Welcome

Just to give you some background on the items, these boats are all part of my grandfathers collection that he loved dearly! Unfortunately we have to thin them out a little because to be honest he had a lot of collections including trains, cars, horses etc. and we are being a little overwhelmed.

All the boats come in a beautiful Lucite display case with a hand painted background included. There are 8 boats in all, and will be sold as a package or individually. I have included pictures of all the items by name as well as a brief history on them. To the right hand side of this screen there is a list for easy browsing, or else just scroll down and enjoy.

THE MAYFLOWER

The Mayflower was the famous ship that transported the Pilgrims from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts (United States), in 1620. The vessel disembarked from England on September 6, and after a grueling journey marked by disease, the ship dropped anchor inside the hook tip of Cape Cod (Provincetown Harbor) on November 11 (dates in Old Style, Julian Calendar).[1] The Mayflower originally was destined for the Hudson River, north of the 1607 Jamestown Settlement. However, the Mayflower went severely off-course as the winter approached and remained in Cape Cod Bay (mapped in 1602 by Gosnold).

On March 21, 1621, all surviving passengers, who had inhabited the ship during the winter, moved ashore as Plymouth Colony, and on April 5, the Mayflower, a privately-commissioned vessel, returned to England.

In 1623, a year after the death of captain Christopher Jones, the Mayflower was dismantled for scrap lumber in Rotherhithe, London, England.

THE USCGC EAGLE

The Eagle is a three-masted sailing barque with 21,350 square feet of sail. It is home ported at the CG Academy, New London, Connecticut. It is the only active commissioned sailing vessel in the U.S. maritime services. She is one of five such training barques in world. Remarkably, her surviving sister ships include the Mircea of Romania, Sagres II of Portugal, Gorch Fock of Germany, and Tovarich of Russia.

Today's Eagle, the seventh in a long line of proud cutters to bear the name, was built in 1936 by the Blohm & Voss Shipyard, Hamburg, Germany, as a training vessel for German Navy cadets. It was commissioned Horst Wessel and served as a training ship for the Kriegsmarine throughout World War II.

Following World War II, the Horst Wessel, in the age-old custom of capture and seizure, was taken as a war prize by the United States. Initially, the Soviet Union selected Horst Wessel during the division of Nazi vessels by the victorious Allies. The four available sailing ships had been divided into three lots--two large merchant ships being grouped together. The Soviets drew number 1, Great Britain number 2, and the U.S. number 3. Before the results of the draw were officially announced, the U.S representative, through quiet diplomacy, convinced the Soviets to trade draws.

And so, on May 15, 1946, the German barque was commissioned into U.S. Coast Guard service as the Eagle and sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany to New London, Connecticut. On her voyage to the United States she followed Columbus's route across the mid-Atlantic. She rode out a hurricane during her trip and arrived in New London safely. She weathered another hurricane in September 1954 while enroute to Bermuda. She hosted OpSail in New York as part of the World's Fair in 1964. She again hosted OpSail in 1976 during the United States' Bicentennial celebration. She hosted the centennial celebration for the Statue of Liberty in 1986 as well.

One of the major controversies regarding the cutter was generated when the Coast Guard decided to add the "racing stripe" to her otherwise unadorned hull in mid-1976. She was the last cutter so painted and many in the sailing community decried the new paint job.

Eagle serves as a seagoing classroom for approximately 175 cadets and instructors from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Sailing in Eagle, cadets handle more than 20,000 square feet of sail and 5 miles of rigging. Over 200 lines must be coordinated during a major ship maneuver. The sails can provide the equivalent of several thousand through-shaft horsepower. The ship readily takes to the task for which it was designed. Eagle's hull is built of steel, four-tenths of an inch thick. It has two full length steel decks with a platform deck below and a raised forecastle and quarterdeck. The weather decks are three-inch-thick teak over steel.

THE CONSTELLATION

The Constellation, launched in 1797. It was named by President Washington for the constellation of 15 stars in the U.S. flag of that time. The frigate was built to serve against the pirates of the Barbary States, but after the outbreak (1798) of hostilities between the United States and France, it was stationed in Caribbean waters. After the Constellation, commanded by Thomas Truxtun, encountered and captured (Feb., 1799) the vessel Insurgente, it won (Feb., 1800) a hard-fought victory over another French frigate, the Vengeance. The Constellation was blockaded at Norfolk, Va. during the War of 1812, but further victories followed in the Mediterranean in 1815. Rebuilt in 1853–55, the Constellation was used against Confederate commerce cruisers in the Civil War and later served (1873–93) as a training ship at Annapolis, Norfolk, and Philadelphia. It became the ship with the longest period of service in the navy when it saw duty as flagship of the U.S. Atlantic fleet during World War II. It is preserved at Baltimore.

THE USS CONSTITUTION

USS Constitution was one of six frigates authorized for construction by an act of Congress in 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed them to be the Navy’s capital ships. Larger and more heavily armed than the standard run of frigate, Constitution and her sisters were formidable opponents even for some ships of the line.

Built in Boston of resilient live oak, Constitution’s planks were up to seven inches thick. Paul Revere forged the copper spikes and bolts that held the planks in place and the copper sheathing that protected the hull. Thus armed, she first put to sea in July 1798 and saw her first service patrolling the southeast coast of the United States during the Quasi-War with France.

In 1803 she was designated flagship for the Mediterranean squadron under Captain Edward Preble and went to serve against the Barbary States of North Africa, which were demanding tribute from the United States in exchange for allowing American merchant vessels access to Mediterranean ports.

Preble began an aggressive campaign against Tripoli, blockading ports and bombarding fortifications. Finally Tripoli, Tunisia and Algeria agreed to a peace treaty.

Constitution patrolled the North African coast for two years after the war ended, to enforce the terms of the treaty.

She returned to Boston in 1807 for two years of refitting. The ship was recommissioned as flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron in 1809 under Commodore John Rodgers.

By early 1812, relations with Great Britain had deteriorated and the Navy began preparing for war, which was declared June 20. Captain Isaac Hull, who had been appointed Constitution’s commanding officer in 1810, put to sea July 12, without orders, to prevent being blockaded in port. His intention was to join the five ships of Rodgers’ squadron.

Constitution sighted five ships off Egg Harbor, N.J., July 17. By the following morning the lookouts had determined they were a British squadron that had sighted Constitution and were giving chase. Finding themselves becalmed, Hull and his seasoned crew put boats over the side to tow their ship out of range. By using kedge anchors to draw the ship forward, and wetting the sails down to take advantage of every breath of wind, Hull slowly made headway against the pursuing British. After two days and nights of toil in the relentless July heat, Constitution finally eluded her pursuers.

But one month later, she met with one of them again — the frigate Guerriere. The British ship fired the first shot of the legendary battle; 20 minutes later, Guerriere was a dismasted hulk, so badly damaged that she was not worth towing to port. Hull had used his heavier broadsides and his ship’s superior sailing ability, while the British, to their astonishment, saw that their shot seemed to rebound harmlessly off Constitution’s hull — giving her the nickname 'Old Ironsides'.

Under the command of William Bainbridge, 'Old Ironsides', met Java, another British frigate, in December. Their three-hour engagement left Java unfit for repair, so she was burned. Constitution’s victories gave the American people a tremendous boost to morale, and raised the United States to the rank of a world-class naval power.

Despite having to spend many months in port, either under repair or because of blockades, Constitution managed eight more captures, including a British frigate and sloop sailing in company which she fought simultaneously, before peace was declared in 1815. After six years of extensive repairs, she returned to duty as flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron. She sailed back to Boston in 1828.

An examination in 1830 found her unfit for sea, but the American public expressed great indignation at the recommendation that she be scrapped, especially after publication of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem 'Old Ironsides'. Congress passed an appropriation for reconstruction and in 1835 she was placed back in commission. She served as flagship in the Mediterranean and the South Pacific and made a 30-month voyage around the world beginning in March 1844.

In the 1850s she patrolled the African coast in search of slavers, and during the Civil War served as a training ship for midshipmen.

After another period of rebuilding in 1871, she transported goods for the Paris Exposition of 1877 and served once more as a training ship. Decommissioned in 1882, she was used as a receiving ship at Portsmouth, N.H. She returned to Boston to celebrate her centennial in 1897.

In 1905, public sentiment saved her once more from scrapping; in 1925 she was restored, through the donations of school children and patriotic groups. Recommissioned in 1931, she set out under tow for a tour of 90 port cities along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts of the United States.

More than 4,600,000 people visited her during the three-year journey. Having secured her position as an American icon, she returned to her home port of Boston. In 1941, she was placed in permanent commission, and an act of Congress in 1954 made the Secretary of the Navy responsible for her upkeep.

Now the oldest U.S. warship still in commission, Constitution remains a powerful reminder of the nation’s earliest steps into dominance of the sea.

THE HMS BOUNTY

A coal carrying merchant ship operating on the coast of England, named the Bethia, was purchased by the Admiralty, renamed the Bounty, and re-commissioned in 1787 for a special mission. She was to sail halfway around the world to Tahiti, collect sapling breadfruit trees and transport them to the West Indies. Owners of the burgeoning British plantations there needed a cheap source of food for the workers.

To lead the mission, the Admiralty picked 33-year-old Lt. William Bligh, who had been the sailing master on the HMS Resolution, on Capt. Cook's last voyage of discovery. Though portrayed as an abusive tyrant by Hollywood, Bligh may be one of the greatest seamen who ever lived.

After trying for 30 days to make it westward around Cape Horn, as he had been ordered, Bligh turned about and headed East; around the Cape of Good Hope, across the whole width of the Indian Ocean, then Northeast into the Pacific, arriving in Tahiti after a l0 month voyage. Bligh and the crew set about collecting the more than 1000 breadfruit plants they were to take to the Caribbean. They spent five months in Tahiti, during which time Bligh allowed a number of the crew to live ashore, to care for the potted breadfruit plants. Without the discipline and rigid schedule of the sea, the men went native. Three crewmen deserted, hoping to spend their days in this tropical paradise; but were recaptured by Bligh and flogged.

Three weeks out of Tahiti, enroute to the West Indies with the breadfruit plants, Master's Mate (Acting Lieutenant) Fletcher Christian, angered and humiliated over the continual abuse from Capt. Bligh took the ship. Of the 44 men on board, 31 sided with Bligh. Of the 31, 18 went over the side to be set adrift in the Bounty's launch with Bligh. The mutineers, numbering about half of the remaining 25 crewmen, but in command of the Bounty having secured all the firearms aboard, sailed the ship to the island of Tubuai. After an unsuccessful three month effort to settle on the island, they returned to Tahiti, put 16 of the crew ashore, some loyal to Bligh, some mutineers. Fletcher Christian and eight Bounty crew, accompanied by six Tahitian men and twelve women, one with a baby, sailed away in the Bounty hoping to hide forever from the long arm of the British law.

Bligh having no charts navigated the launch 3600 nautical miles to safety in 41 days using only a sextant and a pocket watch. Only one man died on the voyage - stoned to death by angry natives on the first island they tried to land on. The launch voyage was a feat of navigation unparalleled to this day.

The mutineers eventually settled on Pitcairn Island, an isolated rock in the Pacific that was misplaced on British charts. They burned the ship in what is now called Bounty Bay and weren't discovered for 18 years.

After all but two of the fifteen men that settled on Pitcairn had been killed in bloody murders, Midshipman Edward Young and Able Bodied Seaman John Adams began building a society based on the ship's bible. Edward Young died in 1800, leaving John Adams the sole survivor. Today their descendants still live there in a moralistic community, clinging to their tiny rock, struggling to survive in today's technological world.

The Rediscovery:
Luis Marden discovered the remains of the Bounty in January 1957. After spotting a rudder from this ship in a museum on Fiji, he persuaded his editors to let him dive off Pitcairn Island, where the rudder had been recovered. Despite the warnings of one islander -"Man, you gwen be dead as a hatchet!" [4]— Marden dove for several days in the dangerous swells near the island, and found the remains of the fabled ship. He subsequently met with Marlon Brando to counsel him on his role as Fletcher Christian1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty. Later in life Marden wore cuff links made of nails from the Bounty.

THE CUTTY SARK

The Clyde-built Cutty Sark was, in 1869, one of the last sailing clippers to be built. She is now preserved in dry dock at Greenwich in London.

The ship is named after the short shirt worn by the fleet-footed witch featured in the poem Tam o' Shanter written by Robert Burns. She was designed by Hercules Linton1869 at Dumbarton,Scotland, by the firm of Scott & Linton, for Captain John "Jock" "White Hat" Willis, and launched November 23 of that year.

Cutty Sark was destined for the tea trade, then an intensely competitive race across the globe from China to London, with immense profits to the ship to arrive with the first tea of the year. However, she did not distinguish herself; in the most famous race, against Thermopylae in 1872, both ships left Shanghai together on June 18, but two weeks later Cutty Sark lost her rudder after passing through the Sunda Strait, and arrived in London on October 18, a week after Thermopylae, a total passage of 122 days. Her legendary reputation is supported by the fact her captain chose to continue this race with an improvised rudder instead of putting into port for a replacement, yet was only beaten by one week.

In the end, clippers lost out to steamships, which could pass through the recently-opened Suez Canal and deliver goods more reliably, if not quite so quickly, which as it turned out was better for business. Cutty Sark was then used on the Australian wool trade. Under the respected Captain Richard Woodget, she did very well, posting Australia-to-England times of as little as 67 days. Her best run, 360 nautical miles (666km) in 24 hours (an average 15kt, 27.75kph), was said to have been the fastest of any ship of her size.

In 1895 Willis sold her to the Portuguese firm Ferreira and she was renamed after the firm. In 1916 she was dismasted off the Cape of Good Hope, sold, re-rigged in Cape Town as a barquentine, and renamed Maria do Amparo. In 1922 she was bought by Captain Wilfred Dowman, who restored her to her original appearance and used her as a stationary training ship. In 1954 she was dry-docked at Greenwich.

Cutty Sark is today preserved as a museum ship and popular tourist attraction. She is located near the centre of Greenwich, in south-east London, close aboard the National Maritime Museum, the former Greenwich Hospital, and Greenwich Park. She is also a prominent landmark on the route of the London Marathon. She flies signal flags on her ensign staff reading "JKWS", which is the code representing Cutty Sark in the International Code of Signals, introduced in 1857.

THE CHARLES W. MORGAN

In the 1840s, a Quaker whaling merchant named Charles W. Morgan ordered a whaleship from the shipbuilders of Jethro & Zachariah Hillman of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The hull and deck of Morgan reflected the industry for which she was built to serve. A typical whaleship has three functions:

1. to serve as a mother ship to a fleet of small whaleboats, which are stored on the davits when not in use,
2. to serve as a factory and a refinery ship with tryworks for extracting oil from the whale blubber,
3. to serve as oil tankers.

Morgan's maiden voyage began on September 6, 1841. She sailed around Cape HornPacific Ocean. On Morgan's three year and four month voyage, she came home with 2,400 barrels of whale oil and 10,000 lbs of whalebone, known as baleen, which was worth around USD$56,000. and cruised the

Later Service:

In her 80 years of service, she would make 37 voyages ranging from nine months to five years. Charles W. Morgan, in total, brought home 54,483 barrels of whale oil and 152,934 pounds of whalebone. She also sailed in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceanscannibal attack in the South Pacific. Between 1888 and 1904 she was based in San Francisco. surviving ice & snow storms, and her crew survived a

Morgan had more than 1,000 whalemen of all races and nationalities in her lifetime. Her crew included not only Americans, but sailors from Cape Verde, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Guadeloupe, and Norfolk Island. The ship's crew averaged around 33 men per voyage. As with other whaleships in the 1800s, Morgan often was home to the captain's family.

Charles W. Morgan was used in 3 movies; the 1916 movie Miss Petticoats, the 1922 Down to the Sea in Ships, and in the 1930s in Java Head.

Retirement: The whaling days came to an end with the perfection of refining petroleum. Morgan was under the care of Whaling Enshrined, Inc. until 1941, when she was transferred to Mystic Seaport, where she still stands to this day.

THE BLUENOSE

Dismayed Nova Scotians hired young Halifax designer William J. Rhuland to design a ship to challenge for the International Fishermen's Trophy. The schooner Bluenose was built by Smith and Rhuland and launched in Lunenburg on March 26, 1921.

In October 1921, after a season fishing on the Grand Banks, Bluenose defeated Gloucester's Elsie and brought the trophy home. In an 18-year racing career Bluenose did not give up the trophy. The American schooners Henry Ford, Columbia, Gertrude L. Thebaud, as well as a number of Canadian vessels built in an effort to surpass Bluenose's remarkable sailing abilities, could not grasp the trophy from her.

The final race series took place in 1938. The Bluenose, by then 17 years of age, defeated the Thebaud one final time. Still handling as smartly as ever, Canada's most famous sailing vessel was a tribute to the Nova Scotia shipwrights and sailors who built her and many other fishing and cargo schooners.

The Second World War ended the era of the great fishing schooners. Replaced by modern steel trawlers, the fleets of sailing salt-bankers no longer set out to challenge the cruel North Atlantic to reap a harvest of cod for the markets of the world.

In 1942, despite the efforts by her Master, Capt. Angus J. Walters of Lunenburg, and others to keep the ship in Nova Scotia, Bluenose was sold to carry freight in the West Indies. The other schooners were gone. Esperanto and Columbia were lost in storms, victims of the treacherous sandbars of Sable Island, which is 90 miles eastward of Nova Scotia and is known as "the graveyard of the Atlantic". Henry Ford and Elsie sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. On January 28, 1946, the Queen of the North Atlantic joined the fate of her greatest rival, the Gertrude L. Thebaud and foundered on a Haitian reef.

In 1955, both Bluenose and Captain J. Angus Walters were inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame for their achievements in the International Fishermen's Trophy races.

DISPLAY CASES

Just wanted to add a picture to give you a better idea of the display cases. They are made of really thick and high quality Lucite (also very heavy!). The boxes are smaller or larger based on the ship that they carry.