Jim Lad

My next model will be the immigrant ship ‘Meteor’. Built at Bremerhaven as the ‘Admiral Brommy’ in 1851, she was purchased by the Hamburg ship owners T.E & C. Vidal in December 1852 and re-named ‘Meteor’. She was not a large ship – her principal dimensions were; Length - 135.70 ft [41.36 m]; Breadth 29.17 ft [8.89 m] and depth of hold 20.54 ft [6.26 m]. She sailed from Southampton on the 17th March 1853 carrying 326 emigrants bound for Australia. Amongst these were Robert and Rachel Laing – my great, great grandparents. The ‘Meteor arrived in Sydney on 3rd July after a voyage of some 108 days. The voyage was described by the Sydney newspapers as ‘excellent’ as only two children died during the passage! The final fate of the ‘Meteor’ is unknown. There are no plans for this ship, however the German Maritime Museum at Bremerhaven were able to provide me with high resolution copies of two excellent paintings of the ship – one as the ‘Admiral Brommy’ and the other (incidentally dated 1853 – the significant year for me) as the ‘Meteor’. I will be using modified hull lines of a similar ship of the period and the two paintings to build a plank on frame model “in accordance with the best available historical information”. It may be a while before anything happens on this build log, as I first have to sort out the very faint and difficult to read plans I have and convert them into something I can use to shape the frames. In the meantime, here are the two paintings of the ship. John

Well, she's finished! Not yet on a stand or in a case, but finished. I completed the sidelights last Monday and fitted them in the shrouds and did a bit of tidying up around the model and that was it. I'm not sure what will happen to her now, but for the moment she'll remain in the model makers' display case at the museum as we currently have an exhibition on pearling showing. Thanks to all those who have encouraged me over the course of the build. Here a few photos. John

She's coming along really nicely, Frederick. John

Helloa Achu, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

Hello John, and another warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

A very nice job indeed, Marcus! John

An excellent start, Bob. John

Can only agree with Druxey! John

A difficult decision indeed on whether or not to replace the thwarts in the boats, Michael. As this is a restoration, I think I might be inclined to replace them - especially as you'll be using the same material. Of course, to be truly authentic, you'll have to find some of the same vintage packaging that the original model makers used! John

Thanks Bedford and David! Johjn

Hello Richard, and a warm welcome to MSW from 'Down Under'. John

Looks very nice in the case, Russ. John

Russ - if it had happened in the normal course of events, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it, but the fact that cut it just as I was thinking that I needed to be careful ......... Pat - Not sure yet Pat; one of the curators has been making comments like, "Oh, that's nice. We don't have a pearler in the collection yet." John

Thanks, Bob! John

Nearly there! Had a good day for work at the museum last Monday (been away since then so unable to post) and have now come close to having the 'Pritt' completed. Just have to do the sidelights, which I had hoped to have complete for next Monday, but things aren't looking good at the moment. My first job last week was to trim off the fag ends from the ratline lashings. As I started trimming I thought to myself, "Better be careful here, or you'll cut the topmast shroud". Next snip and I cut the topmast shroud! It was an interesting exercise to extract the cut shroud from the masthead and splice a new one in place again, but it was soon done. Here's a photo of the dreaded cut shroud plus some photos of the model as it looks at the moment. John

Hello, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

Good to see that you're starting on one of those beautiful Swedish stermers, Bob. John

Excellent work (again), Nils! John

I have a head band magnifer, but don't use it now. I use a simple pair of magnifying reading glasses. The advantage of the glasses over the magnifier is that you don't have that 'beak' sticking out in front of you to bash into model detail while you're rigging. John

Hello Blaine, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

There you go, Popeye - no trouble at all! John

Hello, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

It's good to hear from you again, Helmut. It seems that you've had some really major health problems in the past and it's great to hear that you've been able to 'get back on your feet' again. John

I was away on holiday when you posted your original request. It may be of interest to you that sailing barges, or scow schooners, were a big part of the New Zealand coastal trade in the days of sail. There are a couple of preserved craft over there and quite a bit of documentation. John

Popeye, now we know how big the dolly winch is compared to a penny - but how big is the penny? John