Model of a Timber Ship

Entry

Polychromed wooden ‘bread-and-butter’ model of a three-masted ship.

The model has a straight stem and a pointed bow. The stern has a square tuck. In the transverse section the ship is completely square with a flat bottom, the stern is sharp. The keel is broad and the ship has a protruding rim around the bilges. The sheer is completely flat. The model has one wale. Below the waterline the hull is painted white. On deck two deckhouses, a pair of bitts and a capstan are specified. The model is fitted with three masts and a bowsprit.

The timber ship or timber raft Columbus was built by Charles Wood in 1824 at Anse du Fort, Isle of Orleans, four miles from Quebec. The ship measured 301 feet in length over the gun deck. Timber rafts were large rafts made of masts and lumber, rudimentary shaped into hulls and rigged, to be broken up at arrival and sold for their timber. They also carried a cargo of timber. The prime motivation was to lower the freight costs, but the rafts also provided a means to avoid the dues on imported timber. Columbus successfully sailed to London, where it was relieved of its timber cargo. The undertaking proved such a financial success that, contrary to Wood’s advice, they decided to send the ship back across the Atlantic for another timber cargo instead of breaking it up. This voyage proved fatal.