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. The descriptions 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.Matches 51 to 58 of 58 » See Gallery » Slide Show
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| 51 |  | U.S.S. Texas | |
| 52 |  | U.S.S. Texas In her heyday she was one of the finest and most powerful battleships afloat, the U.S.S. Texas, flagship of the Atlantic Fleet. This great battleship is ideal from the model maker's standpoint. Though beamy she has fine lines. On deck there is a variety of parts of an unusual character, objects that are good looking in themselves, instead of a monotony of cabins, structures, and hand rails that are found on a passenger ship. Though the model is specifically the Texas it would serve as well for the U.S.S. New York, her sister ship. Both were built from the same plans, the former at Newport News and the latter at the New York Navy Yard. The Texas carried the ranking admiral's flag and was so powerful she could be miles out of sight of the coast yet blow a city to bits in short order. Her great 14 inch guns, 53 feet long, would pierce armor plate so far away that it could not be seen aboard. She had enough electric power to lite a small city. The ship had a displacement of 27,000 tons and an allowance of 1,315 men, and she cost about $11,000,000. Her length at the water line was 565 feet and the overall length was 573 feet. The beam was 100 feet. This model is built to the scale of 1/16 inch equals 1 foot, giving me a model almost 3 feet long and 6ΒΌ inches wide. She had turn screw propellers. The Texas was flagship of battleship division one of battle force, U.S. fleet and was long famous as flagship of the Atlantic fleet. The full armament was as follows: 6 large searchlights, ten 14 inch 45 caliber guns in turrets, twelve 5 inch 51 caliber rapid fire guns, six 3 inch anti-aircraft, three 3 pounders saluting guns, ywo one pounders, two 3 inch landing guns. If you will notice the little port holes and hawspipes on the model, these are eyelets dug out of old shoes. The greatest enjoyment I get in building ship models is that I try to make everything out of junk and scrap pieces that I pick up at random. I do not buy hardly anything except the paint. For instance, on the model the anchor chain had to be 11 links to the inch being a model scaled to 1/16 inch to a foot. I finally found a toy tin watch and chain in the ten cent store and upon measuring I found the little chain to be exactly 11 links to the inch, so I bought it for anchor chains. Working in spare times, now and then evenings and weekends, this model took about a year to build. The caliber of a gun is the diameter of the bore at the muzzle. Thus a 14 inch gun will have a bore of 14 inches. The designation of 45 caliber denotes that a gun is 45 times its caliber in length or in the case of a 14 inch gun, 52 feet, 6 inches to which is added the breach. The Texas also carried a sea plane mounted on a catapult on top of a 14 inch gun turret. Six large search lights. I hoisted a signal flag, blue and white checkerboard pattern called the "General Recall", when members of the crew were away from the ship, ashore on liberty or visiting other ships and sudden sailing orders were received. This flag (the General Recall) was hoisted calling everybody back aboard ship immediately and report to their assigned stations for "up anchor". It might be interesting here to say that there is only one flag that can be hoisted above the American flag on the same halyard and that's a white pennant with a blue cross - lengthwise of the white pennant - called the church pennant to signify religious services were being held on board, or in the fort, or station, or camp. Another pennant called the "Mess" pennant is a long red pennant hoisted to the signal arm to signify all hands are at meals. In former days it was customary to use the "Homeward Bound" pennant whenever a ship stationed in foreign waters receives orders to "up anchor" and sail for home waters. Each man in the crew pays for one foot of this pennant. It is a long pennant bearing the stars and stripes and flown from the peak of the mainmast. One ship that I was on, the U.S.S. Essex, a three-masted square rigged clipper ship, was ordered home from European station, and the homeward bound pennant was 326 feet long, flying from the masthead. The tail end was kept out of the water by 3 inflated bladders fastened to the end that floated on the surface of the water. This pennant was only hoisted when leaving port and when entering home port. When we got home and dropped the anchor the pennant was hauled down and it was cut in pieces so that each man got one foot as a souvenir of that glorious homeward bound trip. In an old issue of 1810 "The London Family Herald" that published the subject of christening ships at launchings with bottles of wine is about to be taken up by the temperance people who claim that the rolling of vessels at sea is mainly caused thereby. | |
| 53 |  | Tramp Freighter A model of a tramp steamer. A large freight boat that had no regular port. She just unloaded a cargo in a certain port and loaded up again to deliver at another. That is how these tramp steamers were called tramps. They just cruised from one port to another whenever they could contract to load and deliver cargo. | |
| 54 |  | Viking Ship | |
| 55 |  | Viking Ship: The Long Serpent The time is some 1200 years ago, and the scene the rune-carved ancestral hall of Varin, on the shores of Varin's Fjord in Norway. Varin is growing old. He is rich in everything but land. His hall is replete with gold, fine fabrics and great treasures of other lands, but his odal is small. Therefore on this day he gives one of his skutas or dragon ships to his son Lief, telling him to go forth and carve fame and fortune for himself. Lief, eager for the world like a mettled stallion, gathers around him seventy of the young men clamorous to follow him in Viking voyages of adventure, discovery, and acquisition - to visit friendly jarls, hostile countries or unknown lands, to return with gold and wives. Lief's ship was a war vessel distinguishable from a merchant craft by her longer lines and ornamentations. She was called variously a skuta, a long ship, a dragon ship, or a long-serpent. Her extreme length was 79 feet, the breadth is 16.5 feet, and the displacement or weight with fittings about 20 tons. She was slim but very sturdy and sea worthy. Her object was with oars and sails to strike swiftly and hard and to withstand the knocks of an enemy or the battering of the fierce northern gales. His ship was not only useful, it was decorative with its carvings and black and gold schemes. The main dimensions used to build this model of the long serpent or war vessel are based on the actual Viking ship which was discovered in 1880 lying in a tumulus (a hill or mound over a grave) at Gokstad, Norway. This ship is preserved at the University of Norway museum at Christiana. Some details of our model are from a merchant ship found at Oseberg and others from the Nydam ship as well as from the Bayeux Tapestry and the Eddic sagas. It will be noted that this ship has a great sheer, by which is meant that it is low amidships and high at the ends. Ships with a big sheer are the driest when the waves are high. These ships are the first known that had to combat really stormy weather because their predecessors of the Mediterranean never encountered anything like the heavy weather of the northern oceans and always ran for port when the weather became threatening. The story of how the Norsemen learned to use this sheer will probably interest those viewing the model. It is related that the devil taught a shipbuilder that extra seaworthiness could be obtained by the big sheer but stipulated that he should have every seventh ship that was built. The ship owner prospered but forgot to keep count, with the result that his children and everything went down with the seventh ship. In these ships the rowers had no seats. They evidently stood to row in what is still known as "North Sea fashion". The hull of this ship is very similar to the ship in which another Lief, the son of Eric the Red, discovered America. On the bow the dragon or serpent's head was made as fearsome as possible to frighten the enemy, and had eyes so that the ship could see to keep out of danger as with some Chinese boats to this day. From the plank on which the helmsman stood or the "steerboard side" comes our modern name of "starboard" for the right side of a vessel. The other side was the leerboard or larboard side, meaning the empty side. This word larbaord side was later changed to port side to save confusion. Port is from the Portuguese meaning the open side which was laid next to the quay. The shields along the gunwales were used on the left arm of the men whenever they were in sword-to-sword combat ashore and when onboard the ship they hung the shields along the gunwales to man the oars. The Vikings must have been the hardiest of all seamen in vessels which were not much more than a large open boat and using oars for propulsion when the winds were unfavorable. They crossed the Atlantic many times. The first recorded was Lief Erickson in A.D. 1000. | |
| 56 |  | Viking Ship [See the notes for the Long Serpent. The following was added for this model.] Following this picture is a smaller model showing location of the crew and officers and the oars in position. Notice the helmsman at the stern as he mans the steering oar. | |
| 57 |  | Various Ships Outside for Cleaning | |
| 58 |  | Various Ships Outside for Cleaning |
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| Linked to | Alexander Arthur Martin |