20 
House & Garden 
Sailors’ models are often delight 
fully crude in their execution and 
lack of scale between rigging and 
hull. This old model has origi¬ 
nal sails. Courtesy of Muriel 
Piers 
This decorative galley is one of 
the types now so popular for use 
in interior decoration. It was 
built by Charles W. Meyer and 
is from the collection of Harrison 
Cady 
The French flush 
deck frigate “La 
Braille us e,” 
made by Henry 
B. Culver, is con¬ 
sidered the finest 
example of his 
work. She is 44" 
long and built 
on a 1-50 scale- 
are those of bone made by prisoners of war. 
These are very rare. They were built in the 
prison camps of France and England by men 
who were held prisoners during the wars be¬ 
tween the French and English in the late 18th 
and early 19th Centuries. Prisoners would 
work together in constructing one of these min¬ 
iature boats to sell or exchange for tobacco and 
other luxuries not provided in the prison camps. 
It is said that the men saved the beef bones 
from their meals for working material and from 
them made these quaint little ships. Some of 
the bone models took from two to three years 
to build and they rank among the most ac¬ 
curate model ships in existence. 
[Early American Models 
The custom of building models was much 
in vogue in America in the last century, when 
they became quite common. Nearly every cap¬ 
tain and sailor’s home had a model of some 
favorite ship. Many of these sailors’ models 
are crude and inaccurate as regards proportions 
and details, although these very faults some¬ 
times combine to make a picturesque craft. 
The common faults of sailors’ models are in 
making the block and spars too large in scale 
for the hull, but, one sometimes finds sailor 
This model of a Maine coaster, built in 
1791, reproduces the exact rigging and 
lines of the original type. From the 
Harrison Cady collection 
highly prized and now very difficult to obtain. 
In the ancient days when the Romans held 
maritime supremacy, it was a custom to make 
votive offerings to Neptune, God of the Sea, 
as supplications for safe voyages and escape 
from storms. At first these offerings took the 
shape of dripping sea-stained garments hung in 
the Temple of Neptune in Rome, but, with the 
passing of centuries, the votive offerings took 
the form of ships. In Britain, Spain and 
Holland sailors placed a model of their ship 
before their patron saint in the village church 
as a votive offering. These offerings in the 
shape of Old Dutch galleons with sails all set 
and pennons flying still hang from dusky ceil¬ 
ings in many Cathedrals of Holland. Long 
wars took the other votive offerings such as 
precious stones, gold and silver but these little 
toy ships escaped the melting pot and are a 
delight to the tourists of today. 
One of the interesting phases of ship models 
Harting 
Deck view of a 
square rigger, 
showing the 
minuteness of 
detail found in 
some m o d el s. 
Cady collection 
