and, perhaps of the shipljuilder, none of whom would 

 have much patience with inaccuracies in form, rig, or 

 important detail. Then, of course the model could 

 have been compared with the vessel it represented; 

 now this can be done, and this only in a few instances, 

 by comparing it with a photograph of the full-sized 



vessel. 



However, there is one deficiency in these models; 

 the model makers were not metal workers, and much 

 of the spar ironwork is "faked" or even omitted en- 

 tirely. Also, among the rigged models are some that 

 were reconstrucUons of ancient types not in existence 

 at the time the model was made. These are com- 

 monly inaccurate; the model builder had no plan or 

 half-model to work from and resorted to ima2;ination. 

 These "historical models," invariably tubby and awk- 

 ward, are examples of the himian vanity that requires 

 anything old to be represented as poor in design, so as 

 to illustrate the greater intellect of the current 

 generation. 



The rigged models of small fishing craft were often 

 made to the order of Claptain Collins, who in some 

 instances may have been able to furnish plans for 

 them. Some were donated by boatlmildcrs and 

 fishermen, others were purchased. While the average 

 in workmanship in these models is not quite as high 

 as in the fishing schooner models, on the whole they 

 are reliable representations of their individual types. 



After the "Section of American Naval Architecture" 

 was established. Captain Collins, with the same ob- 

 jectives as for the fishing-craft models, made an in- 

 tensive efTort to collect models of commercial craft. 

 In this he was only partly successful. The resulting 

 collection was almost entirely of half-models, as com- 

 mercial vessel owners did not have scale models 

 btiilt as a rule. Furthermore, such was the state of 

 American shipbuilding at the time he undertook to 

 assemble this collection that only a limited number of 

 vessel types were being built and these \vere pre- 

 dominantly wooden sailing craft. Shipbuilding was 

 then most active in New England, in the Middle 

 Atlantic States, on the Great Lakes, and on the Pacific 

 Coast, with some steamboat construction on the inland 

 rivers. Hence, the original collection obtained a fine 

 selection of half-models showing the development of 

 the 2-mast coasting schooner, the trading brigantine, 

 and of bark- and ship-rigged ocean freighters. 

 Steamers, however, were rather poorly represented. 

 The great sailing packets and clipper ships were no 

 longer being built, so the collection showed only two 

 models of the clipper ships of the 1850's and no 



]5acket-ship model, although some packet schooners 

 were represented among the half-models. Pilot 

 schooners were quite well represented by half-models, 

 but there were very few river steamers. The boat and 

 shipbuilding of the South Atlantic States, the Gulf 

 Coast, the Great Lakes, and the Pacific Coast were 

 represented mainly by fishing craft. 



By the early 1900's the Watercraft Collection, as it 

 came to be called, had become recognized as one of 

 the major collections in the U. S. National Museum. 

 After the first World War the great interest in ship 

 models and the numerous inquiries regarding models 

 in the collection led, in 1923, to the compilation of 

 National Museum Bulletin 127, Catalogue of the Water- 

 craft Collection, by Carl W. Mitman, then Curator of 

 Mineral and Mechanical Technology, employing as 

 far as possible the manuscript notes left by Captain 

 Collins. This catalog became a standard reference 

 and remained in print for many years. 



In the early 1930's, a Works Progress Administra- 

 tion project was set up under the direction of Eric V. 

 Steinlein to carry out a program of marine historical 

 research. This project, active for nearly 2 years, 

 acquired for the Watercraft Collection many half- 

 models as well as numerous plans, photographs, and 

 drawings, all now part of the Historic American 

 Merchant Marine Survey material. In the period 

 just before the second World War a number of fine 

 steamship models were presented to the collection 

 and after that war the U. S. Maritime Commission 

 donated a large number of models of standard mer- 

 chant vessel types. Individual donors, of course, have 

 added substantially to the acquisitions over the years. 



As the Catalogue of the Watercraft Collection has long 

 been out of print and the collection has grown so 

 markedly since 1923, it has now become necessary to 

 prepare a completely new catalog. At the same time, 

 recent progress in marine historical research requires 

 that the older models in the collection be re-examined 

 as to identification, description, and dimensions, and 

 the historical information contained in it re-assessed 

 in the light of this research. In doing this it is 

 necessary to acknowledge the work of the founder of 

 the Watercraft Collection. 



Captain Collins 



Joseph William Collins was born at Isleboro, Maine, 

 August 8, 1839, the son of David and Eliza B. (Sawyer) 

 Collins. He received only a primary education in 

 country schools, and when ten years old shipped as a 



