Looking for wooden ship model of Richard Henry Dana's ship, the Brig 'Pilgrim' (Moved and retitled by moderator)

[clpipeline]

Greetings:

 

I have no idea what I am doing - here - or where this might go - But :

nevertheless - I would like to find a wooden ship model of the vessel upon which Richard Henry Dana shipped out of the East coast bound for California. That would be the brig "Pilgrim". I know there is a model of the ship located in new York, but have been unable to find anyone that has it - OR - would build it for me.

 

Please contact me at (email address removed by moderator) if you know anyone that might help.

 

Warmest Personal regards to all you Sea Dogs out there,

 

Respectfully,

 

Calvin Luther

[Anja]

Welcome aboard Calvin,

 

I have removed your email address to prevent spamming.

Also non members can read this. If our members have information for you, they can post it here or send you a PM.

 

I also moved your question here. This is because members are usually quite quick at responding to calls for help, but are more likely to notice them if they are in the relevant forum.

 

Anja

[Windships]

Hello Calvin,

 

A long time since you posted about this brig PILGRIM. But if you are still searching, perhaps I can help you.

Reply to my email at windships@earthlink.net, or by replying to this post.

 

All Best,

 

Randy Biddle

[bdgiantman2]

Hello Randy (and Calvin),

 

I was recently given a model of Brig Pilgrim (Boston 1825) from a coworker. This model is damaged and will be needing repairs which I am interesting in attempting to fix myself. So far I have been unable to find nor obtain any plans of this ship.

[Scottish Guy]

Hi @bdgiantman2, I doubt that Calvin ever will read this since he hasn´t been online for 10 yrs. I started to check if folks of older threads are still online or I don´t even start liking anything nor reply to their posts.

 

Micha

[Windships]

IF you have photos of the model you want to repair please send them as email attachments and I can comment further.

 

Some Questions and Cautions

 

The plans of Pilgrim which have been circulated since the 1940s were made by Cornelius F. Spillane of New York.

In all probability, the model you have will have been made to those plans.

 

Although they can be used to produce a lovely model, his is not an accurate depiction of this brig, based on newer research by my late friend Raymond Aker of Palo Alto, California, and my own c. mid-late 1990s.

 

Spillane's model (exceptional craftsmanship) is in the Mystic Seaport Collection and I had the privilege several years ago to view and photograph it extensively. But I cannot share those images.

 

There are copies of Ray's drawings "out there" and without his or his widow's permission (both deceased) but even they are incomplete.

Nevertheless, I have seen at least three models made using them, and each are excellent.

 

Strangely, I suppose... but although I can confidently say I know more about this Pilgrim than anyone living, I never built a model of her or contemplated doing so.

 

Having just begun my 80th year, I am considering gathering my research and posting it on the new website established by the Drake Navigator's Guild

https://nasoh.org/news-and-announcements/f/new-digital-journal-the-bowsprit

 

If you decide to build a model of Pilgrim, I can also provide guidance toward what I believe will be as accurate a depiction as can be derived from known primary and secondary sources.

 

Not long ago the Historical Society of Old Yarmouthport published my research on an 1830 watercolor proven to be of this Pilgrim, in the harbor of Palermo in 1830.

 

Guessing my entire body of findings -- including a 160+ entry, annotated bibliography, would run to several hundred pages.

 

Too busy for that now, as I am deep into developing a new biography of Howard Irving Chapelle (1901-1975). On letter exchange with Chap is about this Pilgrim, which curiously, Chap had never studied or written about.

 

Good Luck!

windships@earthlink.net

[Bob Cleek]

1 hour ago, Windships said:

Although they can be used to produce a lovely model, his is not an accurate depiction of this brig, based on newer research by my late friend Raymond Aker of Palo Alto, California, and my own c. mid-late 1990s.

...

Having just begun my 80th year, I am considering gathering my research and posting it on the new website established by the Drake Navigator's Guild

https://nasoh.org/news-and-announcements/f/new-digital-journal-the-bowsprit

 It's nice to hear of another who remembers Ray Aker, a man who certainly deserved greater fame than he realized during his lifetime. He was a very good maritime historian and one of the better draftsmen around. I still have the copy of his beautiful technical drawing of the remains of the 1840 whaling bark Lydia uncovered during excavations for the 1978 construction of the San Francisco Peripheral Sewer project which he gave us when I knew the archaeological impact report consultants on that project. 

 

 

http://library.mysticseaport.org/ere/odetail.cfm?id_number=1961.72

 

Without passing any judgment pro or con regarding your posting your research records on the Drake Navigator's Guild's website, as a fellow member of our generation, I would urge you to strongly consider making provision for the donation of your research files to the J. Porter Shaw Library at the San Francisco National Maritime Museum at Fort Mason, San Francisco. As you probably know, the J. Porter Shaw is the best recognized repository for such subject matter these days.  

Edited April 20 by Bob Cleek

[bdgiantman2]

Here are two pictures I took of the model. Seems could be a solid hull model but at this point I am not certain. Have not yet even attempted to unscrew the stand from the ship. The topmasts definitely will need replacing, probably fell off a tabletop and snapped.  One of the deck structures shows what looks like water damage as well, didn't take a picture including this.

[Windships]

Couldn't agree more about our beloved pal Ray Aker.

Glad to hear from another of our crowd celebrating Ray's life and contributions.

It is sad that his work has not received the recognition due.

 

Regarding the JPS Library... Gina Bardi (World's Finest Reference Librarian) is a special Friend of mine. And has contributed generously to my research in a number of areas.

About 8-9 years ago she hosted my presentation on Pilgrim at the JPS. Other institutions did as well (Santa Barbara MM, LA MM, Dana Adobe, Dana Point Historical Society)

 

Coincidentally, I just snapped photos of a collection of images of Steam Schooners which I will probably soon donate to JPS, if not duplicates.

 

Pretty sure the JPS has a copy of the Annotated Bibliography I mentioned, because I sent it (MS Word) to each of the major institutions which helped me.

None of the other material has been placed or shared except as noted with the HSOY, and my guidance for modeling Pilgrim, I think in the Ship Modelers Association of Southern California in a newsletter. I was a member there for decades until we moved to Idaho in June 2017.

 

My interest in the Drake is that the material could be accessible online.

I've not discussed any of this with them, or with Gina.

 

Happy to get to know you Bob.

 

p.s. I have lost track of Jerry and Arlene Blair. Have you heard from him?

[Windships]

On the model (photos posted just now)... Thanks

 

I'd have to check but again, will guess this was built to Spillane's drawings.

Never saw a kit of Pilgrim offered.

 

Up to you how you invest your time. If you just want to refine your skills, then this is as good a project as any.

But as I explained earlier, the result won't be a responsible model of Dana's Pilgrim.

It might be a suitable decorator piece, if that's all you want.

There is more than enough in the surviving model to eliminate any need for reference to plans to put it back together.

 

I've done a number of (and some highly complex) reconditioning projects.

There are ways of "seamlessly" repairing spars and mast doublings which do not require wholesale replacement.

 

Worth mentioning that there are actually three sets of plans aimed at depicting Pilgrim.

The earliest was done by, or for, J. Porter Shaw himself. The model in the San Francisco MM is to those plans.

To Shaw's credit (albeit in fine print on the plan) he calls it a "brig resembling Pilgrim" or words to that effect.

The hull form is close to Ray Aker's reconstruction, whereas that by Spillane is in error by his misunderstanding of what is presented on a vessel Register.

The Depth on the Registers of that period is 1/2 the Breadth, and not the true Depth in Hold. Therefore, Spillane's hold is too shallow.

Other issues too as revealed in the 1830 watercolor mentioned earlier.

 

[Bob Cleek]

39 minutes ago, Windships said:

p.s. I have lost track of Jerry and Arlene Blair. Have you heard from him?

I don't recall the Blairs, so cannot pass on any news about them. Sorry.

[Windships]

Jerry and Arlene live(lived?) in Aptos, and good friends of the late Tom Fordham.

 

Jerry is a superb model builder with many museum pieces and commissions to his credit.

[bdgiantman2]

50 minutes ago, Windships said:

I'd have to check but again, will guess this was built to Spillane's drawings.

Never saw a kit of Pilgrim offered.

 

I have yet to be able to find these Spillane drawings available in my research online. The only stuff I have found was a series of pictures of a higher quality model of Brig Pilgrim by William Hitchcock around 1965 (https://lannangallery.com/products/ship-model-of-brig-pilgrim-by-hitchcock). When I inquired about any plans form those folks they said they didn't have anything. Thank you for the replies.

[Windships]

Ahh, thanks for the reminder.

 

A Hitchcock model named Pilgrim was commissioned from Mike Wall's gallery by the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum many years ago.

Mike told me the basis was the 1837 US brig Washington. A vessel way too sharp in form. The model is finely crafted and still on display.

Those plans are probably in Chapelle's The History of The American Sailing Navy (1949).

 

The Hitchcock family often made more than one model of a particular vessel, so I imagine that's how/why Larry Lannan has/had one as well.

 

Although I have a paper set of the Spillane drawings -- for both Pilgrim and Alert (the latter completely speculative based on the scant descriptions of her in Two Years Before The Mast) I will not propagate copies. A personal preference as an historian to not encourage more models of any vessel where we know that depiction is demonstrably in error.

 

If you saw my study of Hannah (1765-1775) published in 2022 on the NRG web site (Extended Content) and still available there, you will more fully understand why I believe as I do.

ALL the earlier depictions of Hannah in model form, and most notably those built from my friend Harold Hahn's plans are incorrect. This study proves it.

 

Yes, I call my new depiction an "informed speculation" and not a reconstruction or some such. But the "informed" part comes from primary sources about that Hannah, and what we know about vessels of her type, size and purpose of that time period.

 

I try very hard to discourage other builders from wasting their precious time with such fictions.

Which also perpetuates false impressions and understandings of significant vessels in our history.

 

See Mike Morris's build log of his exceptional model to these drawings.

 

Sorry, enough of my "waxing pontifical".

 

Thanks

 

[bdgiantman2]

10 minutes ago, Windships said:

A Hitchcock model named Pilgrim was commissioned from Mike Wall's gallery by the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum many years ago.

Mike told me the basis was the 1837 US brig Washington. A vessel way too sharp in form. The model is finely crafted and still on display.

 

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by saying "a vessel way too sharp in form." Can you clarify please and thank you??

[Windships]

Brigs and other merchant vessels built in the 1820’s were bluff-bowed as compared to later designs which were more toward what we see as clipper ships. 
 

get a copy of Chapelle’s The History of American Sailing Ships (1935)