Existing comment:
The following boats were in a special room which was covered by this sign:
The Prisoners' Art:
Men drawn from various occupations served in the French sailing navy. Jewelers, carvers and other artisans manned warships alongside professional seamen. Thousands of these men were captured by Britain's Royal Navy during the prolonged Anglo-French wars of 1755-1815. They faced years of harsh confinement aboard prison ships. To alleviate intolerable boredom, many of the artisan-sailors turned to their civilian trades and crafts.
Working with crudely improvised tools and foraged materials, they made jewelry, games, toys, and both wooden and bone ship models. The impressive quality of their work induced their British captors to give them supplies and permission to sell their wares.
The seafaring British population provided a natural market for the bone models. The prisoner-entrepreneurs spent their earnings on additional rations or on gambling, a traditional way for sailors to part with their money. Some were so satisfied with their financial success that they remained in England after peace was proclaimed in 1815.
The bone model is an impressive and valuable art form whose pinnacle was reached during the Napoleonic Era (1798-1815). It is similar to, but should not be confused with, the nautical ivory carvings from Dieppe, France, or scrimshave, a traditional craft which flourished aboard whaling ships.
The surviving models which surround you constitute one of the world's finest collections. They stand as a lasting tribute to those anonymous seafaring craftsmen of a distant age. |