|
|
|
Paragon.
|
Occasionally I get asked to work on something really special. This west-country schooner model, "Paragon", was over one hundred and fifty years old, when I was asked to carry out a light restoration. As you can see, she is a big model. The topmasts had to be housed, to fit her into her display space. Imagine her with her full spread of sail set, including two big topsails to give her that bit of extra drive in light airs.
She is historically fascinating, and poses some really interesting questions. She was built to take part in a seven-mile offshore model sailing race, which was a local tradition on the coast of Cornwall in the nineteenth century. She won, comprehensively.
Before the year of her building, most coastal trading vessels had broad, blunt, apple-bowed lines. Afterwards, the sharper clipper lines began to develop, especially in Cornwall, which always had a name for fast clipper schooners. Did this model perhaps influence the design of the full-sized vessels? Or does she simply represent a design change which was happening at the time in any case? Dr Basil Greenhill, who wrote the standard work on the Merchant Schooners, has said he finds the model very interesting, but as a cautious researcher, felt unable to commit himself without more evidence. Probably we will never know exactly what happened in St Ives all those years ago, but I treasure the memory of working on her as one of the finest models ever to pass though my hands.
(model by local nineteenth-century builder, light restoration by John Davies)
|
|
Login
