Genealogy of the Bryan and Martin Families
Alexander Martin Model Ship Gallery
Alex Martin (1883-1960) joined the United States Navy in 1899 at the age of 16 and served until his 21st birthday in 1904. Around 1931 he began building model ships, most of them entirely "from scratch", although he did purchase plans and some of the smaller parts, such as anchors, life boats, etc. He sometimes pilfered the gold chains from his wife's and daughters' jewelry to use as anchor chains, eyelets from shoes became portholes, and seeds from a plant in his yard were used to make ventilators. Alex entered his ships in several hobby shows in Dayton, Ohio, winning "Best of Show" in 1959. He had exhibited at the 1960 hobby show just a few weeks before his death. This album is a collection of newspaper articles about and photographs of the models he built. Most of them are no longer in the extended family, although a few still exist in the homes of his descendants. He gave away many of his models to his friends and acquaintances, and one even ended up in the White House when he sent it to Franklin D. Roosevelt as a present. I remember several ships for which there are no photographs, including the U.S.S. Hartford, one of his largest models at a little over 3' long, and a slave ship. This virtual album is the closest thing we have to a complete record of his work. Follow this link to read his memoirs, Hedunit: The Memoirs of an Ex-Blue Jacket, and this link to read, download, or order a print copy. The descriptions (to be added as time permits) of some of the ships in this gallery were written by Alex and included in a notebook he kept containing photographs of each model. The notes appear to be for a slideshow that he presented to various audiences.» Alexander Martin Model Ship Gallery «Prev «1 ... 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ... 58» Next» » Slide Show
Chinese Scavenger
There are hundreds of these tramps in the Asiatic waters. They thrive on whatever they can pick up from the water. They hang around the swill chutes of ships at anchor and meet ships coming in and follow ships going out and with nets made of old sacks or what have you, they catch every particle of swill the ship's cook happens to throw out - coffee grounds, potato skins and garbage, etc. There is a great variety of these boats, sam pans, junks, etc., and are manned by coolies who live on these boats and are never allowed ashore.
Some of the old superstitions are still accepted by these coolies, such as: if one falls overboard he is completely ignored and they do not try to get him out because they believe he is on his own and must do the best he can. They all scatter away and nobody wants him. If he should happen to get hold of something and climb aboard of any boat at all he will live on that boat from then on and some of them are quite crowded as it is. And they believe that the demon of death wanted him and pulled him into the water and if anyone took him out of the water, the demon of death would get real angry and get him sometime.
| File name | Chinese Junk 2.jpg |
| File Size | 679k |
| Dimensions | 3019 x 2406 |
| Albums | Alexander Martin Model Ship Gallery |
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