Frank Burroughs – Ink Slinger

Nowadays whaling has a bad reputation. Back in the mid-19th century it was the valiant fight against both the sea and the dragon of the sea. Men became rich after a three to four year voyage to the ends of the Earth. The leviathan was considered evil in the Bible. A true test of a man’s worth was to go to sea and hunt them!

My going to sea to hunt whales forms into a new hobby of model ship building. I found a model of Revell’s 1972 model of the Charles W. Morgan Whaling Ship on Ebay. The scale is 1/110. Charles W. Morgan is an American whaling ship built in 1841 that was active during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ships of this type were used to harvest the blubber of whales for whale oil which was commonly used in lamps. I put this plastic kit together in 1974. To find it again is a good start to my quest of one day building museum pieces.

The plan is to build in three phases. The first is plastic ship models. Three to six ships to learn the basic skills of model making. Priming on the sprue and painting the first water retarded acrylic paint to the ship. Then trimming parts to glue together. More painting and assembly to create a piece of art. The rigging will be the hardest.

The second phase consist of several ship kits made of wood. More tools to be bought, skills to learn. The third part sees me building the ships from my novels. This means creating them from scratch!

I already bought several hundred dollars of tools and paint. Many more will be spent over the years. The needs of setting up a work area have been met. An eight foot table made out of a solid door lines one wall. Above are selves and below are totes. Two light sources eliminates shadows. One lamp has ten times magnifier attached in the center of the bulb. It is attached to a turntable so as to adjust the light angle. Next to it is a healing cutting mat. Further over is a marble slab for metal work in the future.

The challenge for me is steadying my hands. Cerebral palsy has been kind to me over the years. Only because I use my hands. Covid 19 ended my bookbinding for the Farmer’s market. Three years the keyboard was my only exercise. Now my hands, patience and mind get a workout.