Ingenuity Exercise

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Here is an exercise in ingenuity and dexterity. The two photographs are not faked in any way and the bottle is whole, and has NOT had the bottom cut off, and later replaced. The brass rod is 1/4 inch diameter with an 1/8th inch hole drilled in the end. The bolt is 6ba, 0.9 inches long (larger than the bottle neck, of course!). The nut closest to the head was put on outside the bottle, and glued with a spot of superglue. The brass rod, two washers and the other nut were put on inside the bottle, and the top nut made permanent with a spot of superglue. The close-up photograph is taken through the bottle! It made me realise how difficult it must be to put a complex ship in a bottle. It took me ages and was very frustrating at times.

Bob

[Kimosubby ShipyardsParticipant @kimosubbyshipyards]

Bob,

I think you need a hobby young man!

Kimmo

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hardly I think I have too many if anything! Click on my gallery images on the left! In addition to building that lot, add designing & building vintage radios, drawing sailing ship plans ,and writing books. I made the bottle thing this morning after seeing a much larger wooden version on U-tube. But as I specialise in miniatures, I felt a miniature version in brass and steel would be an interesting challenge. I suppose it took about 40 minutes and I was pretty fed up by the time I finally got the nut on!

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Bob,

I built a couple of ships-in-bottles as a teenager (quite a few moons ago), and found it not so difficult as all that.

As opposed to what you did here, a model in a bottle is to all intents and purposes built completely outside the bottle, has the masts and rigging folded back (the proper planning for this is of course the tricky bit), is pushed in ready-built through the neck, secured and then has the masts and rig pulled back into position.

The only real work done inside the bottle was creating a sea (from plasticine), and securing things otherwise built outside the bottle.

/Mattias

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Just a quick addendum to my previous post: I should perhaps clarify that, although I do indeed think that the basic concept of how to build a ship-in-a-bottle is not all that difficult, there is of course hardly any upper limit to the level of complexitiy you can introduce into such a project, from the difficulty of the subject (a two-masted schooner is rather easier than a five-masted barque for instance) through the build quality to the level of detail included both on the ships and around it in the bottle.

Although I am still fairly pleased with what I achieved as a 13- and 14-year old, I have of course since seen a considerable number of ships-in-bottles demonstrating a skill far surpassing what I could ever hope to aspire to.

/Mattias

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

There is no chance that I could ever make my masts and rigging fold down and up again without being ruined in the process! I have built the five-masted barque France ! It was not particularly difficult, but it was rather tedious with all that rigging (wire). But I would never even try to put one in a bottle!

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Bob,

I strongly suspect that you are right as far as models as (comparatively speaking) large as your minitures are, I think a ship-in-a-bottle would usually be about the same length as the pen you always use for reference.

Likewise, I suspect that the wire that I beleive you use for the rigging would fare badly; ships-in-bottles are to my knowledge usuually rigged using thread and will msotly have a simplified rigging, too.

You'll find a picture of what I would think of as a typical ship-in-a-bottle four-masted barque here: **LINK** and a close-up of the same model here: **LINK** . It was built by a chap called Göran Forss, who, before retirement, used to be a professional model maker at the Sjöhistoriska museet (Swedish Maritime Museum) and was among many other things part of the team that built the fantastic 1:10 model of Wasa that is now on display at the Wasa Musuem: **LINK**

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 06/01/2016 15:53:56

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks for link. Those are really good ships in bottles, and merchant ships as well – most unusual! It is great to know that someone else builds merchant ships. There are so few of us about.

Bob

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Matt. Great ships in bottles. I bet they collect dust as well !! Ashley

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Can't really catch any dust as they are inside bottles!

Bob

[harry smith 1Participant @harrysmith1]

I though about building a ship in a bottle,but, I have a problem with the original stuff it the bottle!!!!

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

As they say, here's one I made earlier:

Obviously not much to look at compared to the model I linked to yesterday, but not too bad for having been done at the tender age of 14 or thereabouts, from instructions in a book on ships in bottles that I'd stumbled aross at the Public Library while browsing one of my favorite sections, the (Swedish) classification Prb Ships and shipping …

That section, by the way, was also were I first came across a book that I will still regularly re-read today: Eric Newby's The Last Grain Race. Speaking of which, a the Moshulu is most definitely on my list of models I would one day like to build … I was also thoroughly delighted when, a few years ago, I happened upon Newby's return to the subject in the form of Learning The Ropes, where he retells the voyage through the medium of beautiful, large-size reproductions of his excellent photos from the voyage.

Speaking of The Last Grain Race, I've always been mildly amused by how Newby managed to get away with having the crew swear in English by explaing that the expletive "focking", which he frequently attributes to them in dialogue, comes from the Swedish word "fock", which means"foresail". I dare say that in a polyglot ship like the Moshulu, one of the more well-known English swearwords might indeed have been used fairly liberaly, and if proounced with a Scandahoovian accent would indeed have sounded pretty much like "focking", but still I very much doubt that they would have been refering to the foresail … not least given that fact that Newby also quotes some fairly strong stuff in Swedish and Finnish — but then again, the audience for which he wrote would for the most part not have understood the latter phrases, particularly not idiomatically.

/Mattias

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

That looks pretty good. What is approximate bottle size?

Bob

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Thank you very much, Bob!

The bottle, if my memory serves me 36 years later, was one of those triangular ones used for Dimple whisky (**LINK**) and I would estimate that the overall length of the bottle, neck included, is maybe 8 inches.

I hasten to add that it would have been my grandftaher who drank the whisky before I got at the bottle; although I am these days quite partial to a wee dram, as a 14 year-old it would not yet have something of which I partook …

/Mattias

Edited By Banjoman on 07/01/2016 09:34:21

[BanjomanParticipant @banjoman]

Bob,

Just to confirm that I got a ruler out last nioght and, yes: the bottle is neigh on exactly 8" long including the neck; also, given that it is marked "Haig &Haig" at the bottom, I think it is equally confirmed that it is an old Dimple bottle …

/Mattias

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks, it is not always easy to tell the size of models if there is no measurment comparison or size given. That is why I always have a pen next to mine, as it is an international length standard (more or less!)

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 08/01/2016 08:56:42

Edited By Bob Wilson on 08/01/2016 08:57:09

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