'Emma' - A Diorama making use of the sloop-rigged smack kit, Emma C Berry (1866), from Model Shipways, 1/32 Scale.

AndyA said:
While boats are sometimes wrecked in storms, the vast majority of those found ashore were abandoned by their owners because they were no longer economically viable. Smaller boats are towed up a creek by their owners.
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While looking for photos of derelict boats I read a news item from the UK describing this practice which is becoming a bit of a pest in some areas. Rising mooring fees etc are supposedly making people dump their boats all over the waterways. In fact there's always been a rotting vessel on any canal or river I've strolled along. It's not a new thing.

That will be my backstory for Emma herself. I don't know what a shipwreck would look like but the gentle collapse of a wooden structure, be it boat or shed, is familiar - quite difficult to capture but familiar at least.

AndyA said:
I remember from my visit to Wiscasset that there was a seafood shack close by to provide for visitors who came to view the schooners. You may consider including one in your diorama. The 2 pics below show typical New England seafood shacks. I have eaten at the Seaview on visits to Mystic CT. Maybe the ol' skipper is now serving fried clam bellies to rusticators in your script. Fair winds!
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Your post sent me out for fish and chips at lunchtime today! The cod was good but lobster here. :confused:
 
A big Thank You! to everyone who pitched in with a comment in the last 24 hours. You have all helped me to decide how to set the scene.

I'm currently favouring the old man and one child. The elder is looking at the bows, maybe reaching out an arm to touch the boat and the youngster is at the tiller. They are both wearing captain's caps. They can't see each other and there's no indication that they are aware of each other.

Are they perhaps the same person? Is the child real or merely the old man's memory of his own childhood? "I've looked at boats from both ends now..."

Another interpretation might be that both characters are imagining the boat as she used to be, rather than as she currently is. The child looks forward in time to his own boat (?) while the old man looks back. The triumph of the imagination.

But first catch your hare, or in this case, build your boat. Coming soon to a screen near you...
 
Smithy said:
I really don't know why Europe changed to the far more complicated metric system. Whatever were we thinking?
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That was all down to Napoleon Bonaparte. Not so complicated really, and at almost 80, having grown up using Imperial inches (not to mention Rods, Poles, Chains and Perches I find myself happy using either. If you remember 25mm=1" and 1mm= 40 thou you wont go wrong.

Incidentally, around 40 years ago I made a couple of prototype pieces of furniture for a company delightfully called 'Marcel & Monty' in Paris. I made all the drawings and materials using metric units. I got a message from them asking 'Why is this all in mm? We use feet and inches!' . Apparently this was because most French cabinetmakers (ebenistes) at the time of the revolution were royalist refusenicks and vowed they would never metricate to spite Boney.
 
Smithy said:
I'd be very interested to hear your preferences.
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I love plan A mate.
In class, counting the hours to their weekends "down by the old boat again"
A secret amongst school pals, building stories they will remember when they sit their own grandkids on their knee.
"I remember when I was your age, there was this wonderful old boat............."
The old man in the background, remembering his times at sea, watching those kids play, watching his dear Emma coming alive again in those kids dreams, and knowing she'll be loving every minute.
Love it mate, brilliant.
 
Smithy said:
I like the idea of simplicity. It might make the scene easier to read and at the same time open to different interpretations if there were fewer characters. How about thr old man and only one child. the elder is looking at the bows, maybe reaching out an arm to touch the boat and the youngster is at the tiller. They are both wearing captain's caps but they can't see each other and there's no indication that they are aware of each other. Are they the same person?
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I like that idea.
 
Smithy said:
A big Thank You! to everyone who pitched in with a comment in the last 24 hours. You have all helped me to decide how to set the scene.

I'm currently favouring the old man and one child. The elder is looking at the bows, maybe reaching out an arm to touch the boat and the youngster is at the tiller. They are both wearing captain's caps. They can't see each other and there's no indication that they are aware of each other.

Are they perhaps the same person? Is the child real or merely the old man's memory of his own childhood? "I've looked at boats from both ends now..."

Another interpretation might be that both characters are imagining the boat as she used to be, rather than as she currently is. The child looks forward in time to his own boat (?) while the old man looks back. The triumph of the imagination.

But first catch your hare, or in this case, build your boat. Coming soon to a screen near you...
Click to expand...
Love the sly period (ours) Joni Mitchell reference.
 
Jimsky said:
The future Captain reminds me a villager (from Russian revolution 1917) ;)

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I had to do a term paper on the (obscure) Russian Social Realist painter Illya Rapin assigned to me by Dr Govorchin for my "History of Tzarist Russia" class at the University of Miami in1966. My paper wasn't so hot. Too bad we didn't have the internet back then. The class was brilliant, however, as was Dr. Govorchin, the lecturer (who looked like Boris Karloff and had an accent like Lawrence Welk). He only looked at his notes once, during one lecture the entire semester (a stack of 3x5 cards on his desk. He never sat but always walked about or sat on the edge of the desk.). He paused, mid-sentence, glanced at one of the cards, mused "...yes, I thought I was right..." then continued on with the lecture.
 
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