Bone Boat

It don't float...

Ship models, or models of ships, go back centuries.  They have been found in the tombs of Ancient Egyptian royalty, Ancient Romans made them, as did Medieval Europeans.  There's even a cursed one from the Middle Ages sitting in an English pub...a curse that sees you dead under very strange circumstance should you happen to mess with the little diminutive vessel.  They were made from a variety of materials, the earliest example from wood of different sorts, some being chunky, almost toy like in appearance, some being detailed and more realistic.  There is even one made of paper from the early 18th century, a model of the 70-gun ship Nordstjernan which was used as a draft model by Sweden.  Draft models were official models of a particular vessel, in this case, a warship, used to take measurements and lines whilst constructing the real thing.  Then there was bone...

Ancient Egyptian Examples

In the 18th and 19th centuries, prisoners of war would often be housed on what is known as a prison hulk.  It was a solution that solved a myriad of problems for a warring government, but was at the expense of the poor souls who were placed in such a circumstance.  Prisoners take up space, they are costly, and they are burdensome for the government that must take on their care.  Essentially, they are soldiers and sailors that must be maintained with no real advantage to the nation which holds them.  Very often, prisoner exchanges were used to get men and officers back to their country of origin, and receive men back who were captured.  Men who could fight another day and were a valuable resource, experienced soldiers who were already trained and ready to get back into the fight.  Yet, sometimes negotiations between warring nations break down, and the prisoner exchanges stop, and the prisoners of war kept coming.

The World's first paper model ship c.1720

Whether packed into prisons on land, or floating hulks in the harbor, at some point, time and hope was all these prisoners of war were left with.  Given that time, and some opportunity, many prisoners decided to better their lot and turned to a craft that could bring them a bit of profit...

Many of Britain's prisoners in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, which stretched from 1793 to 1815 were French sailors.  These men knew ships, and many knew ship building, or at least how the thing went together and how it was rigged.  With some ingenuity, and in some cases, a production line, these sailors were able to create ship models that could be sold.  Extra cash for a late 18th and early 19th century prisoner of war meant something other than bad rations, deplorable conditions, and the monotony of daily existence.  So what exactly is a bone ship model?

Prisoners of war had limited supplies.  The most prevalent material was bone from the various meat products on which they were fed.  Beef bones, mostly, were taken, cleaned, cut apart, and carved to make pieces of the ship models.  Everything from a ship's planking, railing, masts, and decorations were crafted from this product.  Sometimes a group of prisoners would create a production line, each man responsible for manufacturing certain parts of the model, and when sold, the money split between them.  Like most, these ship models were not constructed as you would a real ship.  It started with a solid piece of wood, carved down to the desired hull shape, then planked with bone pieces that have been drilled and pinned into place.

Sometimes the gun deck was left open and little bone cannon were constructed, adding to the realism of the piece.  Some examples are exquisite and detailed works of art in and of themselves, almost exact miniature copies of a particular ship, from the figurehead at the bow to the detailed carvings at the stern.

Others, not so much...  

They range from very large to relatively small, highly crafted to crude examples, some exhibiting almost a folk art feel.  Some even had mechanical works on the inside to pull the little miniature cannons in, or open up the gun ports and run the cannon out.  It is amazing what one could do with enough time and ingenuity.

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