Ready for rigging

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Large steel barque, 1895. 32 feet to 1 inch.

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Just perfect

Always a delight to see

Tommorow's collectables without a doubt?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks Bob,

Collectable even today! Collectors love them, but ship modelmaker's keep well clear of this sort of model!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Bob

Just being nosy…….

How many of these little gems have you made and over what time period?

Do you have a favourite model?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

This is the 269th since I started counting in October 1992! I suppose these two are amongst my favourites:

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thanks Bob……Really nice

Just been looking at more of your models!

If you type in……."Images of models by Bob Wilson"……….You will see a vast collection……Your models and other peoples

But you may already know about this?

Bob

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Yes,

More can be found by Googling "Bob Wilson Miniature Ships!" They are all over the place. But is still continues to amaze me that hardly anyone else seems to build 19th and 2oth century merchant ships, and there are no forums devoted specifically to commercial vessels. It is always warships and small craft!

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Not really sure why you are surprised Bob, it's a niche interest at the best of times and warships have always been more interesting as they have guns and things which go bang etc.

I fully share your admiration for the ships that were built after WW2. Aesthetically they were unmatched in their appearance and a delight to the eye but most people now were born after that period and simply do not appreciate what they have missed..

QE was just before WW2 but pretty much perfect in appearance.

Colin

Edited By Colin Bishop, Website Editor on 16/04/2016 23:39:24

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

It is really very strange whichever way I look at it. It is certainly not a matter of being born after that era. They were still building the conventional good-lookers until the mid 1960s. A large number of them lasted for about 30 years, so they were still trading into the 1990s. Thousands went to sea in them when they were still quite young, say 17 to 25, so they would be in their 40s and 50s now! I myself have sailed briefly in a ship built in 1920! Apart from that, collectors seem to prefer them to warships. Another reason why being born after that era does not hold water is the evergreen interest in Napoleonic warships. Neither does the "more interesting" theory. To me, one sea battle is pretty much the same as another! The variety of "interesting" things going on in merchant ships is infinitely greater. The old passenger liners were like floating cities combining the old with the new. First class was very sedate and quite, whilst tourist class was a heaving mass of life crammed into the smaller part of the passenger accommodation, whilst the officers and crews formed two more distinct sections. Merchant vessels had long tradition in war that few naval ships could match. San Demetrio, San Alberto, Jervis Bay, Asama Maru, Rochester Castle, Port Jackson, Carnarvon Castle, Mowe, Mary B. Mitchell, Mary Sinclair, Brussels, and many others. Whilst in peacetime, many others have their names in history, Cutty Sark,Titanic, Flying Enterprise, Turmoil, Waratah, Wahine, Thermopylae, Ariel, Taeping, and St Helena (My last ship, Google it as RMS St Helena, if you doubt its fame).

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

———-

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 17/04/2016 07:46:16

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Bob, the proportion of the population that served in the merchant marine must be pretty small and then only a small number of those will take up ship modelling as a hobby so it’s a pretty small pool really. I can only recall one master mariner who was active in r/c modelling although there must have been others. On the other hand there do seem to be a lot of warship modellers who either served in the Navy or had a close relative who did (building Dad’s old ship etc.). As for the population at large there seems to be little affection for maritime matters when people wishing to take their cars abroad will happily drive a couple of hundred east miles to Dover and then a couple of hundred miles west on the other side to reach their destination instead of using one of the direct Western Channel crossings. And even then they probably use the tunnel! Cruising is of course popular but usually on the basis that the ship is an all inclusive floating hotel which generally spends more time in port than at sea.

Personally I am less attracted to building model warships (and certainly nothing after 1945) than good looking merchantmen but on the other had I have a great interest in naval history and ship design and a small library on the subject!

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Colin,

Still can't agree. The MN was always infinietly larger than the Royal Navy. In 1923, they British fleet (including the colonies) totalled in the region of 23,000 vessels. When I joined in 1960, it was down to about 6,000, but that was still enormous when compared to the RN. It is only a few hundred now. I am not just talking ship models, I am talking about the history of the MN overall. Like Frank Bullen in 1906, I have given numerous ilustrated lectures on the MN covering the transition from sail to steam. I did these regulary each voyage to the passengers of the RMS St. Helena for a number of years. During these talks, I always had their full attention, but as Bullen said, a few hours later, it had all gone from their minds and they would no more take up further reading on the subject than fly to the moon!

The bottom line is that the main interest in the MN is from those who served in it. Generally, those that didn't just think of it a collection of "boats," that just sailed around doing nothing. From time to time, I head people say they like "working boats!" Actually ALL merchant ships are working. That is their sole purpose in being.

The interest is far from dead amongs the thousandsof survivors of the MN. Take a look at this forum:

**LINK**

It is open to all, but the Merchant Navy dominates the Naval element.

Bob

Maybe I should stary this discussion going in the Soapbox section!

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I don't think it is a case of agreeing or disagreeing Bob, the fact remains, as you say yourself, that the interest simply isn't there. It is also a fact that Naval vessels do attract more interest than merchant ships and have a much higher profile, probably because they are more frequently in the news. Merchant ships are generally not newsworthy unless there is some sort of disaster but even in peacetime naval ships are frequently in the headlines for things like rescuing migrants, disaster relief, drugs interdiction etc. Merchant ships do what they were designed to do shifting cargoes or people from place to place or in support activities such as oil rigs etc. I suppose we should be grateful that Boaty MacBoatface has sparked a bit of interest.

As for modellers preferring 'workboats' I suspect it is largely because they are more famiiar with them through seeing them while on holiday etc. Commercial docks tend to be off limits to the casual sightseer.

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Nearly finished now. Usual response at local ship model club last Saturday. Not a single comment, good or bad, not a single question, or hint of interest!

Bob

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Bob, perhaps you should put it down to failing eyesight on the part of the members or that they simply take your excellence for granted. I do think it is a bit rude all the same though but says more about them than it does about you.

Colin

[mark69Participant @mark69]

Posted by Bob Wilson on 26/04/2016 19:20:01:

Nearly finished now. Usual response at local ship model club last Saturday. Not a single comment, good or bad, not a single question, or hint of interest!

Bob

Well sodem ,that is skillful Bob and that pens massive !! ……no seriously sod em !! …..mark

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

A few of them do very intricate work, and they all seem to be able to see well enough. I have been a member for over 20 years now and we all get along amazingly well with external activities such as days out, river cruises pub lunches, exhibitions etc.

Really, it is a very enjoyable club. But over the years, the model-building side has either dropped away, or is moving away from ships, with models of buildings, engines and aircraft creeping in as well as paintings and drawings.

Model ships are invariably warships and at the last meeting, there was a Sovereign of the Seas (kit) and Warspite (Scratch), motor topredo boat (scratch), two RN sailing cutters, one aeroplane, one helicopter, one traction engine and several paintings and drawings!

Bob

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