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Some of my model ships

shipbuilder said:
Thanks - Everything I know about model building, I have put into writing downloads over many years.
I am too old to build them now, having become allergic to glue fumes - aged 81.
I have written many downloads, a lot of which of which cost less than the price of a cup of coffee. Here is the complete catalogue. Click on any front page to read the synopsis, and if you wish to purchase, a button for Paypal or cards is included in the synopsis. They cover beginners, to well-established ship modellers, but I can assure you that building miniatures is far easier than big ones, and merchant ships are far easier than warships, whilst sailing merchantment are the easiest of the lot
I was never obsessed with them, and rarely spent more than an hour a day building them. I started miniatures during my 31-year sea career, early 1961 - late 1992.
Regards
Robert
https://payhip.com/Shipbuilder/collection/miniature-merchant-ship-construction-history
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a thousand thanks for the link... something i will be looking at very soon.
 
I purchased Robert's guide called "Miniature Steam and Motor Ship Modelling" a long time ago and I have built the Glenmoor in the previous page of this thread following that publication.
I was also able to build my own selected cruise ships using the instructions from the guides. His downloads come highly recommended.
Initially I thought that it couldn't be done but that quickly changed when I read his easy to follow guides.
Besides, his downloads make a very good read even if you do not plan to use them.
 
shipbuilder said:
Loch Torridon
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Another beautiful ship!

I have taken to finding out a little bit of the history of the models you have been posting. I thought other SOS members would like to share the information out of interest: Loch Torridon, Builders Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd (Glasgow) for Owners James Aitken & Sam Macfarlane, Glasgow. 2081 gtn. Launched 9/11/1881. Considered one of the finest four masted ships of her day. Converted to a Barque in 1892 she was dismasted in a storm on a passage from Fredriksstad for Geelong with a cargo of timber and abandoned on 24/01/1915 and sank. The crew were rescued by PSNC liner ORDUNA.
 
Robert,
I recently picked up a number of old Model Shipwright magazines.
It’s wonderful to read your build articles from years ago.
Thank you so much for your contribution to the ship model world.
You and I both being seafarers years ago makes me wish we could meet up and share stories of the ocean and model building.
Thank you sir.
 
Jerome said:
Robert,
I recently picked up a number of old Model Shipwright magazines.
It’s wonderful to read your build articles from years ago.
Thank you so much for your contribution to the ship model world.
You and I both being seafarers years ago makes me wish we could meet up and share stories of the ocean and model building.
Thank you sir.
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Thank you,
Meeting would be very unlikely as you are in the US and I am in the UK, I am pretty much "washed up" these days and rarely even go out (age 81). Robert
 
shipbuilder said:
Thank you,
I have always preferred merchant ships because of their interesting histories. One sea battle was pretty much like another to me, but some of the incidents that merchant ships were involved in were often almost unbelievable!
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I Agree! Reading some of the histories of some of the clippers and merchant ships is scary reading at times! Stories of the ships being knocked over onto their beam ends in storms and running with the spars in the water or being dismasted in the middle of the ocean and having to nurse the ship to safety over hundreds or thousands of miles. They were brave men. I will post a couple of sentences on the histories that I have found for some of the models you have already posted, I think it will be interesting for fellow modellers. At the moment I am snowed under but as soon as I have some spare time I will do that.
 
shipbuilder said:
I'll be chewing salted horse, and biting flinty bread,
And standing with the stars to watch, upon the forecastle head,
Where I'll listen to the bow wash, and the welter of the tread,
Of a thousand tons of clipper running free.
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Another fine ship! She met her fate like many merchant sailing ships of the day and had a very sad end.

The Phasis: Builders Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Whiteinch (Glasgow). Owners Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Whiteinch (Glasgow). She was a fully rigged iron hulled ship of 1564 gt. Launched in 1880 the vessel ran aground on Royal Charlotte Shoal when on route from Sourabaya to Manila in ballast. She was abandoned by her crew and sank on 10/9/1897
 
DomCee said:
Another fine ship! She met her fate like many merchant sailing ships of the day and had a very sad end.

The Phasis: Builders Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Whiteinch (Glasgow). Owners Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Whiteinch (Glasgow). She was a fully rigged iron hulled ship of 1564 gt. Launched in 1880 the vessel ran aground on Royal Charlotte Shoal when on route from Sourabaya to Manila in ballast. She was abandoned by her crew and sank on 10/9/1897
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It is refreshing to see someone else interested in the history of such ships.

The following words were written by Frank Bullen in 1906, and hold true today:
I think it may justly be inferred that the public do not want to hear about the Mercantile Marine, are entirely indifferent to the status of its members, and are content to take all the benefits to them as they take light and air – as coming in the course of nature, with the management and production of which they have no concern.
This opinion is borne out by my experience throughout our islands as a lecturer on the subject. Talking from the platform, I can always interest my hearers in any phase of the sea without introducing the slightest element of fiction. But I cannot induce them to read the matter up, nor can I find any evidence of the subject having been studied, however cursorily, except by persons who are, or have been, directly connected with it!
This I cannot fail to lament as being, in view of the paramount importance of the subject, quite unnatural and unnecessary, more especially when I see the intense interest manifested by people of all ranks and grades of education in games such as football, cricket and bridge, and the amount of earnest thought expended upon acquiring information concerning them, not only in their present, but in their past history.
Moreover, I know personally working men who have lavished upon horse racing an amount of brain-power that, legitimately applied would have made them a fortune!

Frank T Bullen, 1906
 
shipbuilder said:
It is refreshing to see someone else interested in the history of such ships.

The following words were written by Frank Bullen in 1906, and hold true today:
I think it may justly be inferred that the public do not want to hear about the Mercantile Marine, are entirely indifferent to the status of its members, and are content to take all the benefits to them as they take light and air – as coming in the course of nature, with the management and production of which they have no concern.
This opinion is borne out by my experience throughout our islands as a lecturer on the subject. Talking from the platform, I can always interest my hearers in any phase of the sea without introducing the slightest element of fiction. But I cannot induce them to read the matter up, nor can I find any evidence of the subject having been studied, however cursorily, except by persons who are, or have been, directly connected with it!
This I cannot fail to lament as being, in view of the paramount importance of the subject, quite unnatural and unnecessary, more especially when I see the intense interest manifested by people of all ranks and grades of education in games such as football, cricket and bridge, and the amount of earnest thought expended upon acquiring information concerning them, not only in their present, but in their past history.
Moreover, I know personally working men who have lavished upon horse racing an amount of brain-power that, legitimately applied would have made them a fortune!

Frank T Bullen, 1906
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A well observed final sentence!


Just finding out a little bit of the history of the ships you have modelled is fascinating. So much history and adventure lost to the mists of time!
 
Bob,

This past weekend the Tall Ships visited Duluth, Minnesota where I live. This Summer they are visiting various ports on the Great Lakes. About a half dozen vessels including a replica Baltimore Clipper plus several smaller schooners. In recent years I have avoided this event as it has turned into a carnival. Of course our local news media included coverage on TV.

What did they show? A family visiting the event dressed in tacky Pirate costumes and food trucks. They also had a clip of the Baltimore Clipper with sails set but under power firing a cannon as she entered the harbor. And of course they touted the millions of dollars added to the coffers of the local merchants by the event.

The Great Lakes have a distinctive and interesting history. The existence of two of the three principal steel making ingredients, iron ore and limestone, near their shores means that the merchant shipping that delivered these cargos from the upper to the lower lakes was and still is essential to the economy of the USA and Canada.

Every November a Maritime History Conference is held in Duluth. It is a fund raiser for our local Maritime Museum, and features two days of speakers. One year I gave a talk about the Great Lakes Whaleback ship, the direct ancestor of the Doxford Turret Ship. While this event has much more to do with our local history than the Tall Ships it is ignored by our local news media. In the eyes of the present generation “It doesn’t have the same Vibe.” Sad!

Roger
 
I find this true as well.
Midcoast Maine has a wonderful maritime history.
Most are totally oblivious to it and really don’t care about learning any of it.
I’m one of the few in the area that has a strong maritime interest.
Mine has become more “worldly” as I find shipping even in day and age to be interesting.
Be it a lowly cargo ship in the far east to the modern behemoth container ship entering New York harbor.
It’s all of great interest to me.

I do dream of the clipper ship days.
I find it so lovely to think about some of the passages these ships made.
Days on end of sailing downwind with all the canvas spread by moonlight at night.
It must have felt like you had the best job in the world.
 
Thanks to Bob and all the above for illuminating the illustrious history and even romance of these ships and the people who manned them under the most demanding conditions and for rescuing them from the doldrums of prosaic history. Thumbsup Thumbsup :D
Much appreciated!
Pete
 
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