Photos by Robert F Sherman.
Half model of US frigate Constitution made in 195 The hull was fram ed and planked in oak and the bottom coppered. Left, Erik Ronnberg with model ofMayflower II 1957. This model was shipped to England and made the return trip to the United States in the cabin of the full-size replica. Below, Model of Gloucester fishing dragger Immaculate Conception , 195 7. Ronnberg also rigged the actual vessel in 1946:
a
-
~
\
J (I' .. ,,
making techniques and find better materials. This culminated in the late 1950s with the models of Mayflower II which he rigged and augmented considerably in hull detail under the direction of William A. Baker. By 1960, it was no longer profitable to work as a rigger on the waterfront, so that business was abandoned in order to start a marine supply store and nautical gift shop in Rockport. The new business thrived, but its seasonal nature left only the winter months for modelmaking, ha rdly time enoug h to get started on a major project. T here was sufficient time for model repair work, a nd this activity became more important in the years that followed. In 1975, my father retired from the retail business and resumed model construction in addition to the repair work. Certainl y the most useful lesso ns in my father's modelmaking experiences were those offered by the actual ships he rigged a nd sailed in . It was always his practical knowledge of seamanship and rigging which gave his models a lively a nd convincing look so often lacking in othe r models. They are lessons I have found worth learning and which I have stri ven to keep foremost in my own modelwork . For all the refined methods and sophisticated tools and SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1984
machinery available to modelmakers today, I would not give up the basic ski lls, knowledge, and attitudes I have learned from my father. No, and not a minute's worth of those enchanted childhood hours spent in this rigg ing loft , on the vessels he rigged, and at a dini ng room table which nightly became a magical shipyard in miniature. An early customer for Ronn berg models was the Grey family of Boston , ow ners of Warmuth's Restaurant whose nautical decor called for ship models, murals , and a square-rigged lower mast complete with the lower yard and doublings. My father built the models and rigged the mast which had been made to his specifications by Essex sparmaker Arthur Gates. The mu ra lssilhouettes of sai ling ships of various rigs -were the handiwork of Larry O'Toole, artist, sailor, storyteller extraordinaire, and most celebrated a nd beloved of the famous W harf Rats of Boston's T Wharf. The results of his collusion were nothing if not spirited and genuine in thei r nautical flavor, making Warmuth's a landmark for many years. About this time, I was becoming old e nough to take an interest in the little shipyard which materialized on the dining room
table every night after supper, so it was not long before I was presented with blocks of balsa wood salvaged from an old life raft and a wood rasp with which I could shape them to any hull form I fancied . I was also given a pine hull in the likeness of a Gloucester fishing dragger, and this I set to rigging in many and wondrous ways. I had come unde r the spell of a large print of Montague Dawson's classic painting , Chasing the Smuggler, which hung in the living room , so the dragger hull often sported the rig of an English revenue cutter. On one of his frequent evening visits, usually accompanied by a loaf of fresh bread and a bottle of wine, Larry O'Toole happened to see this c reation , and in a roar of mirthful approval, he declared that my little ship would be capable of sailing forward, backward, and sideways! Like all conversation that passed over this table, no offense was meant in any criticisms and none was taken, and between the matter-of-fact comments of my father, the jollity of Larry's ya rns and repartee, not to mention the enthusiastic participation of many others, the enchantments of nautical lore held sway in the Ronnberg household . No mortal vision of heaven could have improved on it. u.
29