The Model Ship

Her Role in History

ISBN 1 85149 327 1

The Antique Collectors' Club

It is imposible to over-estimate the importance of ships in the evolution of civilisations. As far back as 3,000 years BP [Before Present], there were established sea routes from Eygpt to Africa and from Eygpt to West and East Coasts of India.

The Model Ship Her Role in History starts with Egyptian models 4,000 years BP, recovered by archaeologists from tombs.

Author Norman Napier Boyd was born into the busy shipbuilding scene of Clydeside in Scotland in 1931. In the Scots tradition, he has two surnames rather than two first names and his middle name reflects his connection with the Napier family of Clyde shipbuilders.

Plate: 114b

A model from his own personal collection shows the design and construction details of a 19th naval cutter, the 'board' Norman Boyd is holding shows the unseen timbers below-deck of the model [above left].

From the Helenistic World, Alexander's Empire, and the Roman Empire, there are now only wall paintings, pottery decoration, writings and 2,000-4,000 year old ship wrecks, as a source of what the ships looked like.

Based on such sources, a diorama at the Museum in Colchester -- then Camulodunun, the capital of Roman Britain, shows a Roman Port, some 10 miles south of the town, the closest a ship could navigate the shallow river to Camulodunun.

Norman Boyd's home is close to Colchester, where the Museum is within a Norman Keep, built not only to the dimension's of the old Temple to the Emperor Claudius but on its very foundation.

Trade necessitated that the capital of Roman Britain had to be a major seaport. Ironical for Camulodunun, as until the last Ice Age, when an ice sheet covered most of the map of Essex [above right], the River Thames had jinxed northeast and then south, to enter the North Sea below the town. This glacial ice [450,000 BP] forced the River Thames to cut a new course in a straight west -- east direction and in Roman times, a small settlement, Londinum, with its deepwater access to to the North Sea, replaced Camulodunun as the Roman capital of Britain.

History shows us, that no civilization lasts more than 800--1,000 years, the Vandals sacked Rome in 455 A.D., and destroyed the Roman Fleet off Cartegena A.D. 460, Britain and Europe went into a civilization free fall.

In the 8th Century, Islam welcomed scientific inquiry, as they put it, the better to understand 'God's Work of Creation'. In the late 8th century an Indian merchant brought to Bagdad the works of the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta which contained the early ideas on aljabr which Muhammad ibn-Musa al-Khwarizmi in the 9th century was to expand into algebra. The same Indian merchant also brought from India, the nine Hindu numerals now known as Arabic numerals that we use today, together with the first mention of 0, called by by Arabs zephirum, now known as zero.

It was Islamic societies that brought the compass, lanteen sails, windmills, water mills, gunpowder and paper to Europe. Medieval Islam lasted some 600 years.

In ships and technology, it was China that next led the world. Under the third Ming Emperor of China, Admiral Zheng He's flagship the 440ft 'Treasured Ship' had nine masts,12 sails and a beam of 186ft. The Chinese ships were the first to have 'rudders', 'watertight compartments', fore and aft 'lug sails' that could be worked with small crews from the deck. The Chinese traded with Madagascar, navigation was by 'dead reckoning' although they also had a form of astro-navigation, 'Al Kermal', from the Arabs. Admiral Zheng He [also known by his religious name of 'Sanbao'] between 1405-1433 A.D. is believed to have even sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, he died on his seventh voyage and China retreated from being a great maritime nation into 500 years of isolation. No models survive of these ships.

So it was 60 years after Admiral Zheng He, 300 years into Western Civilisation, that 'Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue in 1492' with his three rather puny ships and claimed the 'New World' [for Spain]. His flagship the Santa Maria was 87ft loa, the Pinta 74ft, and the Nina 70ft.

No plans or models remain from 15-16th century ships, the full size replicas of the three Columbus ships at Corpus Christi Texas, are as close to the actual ships as possible [from document research].

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It was not until the 17th century as Norman Boyd recounts: 'the convenience of using a model to show the design and construction details of a new ship was recognized and thus started the 'Official Dockyard' or 'Admiralty Models' which have survived and can be seen in museums today.

Plate: 30 HMS Oxford

HMS Oxford [1674] is an Admiralty Board model which the Napier family gifted to the City of Glasgow.
Photo: Courtesy of Glasgow Museum of Transport

Plate: 139

Today we have tank and wind tunnel testing but in days gone by, a model gave a purchaser, whether an individual, Government Committee or the Patent Office, the chance to 'see' in a model, the end result of a set of drawing's.

This lifeboat model of 18 inches complete with drawings was originally sent to the British Patent Office. The Patent application was in regard to its unique hull form, which was claimed to give a superior 'steady course' under oars.

Norman Boyd lives in an old Watermill in England, a keen collector himself. His book covers every type of boat model, Shadow box Diorama's, Boats in bottles, Bone Models by prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars, 'Sailor' Models, Modern Modelers in the USA and in the UK, Recreational and Instructional Models, and Test Tanks/Wind Tunnels. There are 184 photographs [146 in color] from the Glasgow Museum of Transport [Scotland], Merseyside Maritime Museum [Liverpool], National Maritime Museum [London], Science Museum [London], other Maritime Museum's and professional model makers in the UK and USA.

Plate: 53 Shadow Box Diorama

Plate: 50 Boat in a bottle by a Lighthouse keeper [1880]