Plan of a gun pontoon

Title Leupe: Plan van een flotante Batterie à 1 Canon 24 pond en 1 Mortier, geprojecteerd ter defensie van 't rivier Suriname enz.

This draft is part of a series of ‘plans of obstruction’ made after 1780 (see VEL2020-2027). Important to this obstruction were designs for cannonboats or 'canoniere' which moved by sails or oars to hinder hostile vessels. The shallow draught of the boats were an advantage over most other ships when tide was low. Nonetheless, the balance between maneuverability and a shallow draught was difficult to maintain. The armament in this design seems far too heavy, also in the literal sense, for the light, unstable pontoon craft with a low freeboard and shallow draught, even if they would be considerably ballasted. The relatively thin sides would have offered the cannoneers no protection at all, and apparently the pontoons were unable to sail under their own power. This plan was presented in 1793 and never put into effect. The cartographic style allows for an almost certain attribution to Johann Friedrich Ferdinand Wollant. Next to the designs of boats, plans were made for obstructions using floating trunks equipped with spikes which would be placed in the river using anchors.

Scale-bar of 30 Rhineland feet = [approximately 1 : 75].