Our readers will probably remember the previous work of Yumi Watanabe from Japan, which reported on our website at the time, and which he did to create a 3D model of the ocean liner JUSTICIA (ex-STATENDAM II.) for the computer game Roblox called Tiny Sailor’s World. Well, the naval engineering student has since come up with a new project, this time reconstructing the plan-set for the giant steamship NETHERLAND (which was started to be built in 1914 for Belgian order, but ultimately cancelled due to the World War I.), and published it on November 1, 2025. Dr. Tamás Balogh, the president of our association asked him in an interview on this occasion.
T.B.: I find your latest work extremely interesting, since reconstructing the plans of ocean liners that were planned but ultimately not built is not a self-evident task at all. After all, the plans – if they have survived in any public collection – are likely not publically available, or can only be researched with difficulties (they are most likely stored in the unprocessed part of the public collection material). This is especially true in case when the ship’s plans were not finalized before the keel laying, and were modified during construction. This is also true in the case of NETHERLAND, whose construction history was previously known to readers of our association’s website. You have now published the result of your recent work, the reconstruction of the ship’s plan set, on November 1, 2025. With this, you were able to successfully complete a research project that lasted more than a year. Could you tell the readers why and how you started this work?
Y.W.: The history of the ocean liners built for the Low Countries - Belgium and the Netherlands - at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries has long interested me. When I contacted you in the summer of 2021, I was researching the history of JUSTICIA (ex-STATENDAM II.), the ship about which you wrote a book three years before that. In August 2024, I was working on obtaining a high-resolution copy of the STATENDAM plans when I wrote to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Northern Ireland, who informed me that they had general arrangement drawings of the decks of the cancelled ocean liner NETHERLAND in their collection. These documents are a real novelty for researchers, as they were not available at the time and have not been available since than, and the museum also said that they did not know when they would be digitized the set. However, they sent me photographs taken by the museum staff on the plans. Seeing these, I had the idea to use the images to reconstruct the plans of the NETHERLAND and share them with all those interested in order to make changes in public interpretation of the ship.
In addition, I was then in the second half of my first year at the university, where we have been tasked with creating something for our projects. Among the several sets of plans in my collection, such as those for Project 305 and Awa Maru, I chose to restore the NEDERLAND’s because of my deep attachment to the ships of the Low Countries. So, when I first learned of a fourth sister ship of the JUSTICIA, of the BELGENLAND, and of the later STATENDAM (III), my curiosity was immediately captured, despite the limited details that survived. The mystery surrounding her, only strengthened my determination to bring her back to life through careful reconstruction work, so I have decided to go with creating a rendition of the NEDERLAND from the retouched plans. I hoped that one day, someone might wish to model her in full form. Since you had made dozens of ship drawings, and I was curious about what you would suggest as to how I might be able to reconstruct the plans to a level suitable for modeling, I turned to you for advice in October 2024.
Fig. 1: The main parameters and building of the NEDERLAND in the initial stages of construction, and the almost fully completed double bottom (photo source: Ulster Folk and Transport Museum). Notice the ship under construction on the adjacent slipway, which is the BELGENLAND. In the background, another ship, the EURIPIDES, is visible.
T.B.: Which you managed to achieve essentially entirely on an independent way, as a result of a lot of detailed, thorough analytical work. In the case of NETHERLAND specifically, before the plans were identified in Belfast, very little information was available about the ship's structure and the general arrangement of her decks. What challenges you faced while achieving the result and how you were able to handle these challenges appropriately?
Y.W.: Recreating the NEDERLAND’s plans was a grueling yet deeply rewarding process. Working from limited and distorted source material, I set out to reconstruct what little remained of her design. I had possessed photocopies of the original plans for about a year in the fall of 2025, but had done little with them. In early September, I decided to publish them, though the condition of the surviving material meant they required significant cleanup. It became a matter of respect to present the NEDERLAND as accurately and beautifully as possible, preserving the essence of a vessel that might have been.
The NEDERLAND was intended to be the largest ship ever constructed for the Red Star Line. However, her construction was halted in the autumn of 1914 due to the outbreak of World War I. At the time of cancellation, the ship was still in the design stage, leaving several areas of the general arrangement unfinished or incomplete. This reconstruction of the NEDERLAND is based on surviving deck plans and incorporates design influences from several contemporary liners, including the BRITANNIC, JUSTICIA, BELGENLAND and STATENDAM (III). Due to the quality and condition of the original sources—photographic reproductions taken at varied angles—some adjustments and interpretive reconstruction were necessary to recreate the plans as accurately as possible. The analysis required for this was the bulk of the work. Once the analysis had answered a question, the rest of the work – the drawing – went quickly.
Fig. 2: Above are photographs of the general arrangement plans of NEDERLAND received from the research service of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, and below are the results of digital manipulation to eliminate distortions due to perspective (source: Yumi Watanabe).
Fig. 3: General arrangement drawings of NEDERLAND after digital corrections of distortion of perspective photos received from the museum. This drawing was the starting point for further work, which resulted the reconstructed plans shown on the right by September 2025 (source: Watanabe Yumi). (source: Watanabe Yumi).
By 7 September 2025, I had completed the boat deck and most parts of decks A and B, and by 15 September decks C-D and by 27 September decks E were also completed. A detailed analysis was necessary and some modification and fine-tuning needed based on its results in case of the aft hospital, the bowdeck and the third-class promenade on deck C, and in case of the area reserved for the aft third-class promenade and the forward crew accommodation, as well as the area around the anchor windlass on deck D. By the beginning of October, 90% of the work had been completed, and by the middle of the month the porthole mapping of the hull was also finalized. After that, only the reconstruction of the rigging plan was required, which was a particularly difficult task, since no such plan had survived in the plan set made for NEDERLAND.
During the reconstruction process, several issues were noted. For example, the hull had to be redrawn several times to correct for errors resulting from the varying quality of the reproductions of the original plans and the perspective distortion present in the source material, particularly a) in the aft part of the lower decks, around the ballast tanks, and at the forward third-class entrances and staircases, as well as b) at the stairs connecting the A-deck pantry to the first-class galley, and the crew compartments on F Deck to the engineers’ spaces on E Deck, and c) in some areas within the interchangeable classes. With these corrections, the size of the cabins on deck also changed.
T.B.: How did the analysis work on the critical parts proceed?
Y.W.: Regarding the layout of the pantry and the galley, the plans of BELGENLAND and the other two reference ships, JUSTICIA and STATENDAM (III), had to be compared. BELGENLAND had much more detailed and comprehensive general arrangement plans. These plans provided clear delineations for the many specialised rooms within the galleys, unlike those of JUSTICIA and STATENDAM (III), which were largely schematic and presented only the general layout of the spaces. Selecting which rooms to include and how to adapt them for the NEDERLAND proved to be an interesting challenge. The process began by listing the various rooms found aboard all three vessels and identifying the common features between them, while also striving to maintain the characteristic placements unique to each ship. Vegetable, meat, fish, and butcher rooms were typically grouped together between both galleys. Fruits and flowers were located close to refrigerated spaces, as seen on BELGENLAND and STATENDAM (III), where these rooms adjoined the meat or fish storage areas. Bakers and their ovens were positioned parallel to the pastry shop, which was placed nearby for operational efficiency. The BELGENLAND included a dedicated bread room, a feature absent from the other vessels. Bars were generally located at the corners of the galleys, while the coffee pantry occupied the forward section of the first-class galley or, in some layouts, the after end of the second-class galley like on the STATENDAM. The Chief Cook’s Office was situated on the starboard side, in the aft portion of the first-class galley or pantry.
Fig. 4: Analysis and analogies used to design the group of rooms in NEDERLAND's kitchen (bottom left). Top right: JUSTICA, middle: BELGENLAND, bottom: STATENDAM (III). (source: Watanabe Yumi).
Fig. 5: In the surviving original general arrangement plans of NEDERLAND shown above, only the outer boundary walls of the kitchen space are visible. This space had to be filled with content, as a result of the analysis shown in Fig. 4. This is how the theoretical reconstruction shown below was created (source: Watanabe Yumi).
T.B.: And what was the situation with the porthole-mapping, the rigging- and the machinery plans?
Y.W.: The porthole arrangements proved particularly difficult. By examining the patterns seen on the BELGENLAND and comparing them with JUSTICIA’s rigging and general arrangements, several consistencies were identified that influenced the final porthole layout aboard the NEDERLAND. One area of interest was the second-class promenade on C Deck, which, according to the surviving material, lacked a protective screen. In keeping with the JUSTICIA’s development history, where she was originally designed without a screen but later fitted with one during her outfitting phase, it was decided that the NEDERLAND would feature a similar design modification.
Fig. 6: Definition of the porthola arrangement. Above is the C-deck detail of the original general arrangement plan and longitudinal section of JUSTICIA with the 2nd Class promenade, and in the photo next to it is the windscreen portholes installed during the fitting out. Below left is the same part of the original general arrangement of NEDERLAND, and below left is the theoretical reconstruction corrected using the analogy (source: Watanabe Yumi).
When it came time to creating the ship’s profile and rigging plans, no original materials had survived. This made the process both challenging and interpretive. The rigging reconstruction was particularly intricate. To determine a plausible configuration, reference was made to the BRITANNIC, JUSTICIA, and BELGENLAND. The arrangement had to be mapped using surviving rigging plans, builders’ models and period photographs. Initially, I adopted a configuration similar to JUSTICIA’s; however, further analysis revealed that this design would have interfered with the operation of the cargo booms and gantry davits. Returning to the drawing board, BELGENLAND’s rigging plan proved more adaptable and was ultimately selected as the foundation for the NEDERLAND’s reconstruction. The placement of the cargo booms presented further complications. As no such fittings were shown on the ship’s surviving elevation plan, dimensions and arrangements were derived from JUSTICIA. The NEDERLAND was therefore designed with 45-foot (13,7 m) long derrick booms and 60-foot (18,3 m) long main booms. Their stowage posed a design challenge, as their length conflicted with adjacent fittings and lifeboat davits. After several iterations, an optimal—albeit slightly unconventional—stowage configuration was devised to maintain visual balance and operational practicality.
Fig. 7: The rigging plan of the NEDERLAND, influenced by the general arrangement of the JUSTICIA (top left) and BELGENLAND (top right) (source: Watanabe Yumi).
NEDERLAND’s propulsion system was of particular interest, as evidence suggests she would have shared similar—if not identical—machinery to that installed aboard the BELGENLAND and JUSTICIA.
Fig. 8.: Comparison of JUSTICIA, BELGENLAND, and NEDERLAND's boiler- and engine rooms according to their respective general arrangement plans.
The NEDERLAND was designed to feature twelve double-ended boilers, divided into three evenly arranged compartments. The boilers would have supplied steam to a combination of triple-expansion engines and a central low-pressure steam turbine. With such an arrangement, NEDERLAND likely would have demonstrated performance comparable to her contemporaries. Her cruiser stern, a more hydrodynamically refined feature than the counter sterns seen on JUSTICIA, would have allowed for improved water flow and potentially enhanced propulsion efficiency. Judging from the operational speeds of ships of similar tonnage and machinery, NEDERLAND would probably have achieved a service speed equivalent to that of JUSTICIA, possibly with marginally better fuel economy and smoother handling at sea.
After completing these researching-, evaluating- and drawing work processes, the final reconstructed set of plans was put together, which everyone can see to get an idea of what this ship would have looked like if she had been built.
Fig. 9: The reconstructed set of general arrangement plans of the NEDERLAND (source: Watanabe Yumi).
Fig. 10: The reconstructed rigging plan of NEDERLAND (source: Yumi Watanabe).
Fig. 11: The exquisite profile of the NEDERLAND. Work of Yumi Watanabe.
T.B.: Now, there was nothing left to me but to thank Watanabe Yumi for being at my disposal for this interview and for his work, which has produced truly great results. I am glad to have been able to report on it. It is an honor, as I will always remember the letter he wrote to me in 2024 after I was able to present his work on the 3D model of JUSTICIA (ex-STATENDAM II.) to the public in a similar way to what I am doing now in case of his NEDERLAND-reconstruction:
„Dear Dr. Balogh, I am deeply touched by your articles, seeing how I went from such a small enthusiast to my position now, collecting various pieces of data from all over. I couldn't be more grateful for your work in the beginning, had you not published it before, I would've taken a whole different career. ...no words can explain my joy. Because of this, I have gained the motivation and encouragement to pursue writing more articles on ships. Some in mind are the series of the 3-funneled ships of the Low Countries (Justicia, Belgenland, Nederland, and Statendam). [...] I will continue to research through my years in university and I hope to one day publish a book of my own.”
I am convinced that Yumi Watanabe, with his great work in the reconstruction of the NEDERLAND plans, has taken another important step towards achieving his goals mentioned in his letter. I wish him continued good work and fruitful research!
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