark are combined into one battery, or a ship with three decks only has two through batteries and additional guns on the forecastle and bulwark (e.g. the Dutch Gouden Leeuw (1666) ). That is why there can be different interpretations as to whether a ship is actually a three-decker or not.
The three-deckers are ships of the line of the 1st and 2nd rank . The only surviving example of a three-decker is Admiral Nelson's flagship , the HMS Victory .
There were also merchant ships of the English and Dutch East India Companies , which contemporaries referred to as triplane . In the second half of the 18th century, attempts were made to reduce the operating costs per freight in order to work more profitably with smaller profit margins and to be able to offer a wider range of goods from East Asia in Europe . One idea was to build individual ships larger and to close the Kuhl . This should both bring more goods per ship and voyage to Europe and the ship, cargo and crew should be less exposed to the elements. However, the acquisition and maintenance costs increased compared to previous return ships. That is why the three-decker merchant ships were unprofitable and were no longer used in this form after the Napoleonic Wars .
literature
- Ingrid G. Dillo: De nadagen van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie 1783-1795. Schepen en zeevarenden. Bataafsche Leeuw, Amsterdam 1992, ISBN 90-6707-296-6