BOTTLED SHIPS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 October 1923, Page 1

BOTTLED SHIPS.

Most people, no doubt, know those little ships in bottles which one occasionally comes across m sailor-tow 1 junk stores or adorning mantelpieces of seafaring families. Hie construction of these toys—lor G'.e\ tto really more toys than models- used to be oho oi tho Livounto i!i\oinions co tin* sailonnan. I say "used to be,” for with the windjammer and the windjammer seaman such occupations arc dying cut, and in consequence the bottled ship is already beginning to acquire a certain value as a curiosity which naturally it did not possess when nearly every sailor made one or two during a passage. either as gifts for friends or sweethearts or in the hope of selling them for a "boh” or two in his next port. The point which seems rattier .> puzzle on the face of it is—how (.lid the ship vet into the bottle. And it roitainly does seem n sheer impossibility to have got that elaborate structure el masts, yards, and rigging through the narrow opening available for the purpose.

But the answer is really just as si.iip],. ns the solution of the somewhat similar problem—how did the apple get into the-dumpling?—only that in Die c-i-c the answer is the exact opposite'. The ship is put into the bottle complete through the bottle-neck. oud this, briefly, is how it is. done. . Tho masts which work in a miniature “tabernacle,” lower down to the level of the deck. The yards cockbill parallel with the masts. When evervthing is finished ni.ut' and vards are laid flat, and now corn’s tile crucial moment. However sum I the model is folded, it is still quite a ticklish job to get it m unbroken, m il the artists’ patience is often soroij tried by something carrying away during' the perilous navigation ot Bottleneck Passage. However, we will fancy that for once ■ill has gone well and that the hull is Safely floating on the sticky sea o. the shifi’s paint with which the .veer surface of the battle’s ir.icnor *■.

been coated. ~ , The next thing F 1,1 P ull u: ” and vards into position by means of the threads which have been left loi tin purpose, the threads in turn being < ■«- posed of ill various ways. If Llio ship is represented ui.det s. . the thread i< usually burned oil. H •»' is anchored, it is made to lon<l do' n through the hawserpipe and the r fixed into tho "sea” to simulate t..

anchor-chain. . , Of course the smaller the hot h - and the bigger the ship the letter model. 1 once saw a I'tt o Dill-ng;, with all sail set in a little flat om. hoi tic with the narrowest ol nuU which was a real marvel in »(* Then there are flowers in Ik,tile. u sailors bring home from Mngapmv . . sometimes a crucifix m put into a not

.(i r . ti-y travesty, and ihe less aid about .he the better!