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Even if the bottle is broken, sometimes the ship can be restored by re-installing it in a new bottle. It is not easy, but if the damage to the ship is minimal re-insertion is sometimes possible.
This ship was sent to me by a lady in Texas who had the misfortune to knock her husband's cherished ship in a bottle off the mantle when she was dusting. (And you can well imagine what she must have felt like!)
Of course, the bottle didn't take too kindly to treatment like that. In fact, all that was left of the bottle when it arrived was the concave section that held the sea. Several sails were also loose and as can be seen from this photo the masts were pretty well smashed down with sails crumpled, the spanker and gaff torn free, and the fore and aft stays torn out...
As this was a particularly trim model of a clipper ship it seemed a shame that such a fine ship should be lost so I set about getting it ready for a new bottle. From my inspection of the model, I assume that it was probably made by some British seaman. I say British because it was flying the Red Duster and seaman because it exhibits particularly fine detailing in the rigging. Detail which few modellers seem to be able to acheive. And from the condition of the sails, I would estimate that it was at least 60 years old and probably more - though without the bottle, I really have no way of dating it closer that that "guesstimate".
First I laid the sea in a new 40 ounce rum bottle. For this, I chose this rum bottle with its traditional shape and slightly swelling neck. I was able to determine the size of the bottle from the curvature of the glass shard under the sea.
Once the sea was drying, I set about restoring the ship. Cutting the remains of the old sea away from the hull. Clearing away the old forestays and re-rigging new ones. Patiently soaking off the securing glue that was used to hold the masts in place. And generally cleaning up and clearing the ship so the sails would lay flat again so that I could re-insert it.
Once the sea had set, I set about re-installing the old ship. The job was particularly difficult because of the acid content in the old paper used for the sails was already begining to break down the paper and it was easily to crumble if I wasn't careful. So I had to treat the ship very carefully indeed as I set about re-installing it in the new bottle. Finally, it was in, the sail and masts hauled up and secured and this was the result:
Since no shipper will insure glass against breakage, only against loss, shipping is at the owner's risk. To provide
the maximum protection to the ship while in transit please refer to the SHIPPING page.