Ship in a Bottle

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Ship In A Bottle

Background

The ship is obviously much larger than the opening in the bottle. Many people think the underside of the bottle is cut away; the ship, however, is made of wood and its sails and rigging are paper and thread. The secret is that the ship's hull is small enough to fit through the bottle's neck, but the sails and spars (the masts and sail supports) are collapsible and can be pulled into position using controlling threads.

History

The history of ships in bottles is the history of the two major components. Sailors on ships of all sizes and types have used scrap wood, cloth, and rope to make model or toy boats to pass long hours at sea. This model-making dates back perhaps 4,000 years. The Egyptians buried miniature ships with their mummified masters, and the Phoenicians, Etruscans, and Greeks produced models that are shown in wall murals.

The merging of model ships with bottles is a much more recent development, due largely to the poor quality of early bottles. Models of human and heavenly figures were put in bottles as early as about 1750 and may have originated in monasteries, when, again, many quiet hours were available for crafts. Character and puzzle models were put in bottles of flawed glass and of shapes that help date them. When techniques of manufacturing glass improved, glass bottles were clearer, less distorted, and free of bubbles and heavy seams. Today, minor distortions, soft tints, and the antique appearance of hand-blown bottles are seen as advantages.

Model ships were not bottled until about 1850 when the great clipper ships plied the seas from port cities in England and America. These ships had as many as seven masts and many sails for the speeds needed to cross oceans and deliver products and profits. They were also equipped with guns and the large crews of sailors for manning the rigging and weapons. The date of the first construction of a ship in a bottle is unknown; but the patience needed to fold the masts in the bottle was a challenge, and the bottle protected the model. Most of the classic sailing ships have been preserved in bottles and in maritime museums.

Raw Materials

The wood for the hull and the glass bottle should be chosen after the model is selected; the proportions of the ship are better suited to some bottles, and measurements of the ship parts are controlled by the inner diameter of the neck of the bottle. Usually, the wood is a hardwood such as spruce or fir, and it should be close-grained with no flaws. Bottles with flat sides rest on shelves or tables easily. Three-sided bottles with "dimples" also display attractively. Round bottles require stands or supports for stability. Ships with more than three masts look sleek in slender, elongated bottles. Sloops, schooners, and other ships with one or two masts fit shorter bottles well.

Other wood supplies include bamboo cocktail skewers or small-diameter dowels for spars, popsicle sticks that can be carved into deckhouses and lifeboats, wood matching the hull for a display stand, and larger blocks of scrap wood for a raised work stand. Sandpaper in grades from about 120-200 for smoothing the hull and other wood is also essential.

Thread, wire, glue, and clear nail polish are used for the rigging, metal trim like rails, and gluing pieces together (the nail polish is also used as glue). Beeswax helps seal the fine wisps of thread together. Paint thinner, model enamels in a variety of colors, and fine paintbrushes are the materials and tools for painting the ship parts. Medium-weight white bond paper is cut into the shapes of the sails, and seams are drawn on with a pencil that is also used to curve the sails.

The "sea" beneath the ship can be made with one of two materials. Linseed oil putty and artists' oil colors, especially white, shades of blue, and some green, are the materials for one method. In the second technique, Plasticene (artists') clay is used to shape the sea. The clay is manufactured in a wide range of colors, so the model builder can choose the best sea color or combination and use white clay slivers for whitecaps.

The method of sealing the bottle should also match the style of the ship and bottle, and the method dictates the materials. Corks, red sealing wax, and cotton fishing line tied around the neck of the bottle in Turk's Head or other sailors' knots are a common combination. Finally, the underside of the bottle (or back of a display board) should be inked with white enamel describing the model.

The hobbyist also needs a selection of simple tools like Exacto knives, a hobby drill with fine bits, and miniature screwdrivers, saws, and a vise. Some tools have to be made for the specific bottle and model size. These include wire tweezers, scoops, and tampers for reaching the back of the bottle and for scooping and tamping putty or clay into place. Clothes hangers can be cut and shaped into long handles for these tools, and pieces cut from a tin can should be soldered to the wire to finish these.

Design

The ships that are featured in bottles are historical subjects, and part of the modeler's skill is recreating a miniature version of the original including the colors it was painted, the carving of its figurehead, and the national flag at the time the ship sailed. Design aspects of the ship are the modeler's choice of which ship to build and his or her depth of research. Crafters should begin with a simple model and learn some of the basic nautical terms for sails, rigging, and parts of a ship.

Apart from the ship, other aspects of the display are the crafter's choice. These include the type of bottle and display stand or wall mount, decorations like rope edging and sailors' knots, and other touches inside the bottle.

Bottles may be chosen for size, shape, color, character, or eccentricity. Sizes can range from 3 in³ (50 cm³) to 2.7 qt (3 l). A ship can be finished in a large bottle with a companion version in a tiny bottle. Pairs of identical bottles and ships have been sealed together mouth-to-mouth and mounted on an elevated display stand to emphasize the unusual construction. Ships have also been sealed in light bulbs from large, clear globes to Christmas tree bulbs.

Ultimately, the most successful designs balance creativity and faithfulness to historical accuracy and realism. Small vessels should sail on green or greenish blue near coastal water, rather than the deep blue of the open ocean. Similarly, ships do not confront violent seas in full sail, so the modeler needs to show restraint in painting whitecaps. Proportions of masts and rigging to hulls, deck houses, lifeboats, and flags should be as true as possible because some errors will be obvious even to someone who has never seen a ship in a bottle before.

The Manufacturing
Process

When the ship and its bottle have been selected, all measurements of both should be checked and double-checked. The ship and its collapsed parts must fit through the neck of the bottle and must not hit the top or sides of the bottle when the masts are erected. The modeler cannot forget to add in the thickness of the planned sea under the ship. The bottle should be cleaned and dried.
If the sea is to be made of putty, this is the next step. The putty is mixed with oil paint in a shade suiting the sea; partial blending of several colors will create the right tint and add variety to the ocean's colors. The sea should also be dark so the ship and waves are visible. The crafter uses a custom-made scoop to spoon the putty in the bottle. A wire tamper is then used to spread the putty and shape some waves and a flat area for the base of the ship's hull. Smudges should be cleaned from the sides of the bottle, and it must be left open until the putty is dry. Whitecaps, wakes, and waves should be touched with white paint when the putty is dry. If putty is used, the sea should be made before the model is carved and finished; if Plasticene clay is the ocean water, the same process should be followed after the ship is constructed and when the crafter is ready to tamp the ship into the clay.
Construction of the ship begins with carving the hull. The block of wood should be gripped in a vise until the basic shape, curved sides, and deck are cut out. Chiseling out the extra wood makes raised parts of the deck and the bulwarks around the edge of the deck. The bow and stem (front and rear ends) of the ship are shaped next, and the hull is cut away from the host block of wood. The hull should be sanded with increasingly fine sandpaper and coated with clear nail polish that will seal the wood and "varnish" the deck. The outer hull is then painted with two coats of enamel of the correct colors. Thread is used to mark straight lines showing gun ports and other lines.
The deck is finished, but details can be added by cutting lifeboats, hatches, and deckhouses from wood skewers or popsicle sticks. Other trim like metal rails, stanchions (posts), and davits supporting the lifeboats can be made from wire and inserted in holes drilled with a fine bit. Clear nail polish again glues these details in place and coats the wire. Tiny hitches can be tied on the stanchions.
The wooden supports for the sails are collectively called spars. The spars include masts, the bowsprit (a single spar projecting from the bow or front of the ship), yards (spars that hold square sails and cross a mast), booms (spars along the bottom edges of fore-and-aft sails), and gaffs (spars along the top edges of fore-and-aft sails). The spars and rigging must be true to the ship being modeled or the model will not appear authentic. Spars usually have to be on the order of 0.06 in (0.16 cm) in diameter. Birch doweling or bamboo skewers are used to make the spars but are larger in diameter and should be sanded to be more slender and round. Masts are larger in diameter than other spars and, ideally, should taper from bottom to top. Completed spars are coated with clear nail polish to prevent the wood or bamboo from splitting and to add a glossy finish. Holes for rigging lines and holes at the bases of the masts for wire pivots are drilled next.
No. 30 gauge wire is fed through the base of each mast and bent in a U-shape with the two arms projecting down to construct a pivot. After the pivot ends are fastened into matching holes on the deck, the pivots will act as hinges to lower the masts and raise them again inside the bottle.
The bowsprit is the first spar that is glued or drilled into the foredeck. The threads that will be used to raise the masts will surround the bowsprit, so it has to be fixed securely to the hull. A fine drill point is used to drill holes through the spars for the rigging. Sewing thread tipped with nail polish to stiffen the ends is appropriate for all rigging.
Each mast with its set of spars including yards, gaffs, and booms is assembled as a unit. Types of knots have to be chosen carefully because some lines of rigging run fore and aft and others side to side. Rigging that is tied in the wrong direction, with the wrong knots, or too tightly will prevent small and fragile pieces from folding to fit into the bottle and from being erected inside the bottle.
After each mast and its spars are complete, its position on the deck should be marked and holes should be drilled for the pivot wire or hinge. The pivot wires for all masts should be inserted in the holes and checked to confirm that the masts will lie almost parallel to the deck and that the spars will also turn to parallel to the long axis of the ship. When the spars are proven to move freely, the masts can be glued in place. Later, after the sails are fixed in place, the tips of the spars will be painted white for visibility.
The stays or controlling lines that will be used to raise and lower the spars, rigging, and sails are tied to the masts using clove hitch knots or running them through holes and the masts, hull, and bowsprit. All of the knots and holes must be positioned above other spars on the masts so the lines will not hang up on the sails. The lines have to extend at least 18 in (46 cm) below the hull and bowsprit for enough working length to erect the masts later. This excess should be tied to hooks or tacks in the work stand supporting the model.
The masts are stabilized on the sides with shroud lines that are attached to the bulwark, which is the rail-like edge of the hull extending above the deck. The shroud lines have to extend from immediately to the sides of each mast or to the bulwarks aft of the masts so they will not prevent the masts from being folded aft to pass through the mouth of the bottle. An 18-in-long (46-cm-long) piece of thread is knotted at one end, pulled through the inside of the forward hole on the starboard (left) side of the bulwark until the knot stops at the hole and further threaded through the hole in the mast. The thread is then run outside the port side of the bulwark, through the outside of the forward hole to the inside then wound on the inside of the bulwark through to the next hole on the port side and back through the mast. This process continues until the shroud lines are complete, the mast stands at the correct position, and the lines are tight. Nail polish is then painted on the thread on the inside and outside of the bulwarks; when the polish dries, the thread should be cut. Shroud lines are attached to each mast by the same method. Enamel should be painted over the shroud line holes on the hull to blend with the existing paint.
A square-rigged vessel requires further rigging called lifts and braces. They are tied to the ends of the yards and passed through holes in the masts. Each lift rises from one end of a yard through a hole in the mast above the yard and back to the other end of the yard. Each brace attaches to one end of the yard, passes through a hole in the mast behind the mast supporting the subject yard, and is tied to the opposite end of the yard. In other words, the lift rises perpendicular to the deck, and the brace parallels it. This rigging allows the yards to be raised and lowered and moved fore and aft, like those on a true square-rigger. All rigging knots should be touched with clear nail polish to seal them.
Medium-weight bond paper is excel-lent for sails because it can be easily marked and curled. Cloth can also have weaves and thicknesses that are too large for the scale of the model. Soaking it in tea or coffee, drying it, and ironing it can "age" the paper. The sails should be drawn on the paper to match the dimensions on the plan. After cutting out the sails, each one should be held in position against its spar to confirm the fit. The seams and reef points (short lengths of rigging that pull up the bases of the sails) are drawn on the sails with a sharp-pointed pencil. The pencil is also used to curve each sail by wrapping the sail around it. The sails are glued in place with clear nail polish, but some are glued along one side only so the mast and other spars will fold back. The edges that should be glued must be carefully checked.
As noted in Step 2 above, the "sea" in the bottle can either be made of putty before the ship model is constructed or from Plasticene when the ship is finished and ready to be pressed into in the bottle. Plasticene has the advantage of providing its own adhesive effect. If Plasticene is used as the sea, it should be added to the bottle at this point in the construction process. Otherwise, the bottle with the putty sea should have glue placed on the flat pad prepared earlier to hold the ship. It will stay wet in the confines of the bottle until the ship is collapsed to fit in the bottle.
To collapse the ship, the controlling lines attached to the work stand should be untied. Beginning with the aft (rear) mast, each mast should be lowered, and the spars should be turned to parallel the masts. The sails will extend over the bulwarks and should be wrapped around the hull. The stem of the ship should be inserted in the bottle first. When most of the ship is in the mouth of the bottle, long tweezers should be used to support the rest of the model to guide it into the bottle. With the model gripped with the tweezers and well inside the bottle, the lines (extending outside the bottle) should be pulled gently and in the correct order to raise the masts from fore to aft and to align the spars. The model can then be put on the pad of glue or Plasticene and pushed down with the tamper. The rigging may have tangled during the lowering and raising of the masts and can be untangled when the hull is stuck in place. Similarly, the sail alignments can be corrected. The whole process of inserting the ship in the bottle and unfurling and correcting its parts must be done carefully so the sails are not torn or other damage is not done.
After the sea dries, the masts should b e fastened in their permanent positions. The stay or controlling lines should be pulled and taped to the outside of the bottle. They should be secured to the bowsprit with drops of nail polish, then the tape holding the lines should be removed to test the security of the masts. If they keep their positions, the lines can be cut where they pass through to the underside of the bowsprit. Final corrections can be made to the rigging and sails.
The bottle is sealed with a cork, but this can be cut off flush with the mouth of the bottle or left partially extended. The bottle can be resealed with its metal screw-on cap, if appropriate. All seals can be anchored with sealing wax. Cotton fishing can be tied into a Turk's Head knot commonly seen on ships and nautical items. A sequence of knots forms a line that can be wrapped around the bottle's neck. The modeler's name, date of construction, and the type and name of the ship can be written on the underside of the bottle or engraved on a metal tag.
To provide the finishing touch, a wooden display stand or wall mount can be constructed to complement the model. The ship in the bottle must remain the focal point, and, ideally, the stand will consist of rope, wood, or "period" materials rather than modern choices. The range of possibilities is large, but some research and woodworking techniques are useful in selecting a stand and finishing it elegantly. Displaying the model at eye level and lighting it attractively should also be considered.

Quality Control

The final impact of a ship in a bottle depends on the crafter's skill in every step of research, planning, selecting the bottle, modeling the ship, finishing all details including rigging and sails, erecting the model inside the bottle, and displaying the finished work of art. A ship in a bottle is a work of art and should be treated like the revered craft it is. If a model builder has any interest in learning this craft, he or she must emphasize quality throughout, including the process of checking and double-checking plans and measurements.

Byproducts/Waste

Building ships in bottles produces almost no waste because of the small features of the models and the limited amounts of materials required. Some wood trimmings may result and are easily disposed.

The artist's safety is also reasonably secure. Chisels, hobby knives, pins, wires, and other sharp tools may cause the occasional cut. However, the tools are small and are generally familiar to those who become fascinated with this hobby. Other materials like nail polish and modeling enamels produce fumes, but these are also minor. Adequate ventilation and lighting are best for the hobbyist's safety.

The Future

The hobby of building ships in bottles is not for everyone. Love of research, ships and sea lore, history, woodworking and other skills, and minute details, as well as considerable patience, are required. The finished models are surprisingly durable and are treasured possessions to leave to children and grandchildren. Competitions are held around the world and opportunities to display models, including museum exhibits, are plentiful, so many people can enjoy these creations and purchase and collect them.

This nautical craft thrives because parts can be produced in numbers and sold in kits for hobbyists of all skill levels. The temporary nature of so many modern collectibles and mass production on a far greater scale than the ship-in-a-bottle kits have also encouraged crafters to pursue this relatively unusual interest. Those who appreciate ships in bottles are not likely to grow to huge numbers, but they are intensely loyal to the blend of skill and mystery in these models, insuring a small but stable future.