Delfinen (the Dolphin)

About the object

• Description
  In 1783 King Gustaf III travelled to Italy. In Venice he was taken on a tour in a gold-ornamented gallery. The king also watched a splendid spectacle in the form of a regatta on the Canal Grande. A great number of decorated boats and gondolas assembled well before noon. At two o'clock in the afternoon boats with Venetian nobelme...

  In 1783 King Gustaf III travelled to Italy. In Venice he was taken on a tour in a gold-ornamented gallery. The king also watched a splendid spectacle in the form of a regatta on the Canal Grande. A great number of decorated boats and gondolas assembled well before noon. At two o'clock in the afternoon boats with Venetian nobelmen came to pick up the king and his entourage to see the regatta. The boats were decorated with silk, canopies, parasols and flowers. The rowers were dressed in silk and adorned with silver. "The spectacel was vivid, full of splendor and distinctive character and quite dazzling", as Gundmund Jöran Adlerbeth writes in his diary from the journet. King Gustav III was very much impressed.

  I order to supreise the king, master ship builder Fredrik Henrik af Chapman had "two pleasure vessels for Haga" built. Haga was a rural ground, north of Stockholm, where Gustav III at the time was creating a royal rank park. The "gondolas" were probably built in 1785 or 1786, and the heads of the boats were in all certainty made by the sculptor Hohan Törnström.

  The king was "infinitley pleased", and the sloops came to be used frequently on the Brunnsviken and off Drottningholm. For rowing, boatsmen commandeered from the navy were used. The boar have been called sloops, pleasure vessels or gondolas depending on where they mentioned. The shields were originally 24 in number, with motifs from antiquity and from the twelve labors of Heracles.

  After the assassination of Gustav III the sloops were forgotten and rarley used until they were pun into service again for a while during the reign of Karl XV (1859-1872). Since then, they have been stored at various places, e g near the copper tents at Haga, on Skeppsholmen and, since 1966, in the collections of the National Maritime Museum.

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• DesignationRoddslup
• Precise designationSalsslup, roddbåt för sällskap, lustbåt
• IdentifierO 00145
• Avbildad namnDELFINEN (1787)
  • ProfessionLustbåt
  • Alternative namesValfisken
  • Other informationRederi: Statens Maritima Museer || :: Varv: Örlogsvarvet, Karlskrona || :: Konstruktör: af Chapman Fredrik Henrik || :: Bredd över allt 2,9 meter || :: Längd över allt 10,0 meter || ::
  • DigitaltMuseumSearch in «DELFINEN»
• Indexing termSALSSLUP , roddbåt för sällskap, lustbåt
• Type Thing

• Dimensions value
  • Width2900.0 mm
  • Length10000.0 mm
  • HeightHöjd (akter) 2500, höjd (för) 2700, höjd (köl-däckhus) 1800 mm.0.0 mm
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• MaterialsMetall Trä

• ColourMångfärgad, förgylld

• TechniquesKlinkbyggd

• Other informationByggår: 1787