2012-2014

Because Iziko Museums acted insensitively with Robert Lightley’s model – a true work of art – of the yacht Goede Hoop, by exhibiting it as a slave ship in a weak, unimaginative representation of slavery in their Slave Lodge Museum, the VOC Foundation’s management committee in 2012 decided to have a scale model of the ship Mermaid made and donated to the museum for the sake of Education and Faithfulness (or Truth).

The project leader was Piet Westra.

Prints of the real building plans were requested from the National Archives in The Hague, and presented to the model builder Brian Donelly from Plumstead ( brianships@gmail.com ); his quote for a 1: 36 scale model was R90,000. Of this, R… was contributed by the Van Ewijk Foundation, the rest was collected by the VOC Foundation by asking visitors who attend our free lectures, voluntary contributions of R20.

The glass case was a gift from the Simon van der Stel Foundation of Cape Town. Iziko Museums was asked to take the model into custody on loan. (See letter to Lalou Meltzer.) The official handover took place in November 2013.