Trip to Mariner's Museum

I got to tour the MM on Oct. 22. I thought it was marvelous. I even got to see the turret of the Monitor and other Monitor artifacts. Also got to speak with one of the model makers. Very interesting. The old ship models may have been lacking in research, but oh the workmanship!

Dave

New info may come as no surprise to those experienced in museum timelines. (The only thing certain is change) The Crabtree Gallery rehab at Mariners' has been (unofficially) pushed into 2006. Incidentally, the Gibbs gallery referred to earlier is gone as is the exquisite scale fire engine. Significant construction going on at that end of the Great Hall of Steam. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, groundbreaking for the Monitor Center was held last weekend (Oct. 24, 2004) and completion is scheduled for spring 2007.

Mr. Tilley, Thanks for the update re: termites. The Swedish vessel was also delivered to Oregon in frame. It was never finished; the Statenyacht, however is quite good. A stack of papers accompanied the ships to OR but the folks there have no knowledge of the "journal" of Crabtree's progress on the ships. Indeed, they didn't even have sufficient staff to go through the papers given to them except to note that a very large scrapbook was among them. I read the article alluding to the record of building the Statenyacht and predicting that this "may ultimately be best known of his achievments." The Jamestown ships......one has the initials "WSJ" I believe, pencilled on the keel! No one knows why.

I don't remember a great deal about the Newport News Shipbuilding model shop. A lot of people seem to think it's normal for maritime museums to build their own ship models; it isn't. In fact the arrangement the Mariners' Museum had with Newport News Shipbuilding was almost unique.

As I recall the NNS shop and the Mariners' Museum shop were in fact one and the same. The shipyard paid the personnel (four or five guys, I think) and the museum provided the space. One big purpose of the operation was to keep talented and trained artisans on the payroll during the Great Depression. The museum was brand new in those days, and looking for stuff to exhibit. The shop produced a series of models, all, I believe, on 1/48 scale, that became the core of the museum's model collection. I probably can't list all of them, but the ones I remember are the U.S.S. Michigan, the Spanish-American War-vintage freighter El Sud, the U.S.S. Monitor, the U.S.S. Merrimack, the C.S.S. Virginia, the S.S. America, and a tugboat whose name I've forgotten. I'm sure there were others. I believe the model shop shut down when WWII started, though I may be incorrect about that. Since then the museum has built no models for itself.

I did have the good fortune to interview a gentleman named Sumner Bessey, who was in charge of the shop; I assume the text of the interview is somewhere in the museum's files. He was a most interesting character. I also had the great pleasure and honor of knowing Harold Sniffen, long-time curator who was largely responsible for the procurement of those models. He was one of the finest gentlemen I've ever met. His passing a few years ago was a huge loss to the museum and the community.

Those grand old 1/48 steamer models (built by various commercial firms and individuals from all over the world) are, to my notion, among the real treasures of that museum. I had the opportunity to do restoration on quite a few of them while I worked there. The hours I spent on that project are among the most pleasant memories I have of the place.

Wow...alot of stuff goin on here! Thanks JTilley for the information on the photos. Being an aerospace modelmaker myself, I love looking at the ship models and the beautiful workmanship that was used to build them. I would have loved to have worked for the NNS model shop back in its heyday. ( Of course, I wasnt born until 1964! )

Regards, Dan

I knew there was another Crabtree yacht model; I had a vague recollection that it represented a Swedish vessel. My memories about all this stuff are getting old now, but all I can recall is that Crabtree was working on the model and was keeping it under wraps. (As you undoubtedly know, his and Mrs. Crabtree's relations with the Mariners' Museum were pretty rocky for a while there.) One story had it that he was taking photographs of it as he worked on it, with the intention of publishing a book about its construction. I never saw it.

There's one Crabtree-related matter about which I've always been a little curious. The National Park Service visitor center at Jamestown has models of the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery that, according to the label, were built by August Crabtree. I've always found that a little difficult to swallow. They appear to have solid hulls, and in general just don't look like his workmanship style. The Park Service keeps good records; I can't imagine that any deliberate deception is going on there. But I've never seen any reference to those three models in anything I've ever read about Crabtree.

Regarding the termites - there's actually not much to tell. One of the curatorial technicians came back to my office one day with the news that some insects were buzzing around in the case of Crabtree's Venetian galleass. He and I opened the case, grabbed some samples of the bugs, and identified them as termites. We then called the museum's pest control service (Orkin, Terminex, or somebody like that; I don't remember), and got them to send somebody out before the Crabtrees made their next visit. The technician and I got all the live and dead bugs out of the case. I think we spotted the problem and dealt with it before the termites did any damage to the model.

QUOTE: Originally posted by jtilley Some of the stories I could tell about the Crabtree collection don't belong in print, or anywhere other than in the darker recesses of my senile brain. I will say that I think much of the hype that surrounds those models is justified and much of it isn't. The workmanship on the best of the Crabtree models (e.g., the Venetian galleass and the French galley) is among the finest I've seen anywhere. The "Armed Brig," as we started calling it back in the early '80s, is no more or less remarkable than any of several hundred others that have been built from the same, utterly inaccurate plans that were published in Mechanix Illustrated back in the 1920s. (They supposedly represented the Continental brig Lexington, and they've been thoroughly discredited.) Crabtree was an extraordinarily talented artisan; he wasn't much of a researcher. (To be fair, few if any ship modelers in those days were.) He also, like any other ship modeler, improved as he gained experience. A close examination of the models makes it pretty clear that some were built decades after others. In the little book I wrote for the museum (back in 1982, if I remember right) I described the Crabtree collection as "a pioneering effort." I'll stick with that verbiage. In terms of historical accuracy they most emphatically do not represent the state of the art as of 2004 - but to expect them to do so would be unreasonable. In my opinion they should be viewed as fascinating and even inspiring works of art , and manifestations of a most unusual character. So far as the models themselves are concerned, I'll leave it at that. I will make note of one other point, though. A good bit of the credit for the Crabtree Gallery's reputation belongs to the exhibit designer, Bob Brushwood, and the longtime curator Harold Sniffen. The two of them came up with the idea of displaying the models in a darkened room with dramatic, gold-tinted lighting, and Brushwood figured out how to make it work. The models would be worth looking at under any circumstances, but the lighting makes the gallery. I recall one illuminating (pardon the expression) incident when I worked on the models, back in the early '80s. That was when we were working on the color photos for the book. Since the models were coming out of the cases anyway, we took the opportunity to do some conservation work on them. (They didn't need much, but the clear creosote that Mrs. Crabtree had applied to them over the years, supposedly as a preservative, had done some damage.) One day I had the Dutch yacht model in the curatorial work room, sitting on a block of foam rubber under ordinary florescent lights. Several staff members stuck their heads in on their way to lunch and asked, "Where'd the model come from?" When I responded, "That's a Crabtree model," they couldn't believe it. The difference, of course, was the lighting. Whoever the current curator in charge of ship models at that museum is, he or she will have my sympathy when those models come out of their cases - and when they go back in. I particularly remember the dozens of oars on the Venetian galleass. In looking idly at the model in its case I'd sometimes wondered how the oars were attached. When we took the model out of the case I discovered that they weren't. Getting them back into position more-or-less symetrically was an interesting challenge, since only one side of the case could be opened. I remember sitting on a stool with my arms reaching under the model, staring into a mirror that one of the curatorial technicians was holding on the other side of the case. Why Crabtree didn't pin those oars into place is beyond my comprehension. Enough. Those are the more-or-less good memories. Let's try to forget the others - like the time we found termites in one of the cases....

Thank you, Mr. Tilley, for your prompt and informative response. Truthfully, I am interested in the termites! An article in a late 40's newspaper refers to all but the Pinta so I gather this was the last built in this collection (probably completed in '48 or '49). Examination of the Pinta in comparison with the Dutch Yacht does indeed show a higher level of skill and workmanship. You are, no doubt, aware of the second Dutch Statenyacht built in the mid-seventies and sent, upon August's death, to the Oregon Maritime Center in Portland. The Center has closed its doors and this yacht is in a bank vault in Portland. I'm lobbying to retrieve it and include it in the redone gallery but i've not met with much success thus far. Was Crabtree's grandfather really a shipwright in New York?

Some of the stories I could tell about the Crabtree collection don't belong in print, or anywhere other than in the darker recesses of my senile brain. I will say that I think much of the hype that surrounds those models is justified and much of it isn't.

The workmanship on the best of the Crabtree models (e.g., the Venetian galleass and the French galley) is among the finest I've seen anywhere. The "Armed Brig," as we started calling it back in the early '80s, is no more or less remarkable than any of several hundred others that have been built from the same, utterly inaccurate plans that were published in Mechanix Illustrated back in the 1920s. (They supposedly represented the Continental brig Lexington, and they've been thoroughly discredited.) Crabtree was an extraordinarily talented artisan; he wasn't much of a researcher. (To be fair, few if any ship modelers in those days were.) He also, like any other ship modeler, improved as he gained experience. A close examination of the models makes it pretty clear that some were built decades after others.

In the little book I wrote for the museum (back in 1982, if I remember right) I described the Crabtree collection as "a pioneering effort." I'll stick with that verbiage. In terms of historical accuracy they most emphatically do not represent the state of the art as of 2004 - but to expect them to do so would be unreasonable. In my opinion they should be viewed as fascinating and even inspiring works of art , and manifestations of a most unusual character. So far as the models themselves are concerned, I'll leave it at that.

I will make note of one other point, though. A good bit of the credit for the Crabtree Gallery's reputation belongs to the exhibit designer, Bob Brushwood, and the longtime curator Harold Sniffen. The two of them came up with the idea of displaying the models in a darkened room with dramatic, gold-tinted lighting, and Brushwood figured out how to make it work. The models would be worth looking at under any circumstances, but the lighting makes the gallery.

I recall one illuminating (pardon the expression) incident when I worked on the models, back in the early '80s. That was when we were working on the color photos for the book. Since the models were coming out of the cases anyway, we took the opportunity to do some conservation work on them. (They didn't need much, but the clear creosote that Mrs. Crabtree had applied to them over the years, supposedly as a preservative, had done some damage.) One day I had the Dutch yacht model in the curatorial work room, sitting on a block of foam rubber under ordinary florescent lights. Several staff members stuck their heads in on their way to lunch and asked, "Where'd the model come from?" When I responded, "That's a Crabtree model," they couldn't believe it. The difference, of course, was the lighting.

Whoever the current curator in charge of ship models at that museum is, he or she will have my sympathy when those models come out of their cases - and when they go back in. I particularly remember the dozens of oars on the Venetian galleass. In looking idly at the model in its case I'd sometimes wondered how the oars were attached. When we took the model out of the case I discovered that they weren't. Getting them back into position more-or-less symetrically was an interesting challenge, since only one side of the case could be opened. I remember sitting on a stool with my arms reaching under the model, staring into a mirror that one of the curatorial technicians was holding on the other side of the case. Why Crabtree didn't pin those oars into place is beyond my comprehension.

Enough. Those are the more-or-less good memories. Let's try to forget the others - like the time we found termites in one of the cases....

The Crabtree Miniatures are scheduled for a refurbishment and gallery upgrade in the early fall of 2005. This will probably take three or four months. I'm interested in your comments on the Gallery, Mr. Tilley. I'm a volunteer (since 1991) and am a Crabtree interpreter. I've gathered a great deal of info from various sources, among then a Captain Engen in Portland, OR (Crabtree's home town) who was a close friend of August and Winnifred. I met both in 1961 and had a close relationship with Winnifred. Winnifred is 92 and in a Long Term Care facility in Newport News.

Dan, thanks for posting the pictures!

Mr. Tilley, thanks for the stories!

Regards,

Hey boybuddho

I've been to the Mariner's Museum too! Did you get to see the Augustus F. Crabtree Gallery? What do you think of it?

Matt

Nothing - including any museum on earth - can raise middle-aged blood pressure like a teenager. If yours like museums you're a lucky person.

I remember some years back when my wife and I decided to take the kids to the Science Museum of Virginia, in Richmond. The older kid absolutely refused to get out of the car; there was no way he was going to go to a (yuchhh!) museum. So my wife took his wrists and I took his ankles, and we made something of a spectacle of ourselves lugging him up the great stone steps of the museum (while his little sister offered appropriate commentary). Then we got him through the front door, a gigantic dinosaur leaned down over him and roared at him, and from then on everything was fine. He and his sister spent the whole afternoon running around the place having a ball - and maybe learning something in the process. That's a museum that knows how to put itself across to the public - including the teenage sector.

I guess I can consider myself fortunate that I am just a museum patron so that my blood pressure remains as low as my teenage children allow it to. The Mariner's Museum is a fine facility ( at least to an outsider ) and is one of the few museums that I haven't had to drag my kids kicking and pulling away from. The USS Monitor exhibit has a lot of promise and I look forward to its completion. The fire engine exhibit has puzzled me though, it does seem out of place.

Oops. In the post I wrote a few minutes ago I referred to "the three pictures." that's because the fourth one hadn't popped up on the screen before I hit the "reply" button.

The fourth one is of William Francis Gibbs's fire engine model, and it has a brief story too. Gibbs was a great naval architect - the designer of the S.S. United States, among many other important vessels. After he died his family donated a bunch of money to the Mariners' Museum for the construction of a gallery devoted to his achievements. The gift had several strings attached; one was that the museum agree to exhibit Mr. Gibbs's favorite model in perpetuity. Thus it is that a maritime museum is exhibiting a model of a fire engine.

I now teach museum studies at East Carolina University, and use that anecdote as a means of convincing my students that a good museum never, never accepts donations with strings attached.

I used to work for that institution - specifically, as "Assistant Curator for Collections" between 1980 and 1983. I can testify that, although the life of a museum curator may seem like a heavenly one from the standpoint of the hobbiest, it isn't what it's cracked up to be. In more recent years I've gotten thoroughly disenchanted with the current management of the MM, and I avoid the place.

Two of the three pictures did, however, bring back some nice memories. The old lightship was one of my favorites. The model was built for the U.S. Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, and was quite a remarkable piece of work. By the time we worked on it, it had fallen into pretty serious disrepair; the restoration of it was a major project that went on for a couple of months. I remember that one particular problem concerned the sheets of "glass" in the lamp housings. Technology in 1876 being what it was, they were made of mica. Several of them were missing and the others were cracked and discolored. From the standpoint of conservation ethics it probably would have been ok to replace them with clear plastic, but that somehow didn't seem right. So I went on a quest for sheet mica - which, I confess, neither I nor anybody else in the museum had ever had occasion to purchase. After a long series of phone calls I made the embarrassing discovery that there was a mica factory in Newport News. One of its sales reps loaded me down with more sheets of mica than the museum would ever be able to use - free of charge.

The Juneau came after I left. The S.S. America model was built in the museum's model shop back in the 1930s - when it was the supreme example of high tech naval architecture as defined by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock, just down the road. In my time the paint on the hull and superstructure started falling off in big sheets. Stripping that model (it's about 15 feet long and weighs almost a ton) down and starting the painting process over was beyond our in-house capacity, so we farmed the job out to two local modelers, Paris Aikin and Marvin Bryant. Marvin was a particularly remarkable man. A few years earlier he'd suffered a stroke, which had robbed him of the use of his right arm. He and Paris nonetheless (as the photo makes clear) did a beautiful job restoring the America. (I vividly remember the great day when we lugged it, in a U-Haul truck, over to Paris's garage. It took eight strong young backs wielding 2x4s to pick it up.) That particular project brings back mixed memories, though. Shortly after it was finished Marvin had another stroke, which left him completely paralyzed and unable to speak. He and Paris both passed away a few years later. Both were classy gentlemen, and I like to think of the America as a fitting tribute to them.

It was, if nothing else, an interesting place to work. Someday I may write a book about my experiences with the Crabtree model collection - which has a story that's alternately frustrating and amusing (e.g. - the day we found termites in one of the Crabtree cases, and had to get them out before Mrs. Crabtree noticed them.) But at the present time, according to my wife, my blood pressure goes up to a dangerous level whenever I get within a mile of the place.

It is the USS Juneau, Paul. I haven't filled in the information for the photos yet. I have to go back and and dig up the names and scales of some of the ships.

Dan

Nice photos, Dan! I like your web site, too. Can you identify the cruiser in the top photo?
Is it USS San Juan?
Paul