MODELMAKERS' CORNER
BOWDOIN: A Model from the Real Thing by James Shoesmith I had been building ship models for several yea rs when it occurred to me to build a model to scale by measuring the real vessel. The vessels that interest me most are the fi shing schooners and sloops of New England . No sloops have survived ; the few schooners that did survive have been altered considerably since their fi shing days and most have been converted to cruising vessels carrying tourists among the islands of Maine and the Caribbean. About this time I read the Bowdoin was leav ing Mystic Seaport , and although I had seen her many times at Mystic, because she was not a fi shing vessel I had not taken much interest in her. But when I read she was leaving, I realized that if I was ever to build an exact scale model of an old wooden schooner that had been little altered since her building it had to be the Bowdoin, and I would have to act quickly. The original Bowdoin was built at the order of Admiral Donald MacMillan of Maine. He had been on Admiral Robert E. Peary's expedition to the North Pole in 1909. After several years of active participation and leadership in Arctic exploration Admiral MacMillan determined to build a schooner in which he could incorporate all the needs of his hazardous work . The result was the Bowdoin, designed by William H . Hand , Jr. of Fairhaven , Massachusetts, and built by the Hodgdon Brothers of East Boothbay, Maine, where she was launched in 1921. Although the Bowdoin was not a fishing schooner, she was built just like a knockabout fisherman , without topmasts or bowsprit , and she also has the fisherman's profile. She was 86 feet 10 inches long. I built my model of her to a Ysin to !ft scale making the model 32 ~ in long . I chose this scale so that all fittings could be made accurately to scale. In September 1968 I got all my measuring tools-3ft x 3ft sheets of cardboard to trace iron fittings , camera , etc,.---and took off for Camden , Maine and the Bowdoin; six more such trips were to follow. It took two and one-half weeks working twelvehour days to get all her measurements. Captain Jim Sharp gave me complete run of the vessel. I took more than a hundred pictures (all for detail), made drawings from these pictures, returned to the Bowdoin and filled in all the measurements of the iron fittings, deck furniture , and other detail s. All deck beams were measured center to center from the break aft and forward. There are 80 planks on her main deck and 69 on the forecastle deck . Drawings were made of the deck beams and planks and plank butts were marked in as they were
SEA HISWRY, WINTER 1984-85
A view of th e midship area (above) from the port side looking fo rward. Below left, the 32. 75" model, and at right a close-up of the main pinrail. Photos by the author.
on the Bowdoin in 1968. This exact number of deck planks are shown on my model. The scroll around the hawse pipe was traced and retraced onto cardboard. It was then painted black and photographically reduced to the proper scale. It was then retraced around the model hawse pipe. The anchor chain links were duplicated by shaping around a fo rm and soldering in two places . Blocks were assembled as the real blocks were, with metal stropping and sheaves. All bl ocks and other gear were measured for size and duplicated to scale. Lines were spliced where required .· The wheel was made up of individ ual pieces as was the original. I was able to measure virtually all of the
vessel, but a few items, such as the boom crotch and the smokestack had been replaced . So fo r these and a few other items, I had to work from photographs. But 95 percent of the model was made with careful meas urements from the original. Many thanks should be given to Captain Jim Sharp of Camden, Maine, for without his kindness and generos ity in allowing me to board the Bowdoin freely, my model of the vessel would not have been built.
w
Mr. Shoesmith is retired in Fall River, Massa chusetts, where he builds models for his own enjoyment. He is presently preparing to build models of a colonial schooner and Friendship sloop.
17