BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Annapolis -- US Naval Academy -- Museum -- Ship Models

MD -- Annapolis -- US Naval Academy -- Museum -- Ship Models:

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$Recruiting & Disciplining the Crew: Manning the fleet was a perennial problem in the Royal Navy. Boys as young as twelve years old often volunteered in search of adventure, while other youngsters were recruited from poor families or orphanages and thus "bred to the sea." Some men were lured to the Navy by the promise of prize money or to collect a substantial recruitment bounty. Their numbers notwithstanding, the constant need for seamen, especially in times of war, forced the Navy time and again to resort to impressment -- a system in which groups of sailors were authorized to seize able-bodied landsmen and merchant seamen and force them into His Majesty's Navy, often for years at a time. To control the surly crews that resulted, stern measures were enacted to punish infractions of the Articles of War. The ship's captain was normally both judge and jury. Punishments ranged from confining the guilty party in irons or stopping his daily ration of run to tying the culprit to a hatch grating and flogging his back with twelve or more lashes of the dreaded "cat-o'-nine-tails." As Adam Smith observed in "The Wealth of Nations" (1776), the life of a seaman in the Age of Sail was "one continual scene of danger and hardship." This chart reveals a shocking statistic more than 93 percent of all fatalities in the Royal Navy during the Wars of the French Revolution and Empire resulted from non combat-related illness or accidents. <table class="ol"><tbody> <tr><th colspan=3>Estimated Fatal Casualties in the Royal Navy, 1793-1815:</th></tr> <tr><td>Cause of death<td>Number<td>Percentage</tr> <tr><td>Individual and non-combative<br>(disease & personal accidents)<td>84,440<td>81.5</tr> <tr><td>Collective, non-combative<br>(foundering, shipwreck, fire & explosion)<td>12,680<td>12.2</tr> <tr><td>Enemy action<td>6,540<td>6.3</tr> <tr><td>Total<td>103,660<td>100</tr> </tbody></table> The press gang was an important means of manning the Royal Navy during periods of armed conflict. Throughout the 18th century, crew members were sent to round up new men for their ships, by force if necessary. Though widely deplored, it was considered an unfortunate necessity by those in office. Between 1799 and 1812, an estimated 9,991 men claiming American citizenry were pressed into service by Britain's Royal Navy, then engaged in the Napoleolic [sic] Wars. On June 22, 1807, the infamous encounter between the USS Chesapeake and HMS Leopard took place where four sailors were forcibly removed from the Chesapeake. British impressment was among the reasons for Congress's declaration of War in 1812. Naval Manuals: Although much sea lore was passed through oral tradition, numerous books were available on all aspects of ship building and ship handling. Perhaps the most famous of these works was David Steel's "The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship" first published in 1794. Virtually every dimension of every line and spar in every class of ship and boat in the Royal Navy is identified. Other works focused on more limited, and more technical subjects. ...$

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1]

") are described as follows:

NAMUMO_110206_004.JPG: Ship Models from the Age of Sail: From about 1600 until the end of the Age of Sail in the 1830s, English shipwright-modelers built large numbers of scale-model ships known today as dockyard models. Not only are they beautiful works of art, but because they were built at the same time and place as the ships they depict, dockyard models also serve as invaluable sources of information about how sailing men-of-war were designed, fitted out, and decorated. Only a handful of the actual ships remain, but more than four hundred contemporary English models have survived, fifty of them here at Annapolis. Taken together, they reliably illustrate virtually every facet of the shipwright's trade in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. All but one of the dockyard models and most of the French prisoner-of-war models on exhibit came to the Naval Academy in 1938 as a bequest of Colonel Henry H Rogers of Southampton, New York. They are organized to held illuminate numerous facets of daily life in England's Royal Navy, both at sea and in the Royal Dockyards where the King's ships were built and maintained. Colonel Rogers: Most of the models in this gallery came to the Naval Academy in 1938 as a bequest from Colonel Henry Huddleston Rogers (1879-1935). A prominent American industrialist, he also pursued a distinguished military career as an artillery officer in the New York National Guard. Rogers developed his passionate interest in historic ship models during the First World War. He steadily enlarged his collection in the 1920s through purchases from private families and antique dealers on both sides of the Atlantic. Chief among his possessions were his nearly fifty dockyard models, along with nine rare William and Mary display cases from c 1700. However, he also collected outstanding examples of 18th-century clipper ships, whalers, and merchantmen, plus twenty wood and bone models from the Napoleonic Era. This gallery is a tribute to Colonel Rogers' achievement, displaying his models as he would have wished, "for the public benefit." Ship Building Manuals: The Naval Academy Museum is fortunate to have in its collection a number of rare books published in the 1600s and 1700s on the subject of shipbuilding. These include examples written not only in English, but in French and Dutch as well. As these examples show, many of the early texts were lavishly illustrated, and all are full of complex mathematical calculations.
NAMUMO_110206_031.JPG: The Model Builders: Despite their remarkable skills, the craftsmen who built British dockyard models were so far down the social totem pole that very little was recorded about them. What we do know today has come about largely from the recent discovery of tantalizing notes and signatures hidden in the interiors of a handful of models, including several in Annapolis. George Stockwell and his son of the same name, for example, both placed notes in models they constructed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The private modeler Allen Hunt liked to put business cards in his models! And in the late 1720s, two young apprentice shipwrights from Portsmouth Dockyard secretly wrote their names inside the Naval Academy's Model No 22. Armed with this information, researchers have shed new light on the men who created England's dockyard models centuries ago.
NAMUMO_110206_042.JPG: Ship Model Maker's Shop (1700): Authorities today believe that when a Master Shipwright was ordered to produce a fine dockyard model of the ship he was building, he or his Assistant hand-picked one or more shipwrights who were not only adept at working in miniature but who thoroughly knew every phase of ship construction from the keel up. They were presumably given a place to work -- a shed or hut on the grounds of the dockyard -- and provided with the necessary materiel and tools, plus an exact copy of the building draught used to construct the full-scale ship. The best of the model makers were authorized one or more apprentices, but otherwise they were paid only their regular shipwright's salary. When a model was finished, it was given to its new owner and the modelers either returned to their regular jobs as shipwrights or set to work on another dockyard model. Below Decks on a Model: Since the 1980s, curators have been examining the interior spaces of dockyard models with modern fiber optic tools, mainly industrial borescopes and surgical arthroscopes. ... Fighting at Close Quarters: Ships' cannon had an effective range of about a mile and a half; carronades about 400 yards. But, if two ships came within close range, small arms could create havoc on an enemy's decks. In the event the two ships became entangled, boarders might carry the day with a variety of edged weapons or even the use of belaying pins as clubs.
NAMUMO_110206_061.JPG: Elements of Rigging: To those not accustomed to sailing ships, the spider web of rigging seems almost incomprehensible; to the sailor, every line is understandable and functional. Rigging has three basic purposes: it supports the masts, it raises or lowers the yards, and it controls the sails in maneuvering the ship. Rigging that does not move, such as the stays that hold the masts, is known as standing rigging and was generally coated with tar as a preservative. Running rigging is left natural so that it remains flexible and moves easily through the blocks, or pulleys, that can be easily belayed, or secured to a belaying pin. In the mid-1700s, it could take two-and-a-half years to build a 74-gun ship of the line, but in two weeks the masts could be stepped and all of the rigging set up ready for sea.

NAMUMO_110206_100.JPG: Recruiting & Disciplining the Crew: Manning the fleet was a perennial problem in the Royal Navy. Boys as young as twelve years old often volunteered in search of adventure, while other youngsters were recruited from poor families or orphanages and thus "bred to the sea." Some men were lured to the Navy by the promise of prize money or to collect a substantial recruitment bounty. Their numbers notwithstanding, the constant need for seamen, especially in times of war, forced the Navy time and again to resort to impressment -- a system in which groups of sailors were authorized to seize able-bodied landsmen and merchant seamen and force them into His Majesty's Navy, often for years at a time. To control the surly crews that resulted, stern measures were enacted to punish infractions of the Articles of War. The ship's captain was normally both judge and jury. Punishments ranged from confining the guilty party in irons or stopping his daily ration of run to tying the culprit to a hatch grating and flogging his back with twelve or more lashes of the dreaded "cat-o'-nine-tails." As Adam Smith observed in "The Wealth of Nations" (1776), the life of a seaman in the Age of Sail was "one continual scene of danger and hardship." This chart reveals a shocking statistic more than 93 percent of all fatalities in the Royal Navy during the Wars of the French Revolution and Empire resulted from non combat-related illness or accidents.

Estimated Fatal Casualties in the Royal Navy, 1793-1815:
Cause of death	Number	Percentage
Individual and non-combative (disease & personal accidents)	84,440	81.5
Collective, non-combative (foundering, shipwreck, fire & explosion)	12,680	12.2
Enemy action	6,540	6.3
Total	103,660	100

The press gang was an important means of manning the Royal Navy during periods of armed conflict. Throughout the 18th century, crew members were sent to round up new men for their ships, by force if necessary. Though widely deplored, it was considered an unfortunate necessity by those in office. Between 1799 and 1812, an estimated 9,991 men claiming American citizenry were pressed into service by Britain's Royal Navy, then engaged in the Napoleolic [sic] Wars. On June 22, 1807, the infamous encounter between the USS Chesapeake and HMS Leopard took place where four sailors were forcibly removed from the Chesapeake. British impressment was among the reasons for Congress's declaration of War in 1812. Naval Manuals: Although much sea lore was passed through oral tradition, numerous books were available on all aspects of ship building and ship handling. Perhaps the most famous of these works was David Steel's "The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship" first published in 1794. Virtually every dimension of every line and spar in every class of ship and boat in the Royal Navy is identified. Other works focused on more limited, and more technical subjects. ...

NAMUMO_110206_122.JPG: The Capstan: The object, that looks like a hub with spokes sticking out, is a capstan, a device that used human power to hoist the anchor or lift heavy spars.... Location of Capstans: Almost every vessel of any size would have one or more captains. In the Royal Navy, their placement was determined by need, custom, and Navy regulations. To give an idea of the number and location of captains on board the rated ships of the Navy, three models typical of one-, two-, or three-deckers are illustrated with the capstans indicated. ...
NAMUMO_110206_142.JPG: The Quarterdeck (1800): Being the realm of the officers, seamen visited the quarterdeck only on business or in the conduct of their duties. From this raised location, midshipmen would learn their naval skills, the officer of the watch would supervise the activities of the ship, and the captain would command in battle. In frigates and larger ships, the quarterdeck was armed with lighter guns, such as the cannonade,a short, lightweight gun of heavy caliber. Types of Shot: Ship-borne cannon and carronades fired a wide variety of specialized projectiles designed for specific purposes. Some, such as round shot, were designed to punch holes in the sides of a ship. Others, like bar shot and chain shot, were intended to disable an enemy ship by cutting up its sails and rigging. Grape shot and canister, which spread small projectiles like buckshot from a shotgun, were meant to kill the enemy. * A particularly effective anti-personnel weapon was a can filled with lead or iron balls called canister. Upon firing, the can disintegrated and the balls spread out in a cone shape, wreaking destruction in a wide swath. Grape shot was similar, but the balls were larger and bound in a canvas bag. * The weight of a round shot identifies the size of a cannon or carronade. A typical figure mounted 12- or 18-pounder long guns, whereas a ship of the line could mount 24- or 32-pounders as well as batteries of smaller guns.
NAMUMO_110206_182.JPG: The Tools of Navigation and Piloting: Navigation is the ability to find your location and adjust your course when out of sight of land; piloting is the safe maneuvering of your vessel using visual landmarks, knowledge of the depth of the water, and the character of the sea bottom. Over the centuries, many instruments have been developed to help seamen find their way. Determining Longitude: Sailors could determine their position north or south of the equator -- their latitude -- with reasonably accuracy by the 1400s. Determining their longitude -- their position east or west of a base line (the prime meridian in Greenwich, England) -- was a far harder task. As lives continued to be lost due to mistakes in navigation, in 1714 the British government offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to the first person who could devise instruments sufficiently accurate to provide a ship's longitude to within half-a-degree accuracy. An Englishman named John Harrison eventually solved the problem through his invention of not one, but four remarkable clocks. His early marine chronometers gave sailors the capability of keeping the time at sea accurate to within two minutes of the time in Greenwhich. With this information, they could then measure the angle of the sun or certain stars at a precise moment and, by consulting pre-printed mathematical tables, calculate their longitude. Signaling: Communication between ships at sea is difficult; the vessels must get close enough so that the captains can speak to one another or they must use some form of signals. Flags of various designs and colors have been used since antiquity and still undergo constant refinement. ... Navigation and Signaling (1750): It's no great feat to leave port in a ship and go to sea out of sight of land. What is critical is to be able to get to your destination, whether that is another port or to return home. Knowing the location, heading, and speed of a ship are vital to its safe navigation. Over many centuries, many tools have been developed to guide seamen in the wilderness of the sea. It is also important, especially for a naval commander, to relay orders for the effective maneuvering of the fleet or just to exchange information between ships. Signaling and communications were constantly refined and improved in the Age of Sail. New Treatise on Navigation: Pierre Bouguer was a brilliant 18th-century French mathematician who published important works on a variety of topics, many of which had to do with aspects of ship design and ship handling. His book, "Nouveau Traite de Navigation," or "New Treatise on Navigation," published in 1753, made important contributions to the theory and practice of navigating a ship out of sight of land.
NAMUMO_110206_191.JPG: The telescope, or long glass, was indispensable at sea for identifying other ships, reading signals, and identifying landmarks. This long glass was used by Danforth Nettleton, a captain of a clipper ship in 1867.
NAMUMO_110206_197.JPG: The nautical term for speed -- "knots" -- comes from the use of the chip log, the pie-shaped piece of wood attached to the light line with knots at set intervals. The log is dropped in the water and the line allowed to run free through the fingers of a sailor who counts the knots for a set amount of time.
NAMUMO_110206_228.JPG: Evolution of the Frigate: As is the case with most nautical terms, the meaning of "frigate" has changed over time. The word originated in the Mediterranean in the 15th Century. By the 17th, it described long, fast, lightly armed vessels. The classic frigate of the Napoleonic Wars, evolved from small two-decked vessels of 40 to 60 guns. In heavy seas, the lower deck guns could not be used because of the threat of shipping water and capsizing. By stretching the vessel, which would help make it faster, the ship could mount a battery almost as powerful as that on a small two decker. And, by eliminating the guns on the lower deck, the full battery could be employed in most sea states. Two of the models here portray stages in the development of the early 19th Century frigate. East Indiamen: From 1600 until its demise in the 1850s, The Honourable East India Company ruled a vast empire in the Far East, with armed outposts (factories) located throughout India, China, and the East Indies. These were visited regularly by specially designed ships known as East Indiamen. Although they outwardly resembled Navy warships, British East Indiamen were in fact armed merchant ships whose primary mission was not to fight battles, but rather to carry precious cargoes of spices and other exotic goods such as tea, silk, and porcelain from the Orient back to England. Their impressive-looking armament provided adequate defense against pirates and privateers, but their small crews and light guns made them no match against enemy men-of-war. Schooners: There were many variations in the schooner rig. All had two masts with fore- and aft-main sails ("courses"). Topsail schooners additionally set square topsails on one or both masts. The design originated in North America and gained fame as the "Baltimore clippers" or the War of 1812. Quick and nimble, the vessels were frequently used as privateers and slaves as well as cruisers ana dispatch vessels in American and European navies.
NAMUMO_110206_260.JPG: Admirals' Barges: Captains have pinnaces, admirals have barges. An admiral could display his superior rank and prestige by the elegance of decoration and the distinctive uniforms of the barge and its crew, all of which was paid for out of the admiral's own pocket.
NAMUMO_110206_274.JPG: Ship Decoration: Sailing men-of-war were heavily adorned with carved and painted decorations. Reflecting baroque tastes, those built in the 17th century were especially ornate, with imposing, often whimsical or bizarre statues covering nearly every vertical surface from stem to stern. In order to lower expenses, in 1703 the Admiralty directed that henceforth decorative carvings on Royal Navy ships would be restricted to the bow and stern. This coincided with the adoption of neo-classical principles of art and architecture in which Roman-style arches and Greek pillars took the place of the extravagant carved statues that graced English ships in the previous century. Faced with the crisis of the Wars of the French Revolution, in 1796 the Admiralty issued an order to "explode carved works." This resulted in a drastic reduction in costly decorations. Thereafter, painted friezes were abolished and only small bas-relief carvings were allowed, while the formerly huge and costly figureheads were reduced to simple half-length figures or busts. The Lower Deck: Because men-of-war carried very large crews (a fact dictated by the need to man the guns, some of which required 10-12 men each), living space on the lower deck was at a premium, and privacy all but unknown. When not on watch, the men ate, slept, and relaxed there, often entertaining one another with music and dance or telling tall tales over a mug of beer.
NAMUMO_110206_320.JPG: This huge bone model of Adm Horatio Nelson's legendary flagship Victory is said to have taken fifteen French prisoners-of-war two years to build following the resounding British triumph at Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. According to the legend, the model was displayed atop Nelson's tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral for 27 years before it was removed for repairs in 1834. In 1915, it was acquired by the famous Wall Street financier EF Hutton, who brought it to the United States.
NAMUMO_110206_327.JPG: Mr. Sterling Morton of Chicago purchased this fine bone model of a French two-decker in London in the 1920s or '30s. He later had it restored and, at his death in 1961, bequeathed it to the US Naval Academy Museum. No one can say today why it has traditionally been called L'Achille (Achilles), as no name is inscribed on the model's stern. The real French ship L'Achille was captured by the British in 1794 during the first fleet engagement of the French Wars. Dubbed "The Glorious First of June," the battle produced the first significant influx of French POWs into England.
NAMUMO_110206_337.JPG: This pristine model of a French three-decker is a highlight of the Museum collection. It features an old-fashioned long lateen mizzen yard instead of the gaff-and-boom arrangement used throughout the Napoleonic Wars.
NAMUMO_110206_352.JPG: French prisoners-of-war fashioned their own tools from bits of metal and glass, then used them to transform pieces of wood, bone, and straw into the wondrous models you see before you.
NAMUMO_110206_355.JPG: This model, a gift of Mrs. Leslie F Smith, was left in its dilapidated state to illustrate how all but the smallest bone ship models were made. The core of the hull was wood, often soft pine. To this were affixed thin strips of bone and, for the wales, dark strips of baleen. The two tiers of cannon can be retracted by pulling on a pair of draw strings that project through the stern chaser ports.
NAMUMO_110206_362.JPG: Here we have another highlight of the Naval Academy Museum collection. The small bone model of a three-decker rests inside a case that replicates a miniature stage. To the back and sides are six front-silvered mirrors. The prisoners who made it decorated the wooden case inside and out by gluing to it thousands of pieces of straw, painstakingly arranging them to form geometric patterns. At least three dozen similar models and straw-work cases were produced by the French POWs, though in which prison or prisoners remains a mystery.
NAMUMO_110206_391.JPG: Often confused with French prisoner-of-war bone models from the Napoleonic Era (1793-1815), this is actually a model made entirely of ivory, to include the sails and even the rigging. Moreover, ti was not made by captive sailors or soldiers, but rather by skilled artisans working in the city of Dieppe, France, in the 1830s and 40s. Dieppe was renowned for the ivory work produced by its artisans in the 18th and 19th centuries.
NAMUMO_110206_419.JPG: At some time in the past, this model suffered a blow that resulted in the loss of much of its original rigging. On the plus side, the hull is sound and the carvings and painted work are largely untouched.
NAMUMO_110206_426.JPG: This is one of the smallest bone models in the Museum's collection. Unlike the bigger models, whose hulls are normally of wood covered with strips of bone, here the hull was fashioned entirely from a single piece of bone.
NAMUMO_110206_463.JPG: This is one of only a handful of the thousands of French prisoner-of-war ship models from the Napoleonic Wars that can be identified with its builders. On the underside of the display board are the signatures of two men, Louis Boyer and Jean Emeriau, and the word Porchester. This refers to the ancient castle near Portsmouth that, by 1810, housed as many as 7,000 captured French and Dutch sailors and soldiers.
NAMUMO_110206_476.JPG: The figurehead of this model bearing the name "Caton" is naive, but nonetheless charming. The lower hull is painted green to simulate tarnished copper sheathing. ...
NAMUMO_110206_482.JPG: Other French POW Artifacts: Using materials at hand -- principally bone, wood, and straw -- the ingenious French captives made all sorts of items other than ship models. These included boxes of every description, sewing aids, kitchen utensils, games, watch stands, and mechanical toys like spinning jennies and even miniature working guillotines! Here are two fine examples: a charming carved bone and watercolor dominos kit and an exquisite cigar or spectacles case fashioned from bits of straw.
NAMUMO_110206_495.JPG: Dietrich Constitution Model: The choice of which flags to place on the French POW models probably had more to do with the nationality of the prospective buyer than with the design of the ship! Although no name is written on this model's stern, it has long been called the American frigate Constitution.
NAMUMO_110206_512.JPG: This is one of the largest and most elaborate wooden French prisoner-of-war ship models in existence. Virtually every facet, from the figurehead of a Roman consul to the brightly colored stern with two projecting galleries, is of the highest quality. The hancing pieces at the breaks of the sides are a whimsical fantasy, though the carronades on the poop deck, the flag lockers in the after side of the poop railing, and the scuttlebutts on the forecastle are all rendered accurately.
NAMUMO_110206_525.JPG: French Prisoners-of-War: During the Wars of the French Revolution and Empire (1793-1815), thousands upon thousands of French sailors and soldiers were captured, taken to England, and there incarcerated in often deplorable conditions for years on end. To while away their time, many began hand-crafting trinkets from materials they found in the prison yards. British officials encouraged the practice, permitting them to sell their wares to members of the public at open-air fairs in the prison courtyards or in nearby village markets. With their profits, the prisoners could buy food or clothing from town merchants. The French POWs made all manner of objects from the simplest of materials -- wood, straw, and the bones from their beef rations -- all held together by animal hide glue and tiny tacks. Working singly or in teams, they produced decorative boxes, straw hats, game boards, and toys such as miniature spinning jennies and even tiny guillotines! Whittling away the Time: Not surprisingly, the French prisoners-of-war made countless ship models. These range in size from impossibly tiny gems to large and imposing models more than four feet long. Many of those in between were perfectly suited for display on a mantlepiece. The Naval Academy collection contains examples of nearly every size and style of ship model produced by the ingenious French prisoners. Twenty were part of the Rogers bequest of 1936; another fifteen are gifts from various other donors. [Dartmoor Prison] was opened in 1809 as the first prison in England built specifically to house prisoners-of-war. It took three years to build, and at its peak in 1812 it held 9,000 prisoners. In 1813 and 1814, it became the sole prison in England designed to hold Americans captured in the War of 1812. Rather than being confined in prison or worse, sent to a floating prison hulk, captured French officers who pledged their word (in French, "parole") not to try to escape were permitted to reside in specific Parole Towns. There they lodged in houses or cottages and were free to wander about, so long as they remained within one mile of the town's borders. Some of the finest ship models were presumably made under these relatively relaxed conditions.
NAMUMO_110206_549.JPG: In this vignette, a French prisoner-of-war offers to sell a wooden ship vessel, complete with officers, seamen, and a contingent of red-coated Marines, to English residents from a nearby town. Such negotiations often took place in a prison courtyard opened to the public on a weekly or even daily basis. In other cases, a representative of the POWs took one or more models to the local town to sell on behalf of his compatriots.
NAMUMO_110206_567.JPG: Round Sterns: A fundamental problem associated with wooden ships was the weak construction, and defense, of the ends of the ship, particularly the stern. Traditionally, the stern was built by placing a large timber across the stern post, when setting vertical timbers atop the cross piece, much like a large table fork in appearance. This was inherently weak and guns could not be placed to defend the quarters adequately. Firing into the ends of the enemy ship took advantage of these weaknesses. Royal Navy Surveyor Sir Robert Seppings designed a new form of stern that not only strengthened the construction, but allowed guns to be mounted that could defend the entire aft part of the ship.
NAMUMO_110206_574.JPG: Cutters: The cutter was a small naval vessel whose design originated with smugglers operating in the area of Folkstone, England. ... Cutters carried a huge rig of both fore-and-aft and square sails on one mast. The vessels were built for speed, making them useful as dispatch vessels, but their deep-draft limited their usefulness for patrolling close inshore.
NAMUMO_110206_613.JPG: Model Hull Construction: British dockyard models made in the 1600s and early 1700s are known as Navy Board models. Their plank-on-frame construction mimics full-scale building practice except that, for reasons unknown, they were only partially planked, leaving the regularly spaced frame timbers of the lower hull exposed to view. Between about 1710 and 1740, model builders gradually turned to a new method of construction. So-called Georgian models looked more realistic that Navy Board models, as their hulls are fully planked beneath the waterline. Yet internally they are actually less realistic, as they contain no hull frames whatsoever. Most dockyard models were made at the same time as the ships they depict. Block or model models, on the other hand, were made beforehand as part of the design process. Because they were solid throughout, and because fittings like channels and gunport lids were merely painted on their external surfaces, they could be produced in as little as three weeks.
NAMUMO_110206_630.JPG: Bar shot, like chain shot, was fired hire to cut up rigging and sails, disabling the enemy vessel so that it could not maneuver. It would then be vulnerable to raking broadsides and forced to surrender.
NAMUMO_110206_645.JPG: The weight of a round shot identifies the size of a cannon or carronade. A typical frigate mounted 12- or 18-pounder long guns, whereas a ship of the line could mount 24- or 32-pounders as well as batteries of smaller guns.
NAMUMO_110206_673.JPG: British Third Rate 70-Gun Ship, c 1715: Designed to separate into upper and lower halves, this rare "pull-apart" model affords the observer an unobstructed view of the ship's below-deck spaces. Unlike most dockyard models, here all of the cabins are storerooms beneath the waterline are present, each fashioned with remarkable precision. A dozen 70-gun two-deckers were added to the Royal Navy between 1707 and 1718. This model is believed to be a faithful replica of one of the last of these ships, possibly the Oxford of 1813 or the Monmouth of 1718.

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2011 photos: Trips this year: Civil War Trust conferences (Savannah, GA, Chattanooga, TN), New Jersey over Memorial Day for my birthday (people never seem to visit New Jersey -- it's always just a pit stop on the way to New York. I thought I might as well spend a few days there. Despite some nice places, it still ended up a pit stop for me -- New York City was infinitely more interesting), my 6th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco). Ego strokes: Author photos that I took were used on two book jackets this year: Jason Emerson's book "The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln's Widow As Revealed by Her Own Letters" and Dennis L. Noble's "The U.S. Coast Guard's War on Human Smuggling." I also had a photo of Jason Stelter published in the Washington Examiner and a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. Equipment this year: I mostly used the Fuji S100fs camera as well as two Nikon models -- the D90 and the new D7000. Mostly a toy, I also purchased a Fuji Real 3-D W3 camera, to try out 3-D photographs. I found it interesting although I don't see any real use for 3-D stills now. Given that many of the photos from the 1860s were in 3-D (including some of the more famous Civil War shots), it's odd to see it coming back. Number of photos taken this year: just over 390,000.
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