Wall O'text intro.

[sheepsail]

I miss the TRMA.

 

It wan not a site I visited often.  Perhaps once or twice a month.  The last thing the world needs is another model of the Titanic.  I did however enjoy the modeling process, along with research involving support ships such as the Nomadic and the CS Mackay-Bennett.

 

My real passions are watch making and pipe organ building. Those are the forums I mostly follow.   I also have a side interest in volcanoes. 

 

Years ago I worked for Apple in the Imaging division.   I was one of the people known as a Postscript Guru.  I got to know everything there is to know about that printer language.  

 

I even use Postscript as a general purpose scripting language.  I tested fonts, the command line backchannel, and the color imaging operations.  The language can parse anything.

 

When I was in school in the 1970s, I found a book on how spacecraft cameras work.  By chance in one of the non Apple contracts around 1995 I worked for a company that acquired Itek.  The company what made the cameras for the 1960s and 1970s era spacecraft.

 

Not exactly a model ship, I did in the last decade modify a card model of one of the Mariner class spacecraft to represent Mariner 9.  Which is my favorite.  I downloaded nearly 8000 images, which are difficult to read do to data loss and obsolete file formats.  Quite interesting to see images no one has looked at in over 50 years.

 

When I was little I did a lot of card modeling.  Usually the 'Mayflower.'  We visited the site and the ship in 1967, when I was about 7.  I remember I liked to put them into bottles. Usually Orange crush, which had clear sides.  Was really disappointed when we got back to the hotel room and the maid had cleared all the bottles.   Back then it was much easier to recover the deposits as the bottles were washed and refilled.

 

I also collected cathedrals.  These however take up a lot of space.  St Peters sat on top of the refrigerator for years, till the apostles got quite dusty.   It got to the point where I simply let them sit in their flat packs.

 

Two writers I really like are Charles Dickens, and Nevil Shute (Norway).  I have all of their published works.  Jane Austin also rates as I have all her stuff too.  Bit of a romantic I guess.

 

For forty years, I have been involved with the Dickens Christmas fair.  Also the Northern California  Pirate festival.  My education is actually in Film and theater.  I designed sets and stuff for the Big Renaissance faire held in Northern California (Black point.)  We had a full size mock up of the Golden Hind as one of our stages.  (I re-did the Lord Mayors gate house, when the prior one collapsed.)

Nevil Shute wrote a book every Modeler/Miniature mechanic should read.  It is called 'Trustee from the  Toolroom.'  Such is about Sailing ships and small steam engines.  Even Petrol Engines.  This gave me a real interest in scratch building stuff.

 

There were not a lot of Dickens Fairs in the 1990s.  I found myself, as part of the group running Science Fiction conventions.  Even back in the 1980s I would wear my Victorian dresses and watchmaker loupes.  Eventually this became something called steampunk.  The word comes from some novels written back then.  I was one of the first people to re-enact Ada Lovelace.  (really Ada King, nee Byron)

 

I think what I really collect is information.  Over the years I have collected almost everything public about the Antikythera mechanism.  As well As Babbage's analytical engines.  My real passion is the mechanical automatons by the Jaquet-Droz what can write, draw and play musical instruments.  There are also tiny mechanical birds the size of postage stamps what play mechanically.  I collect these as well.

 

Image processing lead me into the world of Photogrameritry.  Which is recovering data from multiple photographs.  I also acquired a rather good CAD program back in the 1990s which I still use.  This is a subject unto itself.  I have spent years messing about with obsolete code drivers and such.  The mathematics behind this are complex and I barely scratched the surface.    To this effect I collect old photography equipment 3D camera stuff and recently since no one wants them APS cameras.   I also have a Photo CD film scanner, and started to make a Holographic projector, until I found the former.

 

I have a full woodworking shop with some metal working tools.  Everything to build a pipe organ.  I also became active in the local Makerspace, what is in an industrial area.  They have the usual 3D printers,  Along with Welding equipment, CNC machines, and my favorite an industrial Laser cutter with about a 1 meter square bed.  Can only cut about 1/4 inch stuff.  There is a lot one can do with that thickness.

 

I built a vacuum forming press for one of the pipe organ projects (to replicate the plaster grill molds.)  

 

I considered making model airplanes. Like the ones Neville Shute wrote about.  I joined some of the modeling sites to download plans of his planes.  None of these were like the TRMA.  Most of the builds seemed to be one and done.  Copied from old magazines and such.  I really want to do some of the merlin engine craft like the spitfire, and the mosquito.  Few people realize these were mostly built by women.

 

The plane though I really want is an Airspeed Oxford, which Shute(Norway) and his partner (Tittle) designed.  Like the cathedrals, and the mariner 9 spacecraft, these would likely up space and collect dust.  I have enough projects for 500 years or more.
 
Somehow into all this mess enter the Endurance.  Yes, that ship.  I sort of mixed up Franklin and Shackleton at first.  A pole is a pole, right?  The Dickensian ships were a bit tubby for my taste.  But the lines of the Endurance, (along with the Aurora, and discovery are beautiful.)  

Somewhere along the lines I found one of the MSW endurance blogs in 2020 or 2021. Which showed all the laser cut parts.  There were also additional notes showing how to fix some of the details.

 

I squirreled all this away in my vast collection of data.   When the ship was actually found, I went to my steammodel folder, only to find I had restored a backup from 2013 over it and all the images were lost.  A reverse image search lead me back here.  I am seriously considering bulding this from the redrawn lines I found here.

 

One book I really liked was called 'The wreak of the Sagwina.' By Keith Robinson, who wrote a lot of popular JA books.  This one was probably the least popular in the school library, but I found it quite interesting.  By chance the Dickens sets were stored in the old Mare Island coal sheds.  More chance last year our maker booth (laser maze)  was in front of self same shed with a huge banner of the Sagwina above it.  (another subject unto itself.)  So this ship is also high on the wish list of models to build.  Someone here started a model, it seems like it was never finished, although it is marked so. 

 

Before the Titanic was found I would have said that the Andra Doria was the most well known passenger ship sinking (at least outside war, since the Lusitania was a war casualty.)

 

Joining MSW is something that has been in the background ever since I became TRMA homeless.  I have been reading it for many years, and some of the regulars actually feel like aquantances.   I sort of intentionally avoided these forums , as there are too many ships.  The best thing though is to choose a few ships to focus on and do one's best to ignore the rest.

 

Edited May 9 by sheepsail
fixed capitalization

[GrandpaPhil]

Welcome!

 

If you like steampunk and card, I would recommend Orel’s line of kits.  They have a phenomenal selection.  They are mostly in 1/200 scale.

Edited May 9 by GrandpaPhil

[Keith Black]

SS, welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard. 

[Jim Lad]

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

 

John

[druxey]

Interesting bio. It ticks off many of my boxes - Dickens, Babbage and Lovelace, Shute, set design (may harpsichords substitute for organs?), steampunk, and, of course, ship models. You've come to the right place, apparently! Welcome indeed, sheepsail!

[Knocklouder]

Bob  M.

[Baker]

[mtaylor]

[CDR_Ret]

Wow, Julie, what an intro! You seem to be what they called a polymath in back in the day.

 

If you need any assistance with getting started in DELTship, I may be able to assist. It's very good for developing fare hydrostatic hull forms but it bogs down when creating lots of fine details.

 

Terry

[Nirvana]

Fascinating story and a warm welcome to MSW.

[Dr PR]

SS,

 

You have an interesting background! It fits the polymath description.

 

Your mention of Mariner 9 photos caught my attention. I have several in-laws that work at JPL. About 30 years ago my brother-in-law was showing me through their library. It had shelf after shelf of ring binders with photos from various space missions. I remember opening up a volume of Ranger pictures, each one closer and closer to the surface of the moon. The last was taken just a few yards before it crashed into the surface. He commented that I was possibly the only person who had viewed those images after that mission was over. They were busy trying to copy the digital images from magnetic tape to DVDs before the data was lost.

 

I hope you develop a keen interest in ship modelling. It will be interesting to see what projects you choose.

[CDR_Ret]

9 hours ago, Dr PR said:

They were busy trying to copy the digital images from magnetic tape to DVDs before the data was lost.

Sadly, this just kicks the inevitable can down the road. Digital media also has a half life. The only way to perpetuate information in any medium is to recopy it before the reading-writing technology becomes obsolete. There is the story about a well-known ancient British history book (The Domesday Book) that was digitized in a proprietary format, involving an immense amount of time and resources. However, within just a few years the digital format became obsolete, negating all that work.

Edited 23 hours ago by CDR_Ret

[sheepsail]

I never asked to be a polymath.   It just sort of happened.

 

No one really cares about things past. Unless it can be bought, sold or traded.

 

I am re reading one of my favorite time travel stories,  Jack Finney's Time and again.   This is one of many variations on the  Twilight zone premise of love crosses boundaries of time.  Sadly this book will probably never be filmed and can never be filmed.   Matheson's Somewhere in time was filmed and there were lawsuits.  (But Finney is the author of the book in the Christopher Reve film. An inside joke.)   See the intro to the Princess bride for the full story.   Ironically Princess bride was filmed.  Even though it was unfilmable.  The plot does show up often and Kate & Leopold did a good job with it. 

 

Time and again can never be filmed because Somewhere in time was filmed. as was Time after Time.    Not only that but the book may have caused the death of John Lennon. in the real world.  (You would have to read it to find out why.)   Then again this was also a favorite book of Carl Sagan, and Steven King.

 

The idea is that if you can surround yourself with enough keys to the past you can be come part of the past.     Knowledge of history is power.  In Finneys version it is a government project.  Huge secret warehouse.  Classes etc.  Much like the way Ren Faires are done.   'Drop the penny'  has a negative connotation in cosplay societies.  And can affect social media groups.

 

Reading the Saginaw, (I read books in parallel)  that puts one into the lives of these 19th century sailors, can get quite heady. 

 

The ownership about ideas  becomes about power.  Sadly a failing with how modern science works.  Archeology gets embargoed.  One ship I would love to model is the Antikeythera ship.   I noted some of this in the above intro.  I spent years studying this as a hobbiest.   Eventually I met some of the researchers.  Who were in town looking for some silicon valley funding.    I may eventually post here walls o' text on the subject.    Cousteau did dives to this.  Ol Pirate Jaque found his treasure.  Coins that date the wreak.  Yet finding anything about this wreak is hitting an academic brick wall.   A single Greek letter in an Xray scan can change whole meanings about historical scholarship.  Expose  lies.    In this world information can be used to launder money.  (like in the hidden sub plot of the recent Andor star wars spinoff.)    George Lucas and his Acolytes are sneaky.    I guess I left out the part in my intro where I have a two year technical degree in film making and did Apprentice work with Sprocket systems.  So I saw the models up close.   It does really make one question the illusions of free will.   There is no creativity in hollywood.   All paint by numbers kit assembly.   Why I chose apple.

 

Fakes like Piltdown man damage what history means to the common person.  There are museums which have 1000s of bones, which statistically show people can be classed into well castes.   Now museums are bad things.   I was a big fan of the likes of Conan Doyle. Houdini, Rbt Houdine etc.  (perhaps I should do a blog under shore leave on how ships influenced these guys and why I want a model of the challenger.)   Doyle really believed they were going to find Atlantis.   So did Cousteau. (And got the Greek government to pay for it.)  

 

So we all know what Nelson and his ships are famous for.  Trafalgar Right?   See who my avatar is.  It is an exercise for the reader.   Lord Elgin chartered those ships.  (not unlike the roman senator did.)   Removing the front of the Parthenon which the Greeks  had blown up.    Napoleon was stealing the nose of the sphinx and the Rosetta stone. 

 

NASA still suffers from the whole face on mars fiasco. So everything has to be checked and vetted.   (Although the engineering data does come down in real time, but only a few can interpret it.)   

 

Pareidolia  is probably why roman ships have faces.  (and do cars and spacecraft.)

 

It looks like there were problems with the shore leave section.   This may be a better place to follow on with these Ideas.    Why do we see faces in things like ships and such.   

 

The short of it is that when you live the past, you start seeing things that are not what they seem.   Complex ideas get turned into simple memes which can mean different things to different people.  Not exactly the big lie, because the big lie is a lie.   I think the past is something best observed from years or decades in the future.  Not so why so many people want to return to it.   Not so fun when you live it.   Then again, from one point of view of those Greko Roman sailors,  I am a person living thousands of years in the future in a mythical land, who's myths were not even created till Some arab traders wrote them down a thousand years in my past.    

 

Not so sure why people want to return to the middle of the 20th century.  The thirteenth was pretty good, I might have been happy there.  I think most people do want to return to the thirteenth century. Nothing really happened then. (That is the 11 and 1200s for those who count on fingers)   Yet people confuse that with the 14th. The black death only lasted four years.  How much information was lost in those four years. Castles and Cathedrals were already 100s of years old then.  Now forget we are 1/4 the way into the twenty first.  And it was the victorians who had the catchphrase "what to do about people who wanted to live in every century but their own. "

 

 

Or as my old Friend Buckaroo Banzai would say.   "No matter where you go, there you are."  

 

 

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by sheepsail