The Ship Model Forum

Not so long ago I tripped over a new card game pitting literature's most reknowned whaling Captain against the great creatures of the sea.

https://www.pastgo.net/leviathan

"Hmm, sez I" peering into the glowing screen "A good excuse to cobble up a fitting representation in three dimensions".


What better way to complete an ancient kit than to fit it to an ancient tale? We'll start with this...


... and end up with a waterline version of this, suitable for the rigors of table-top gaming (and hopefully looking like something crafty created during a long voyage).


I know it's normally considered a 1/200th scale rendering, but in deference to you Civil War naval modelers I thought this thread might inspire some side-show builds to go along with your Confederate raiders or Federal blockaders.

Stone Fleet, anyone?

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Current build logs -
1/72 110' Subchasers as Rum Runners
1/96 Japanese 'Steel Truck'
1/96 12cm pre-Dreadnaught deck gun
1/124 CS Privateer 'Beauregard'
1/124 CS Blockade Runners Pevensey & Ella Warley
1/192 scale whaler PEQUOD

Sourcing kits from places like Ebay is a Proverbial pig-in-a-poke. In our case, I got this


The first step was to scrape off all of the glue (probably Elmer's white) that was used in the original attempt and then water-line the hull.


That lower hull got tossed in the spares box for some future whittling.

_________________
Current build logs -
1/72 110' Subchasers as Rum Runners
1/96 Japanese 'Steel Truck'
1/96 12cm pre-Dreadnaught deck gun
1/124 CS Privateer 'Beauregard'
1/124 CS Blockade Runners Pevensey & Ella Warley
1/192 scale whaler PEQUOD

Tangentially, one of the goals of this build is that we're not spending a lot of time on it.

That said, one blogger made the following observations about the Pyro kit.

Then there is the whaler "Charles W. Morgan". This model is close to 1/200 scale, and is fairly accurate, if one considers that the ship had been improperly restored, and it is that the kit is based upon; it is full rigged, whereas the ship was originally, operationally, a barque. Some minor hull issues and those "gunports", but it can build up very nicely right out of the box..

Interesting. Let's check the real Charles W Morgan out.

The Charles W. Morgan is the last of an American whaling fleet that numbered more than 2,700 vessels. Built and launched in 1841, the Morgan is now America’s oldest commercial ship still afloat – only the USS Constitution is older.

Hmm.... Do I really want to monkey around changing over her rigging?

_________________
Current build logs -
1/72 110' Subchasers as Rum Runners
1/96 Japanese 'Steel Truck'
1/96 12cm pre-Dreadnaught deck gun
1/124 CS Privateer 'Beauregard'
1/124 CS Blockade Runners Pevensey & Ella Warley
1/192 scale whaler PEQUOD

well now! --that seems an interesting project-- and educational..!

2 700 whaling ships-- amazing and shocking at the same time !
I am intrigued as to future progress

Jim B

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....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Thanks, Jim.

The secondary intent of this thread is that we can create opportunities to pass along the hobby to a younger generation by combining a (free) game with some simple shipbuilding, a history lesson or three and maybe even knock out a reading requirement for whatever passes as Literature classes these days. If all that falls flat on it's face, we can at least call over our crews as an excuse for beer & pretzels night.

With regard to the size of the whaling industry, the reason I call out the Civil War modelers is for the effect raiders had on the industry.

The Civil War, like the wars before, was very bad for the whaling fleet. Confederate cruisers like the Shenandoah, the Alabama and the Florida destroyed more than 50 Yankee whalers. In addition, New Bedford contributed 37 old whaling ships to the war effort in the form of the “Stone Fleet.” These vessels were filled with rocks and sunk at the mouths of Southern harbors in an attempt to block shipping.
After the war, two Arctic disasters, one in 1871 and the other in 1876 claimed 30 New Bedford ships and 15 from other ports. Whaling ports lost millions of dollars in these disasters and as ships were lost owners could seldom afford to replace them, as the markets for whale products continued to decline.

&

The American whaling industry dominated the seas from 1820 to 1860, but suffered a severe decline before and after the Civil War. The American whaling fleet was in shambles after the War of 1812, but began to reassemble in 1814. It quickly attained productivity levels far superior to those of the British fleet, which had dominated the industry for more than thirty years. By the 1840s, British whalers had virtually disappeared from the seas, and America was controlling the industry. The golden age of American whaling lasted from about 1820 to 1860, when it was ended by the Civil War. Many of the whaling vessels were destroyed by Confederate raiders when hostilities broke out, and the American whaling industry was miniscule by the end of the century. It had recovered significantly after the war, but it never returned to the size it had been in the 1850s. The US whaling fleet passed from insignificance, to world dominance, and back to insignificance in a period of eighty years.

Gonna need a way to stow all this, and we're being New England style thrifty (ok, cheap). Trashpicked box, a pair of chatchki Whales and to plus up Team Fish some prehistoric sharks as offered by the MICHAELS craft store chain.

_________________
Current build logs -
1/72 110' Subchasers as Rum Runners
1/96 Japanese 'Steel Truck'
1/96 12cm pre-Dreadnaught deck gun
1/124 CS Privateer 'Beauregard'
1/124 CS Blockade Runners Pevensey & Ella Warley
1/192 scale whaler PEQUOD

More background, more modeling inspiration.

Melville drew his inspiration from the tale of the Essex (the originally diary recounted in the book IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, which Ron Howard turned into a movie).
The author, Nathaniel Philbrick, offers an excellent running narrative of the industry in Smithsonian.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... 180957198/

For those of you who love your full hull models, that style could work with this game as well.

From an NPS exhibit long over.


This fellow carved his hull from the same chunk of tree that became the Morgan's new bowsprit.
https://www.charleswmorganmodel.com/mor ... tures.html
His narrative https://www.charleswmorganmodel.com/about.html

What I'll be aiming for is a folk art look, similar to this -

_________________
Current build logs -
1/72 110' Subchasers as Rum Runners
1/96 Japanese 'Steel Truck'
1/96 12cm pre-Dreadnaught deck gun
1/124 CS Privateer 'Beauregard'
1/124 CS Blockade Runners Pevensey & Ella Warley
1/192 scale whaler PEQUOD

If you want some more inspiration find the 1950s movie "Moby Dick" starring Gregory Peck. It was filmed on a working square rigged ship named "Moby Dick." Some of the filming was in Madiera with a real whaling fleet. It has a lot of beautiful footage of the ship and actual whaling action.

Phil

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A collision at sea will ruin your entire day. Aristotle

This thread needs a soundtrack, at the very least. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmtyFzBMdZI



I am not spending a lot of time on this.



I am not spending a lot of time on this.



In related news...

_________________
Current build logs -
1/72 110' Subchasers as Rum Runners
1/96 Japanese 'Steel Truck'
1/96 12cm pre-Dreadnaught deck gun
1/124 CS Privateer 'Beauregard'
1/124 CS Blockade Runners Pevensey & Ella Warley
1/192 scale whaler PEQUOD