Now THAT'S a model ship!
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (382412)
Rockingham, Australia
October 24, 2017 6:05pm CST
While at the Fremantle Maritime Museum in Western Australia, I saw this lovely model of an ocean-going merchant ship which was in use by the Romans in the time of Pliny the Elder (AD23-79).
Merchant ships were sail-powered unlike the oar-powered warships. Sail power was more economical as less crew was needed and, providing the wind was favourable they were much faster. The notice said that Pliny listed some of the speed records from Italy Six days to Egypt, three to southern France and two to Africa.
The average capacity was 150 to 350 tonnes although Egyptian grain ships could be built much larger with some carrying 1,200 tonnes of grain. Isn’t it a beautiful model? I would love to be able to create something like that.
18 people like this
18 responses
@DianneN (254926)
• United States
25 Oct 17
It's stunning! Those are amazing speeds considering the distances between those countries. I was on my friend's sailboat, a 50 foot Dory that he raced in Newport and won a championship cup. All wind, no motor. We saw marble ships in China. I can spend my life on the ocean, with a prescription patch. Lol!
3 people like this
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
25 Oct 17
Takes skill to build a model like that.
3 people like this
@Carmelanirel2 (8085)
• United States
25 Oct 17
Wow, I love these older ships and my husband, son, and I all have a ship of our own. This one is my husband's.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8085)
• United States
26 Oct 17
@JudyEv Oh no, I am so sorry for your loss.. 
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382412)
• Rockingham, Australia
26 Oct 17
@Carmelanirel2 That is a really lovely music box ship. The other one is nice too. My brother and sister are twins and exactly 8 years older than me but we lost our brother just a few weeks ago.
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Oct 17
I have always been fascinated with model ships. It takes a lot of hard work, and a steady hand, for such craftsmanship!
2 people like this
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Oct 17
@JudyEv Now the ones that are in bottles are a demonstration of serious creative abilities!
2 people like this
@moffittjc (128840)
• Gainesville, Florida
25 Oct 17
@Marty1 Jennifer, unless there is a new modern way of doing it, the old way was to build the ship inside the bottle, using long, thin tools to reach inside the neck of the bottle. It was a slow, painstaking process that would take a long time to do. I'm not sure if modern techniques have been developed where the ship is built first, and then somehow the glass is molded around the ship.
1 person likes this
@Letranknight2015 (52665)
• Philippines
25 Oct 17
That's a beautiful model of an old ship. I wonder why they didn't bother painting it? maybe that's the color of the model.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382412)
• Rockingham, Australia
25 Oct 17
I don't know why they didn't paint it. The wood doesn't look anything special but I think it might spoil it to paint it.
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
28 Oct 17
the patience it takes to do these models... amazing...steady hands too... I lovecto see thes sorts of scale models....
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382412)
• Rockingham, Australia
28 Oct 17
@sueznewz2 It's beautiful isn't it?
1 person likes this
@MarymargII (12422)
• Toronto, Ontario
26 Oct 17
I love the look of the old ships. Each summer Tall ships come through Lake Ontario and move down the U.S. waterways- I caught a glimpse last year and loved them!
1 person likes this
@MarymargII (12422)
• Toronto, Ontario
26 Oct 17
@JudyEv it was only a glimpse as they crossed by the lake in the distance, but love those old "Pirate-looking" ships.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382412)
• Rockingham, Australia
26 Oct 17
Aww. Poor kids. I guess it will surface one day. When I was quite little I used Mum's best knife to cut a string off my kitten's neck when I'd been playing with it and, because I wasn't supposed to touch the knife, I hid it. Then we all had to spend hours searching for the knife. Not a memory I'm proud of really. 
@JudyEv (382412)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Oct 17
@dgobucks226 Do you know how they get them into the bottles? There has been a couple of ideas put forward. I thought they went in complete but flat and by pulling a couple of strings the masts and sails could be lifted up.
1 person likes this
@dgobucks226 (37621)
•
28 Oct 17
@JudyEv Reminds me of those ships in a bottle and how precise the crafter has to be.
1 person likes this
@lovinangelsinstead21 (36847)
• Pamplona, Spain
25 Oct 17
Its really lovely.
I love old ships.
One of my most favourites though is from the "Onedin Line" she is called "The Charlotte Rhodes" and much fast forwarded in time of course.
@topffer (42155)
• France
25 Oct 17
Here a picture that I took last September in La Rochelle of a reproduction of the Nao Victoria, one of the boats of the Magellan expedition. As you see, boats had not evolved a lot between the Antiquity and the 16th C. These Roman boats were following the African borders of Western Africa, and it is not impossible that a few of them reached South America long before Colombus.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
25 Oct 17
That is a really amazing model. I wonder how long it took to build?
1 person likes this
