So everywhere we have been , and everywhere we've stopped , I have stitched and stitched and stitched the sea and the sky . I told you it would take me a very long time !
The table ....looking beautiful and tidy ......
....... when I'm stitching is not tidy for long .
With the sea and sky almost finished , I return to the finer details of our beautiful schooner .
I had a few important questions to ask 1)Where was the ships wheel ?
2) What flag did it have and from where did it fly ?
and probably the most important question of all very much relating to this tragic tale ......
3) Where did the ship's lantern hang ?
So we drove over to Falmouth to see if we could find answers to my questions in the Maritime Museum . It's come a very long way from the teeny tiny dark shop premises that it used to be down in the high street .
We were very sad to hear that my husband's dear friend , work colleague and great travelling companion to South America and a curator of the museum George Hogg had passed away quite recently He was such a gentleman always to me and he used to love to dig things out of the museum library for my husband while he was doing his family research . It is amazing how they first met up in the Greenwich Maritime Museum , London . Funny how life connects folk.
George's family also had much to do with the same beautiful old schooners that our Great Grandpa and his boys were working on .I believe in the building of them . Great Grandpa had shares in one of George's family's ships "The Rhoda Mary" .
We knew that George had a model of the Rhoda Mary in the museum and thought that might answer some of my questions . So off we went .....
We took our Grand daughter with us !
Who loved the whole experience , especially the Lifeguard's rescue craft !
Her Pirate lunch box ....up to the top of the tower and back down into the basement to look at the barnacles on the windows below tide level . Pirates , Tattoos and the boat building workshop , hunting high and low for wooden fish to win a small paper sticker on the way out . Exhausted ! Anyway .....
She had similarities to The Flower of the Fal which he owned .
At one time she was a three masted schooner .
A few years ago it was up for sale and we were asked if we would be interested , but there was no way that we could afford to have her restored .
Anyway , as fine a model as this was , it didn't answer any of my questions and not even on the painting could I see the details I am after . Strangely there don't seem to be any paintings old or new that show a ship's lantern's shining in the night .
Another very sweet model , Little Mystery , had more detail but no lantern . I'm sure I have often seen ship's lanterns for sale in antique shops ..some with red glass , some with green .
But ...I know nothing ! ..... lol !
I need to know where such a lantern would be hung that they could be seen sailing at night ...which we know The Flower of the Fal did for a fact .
I need to know so that I can stitch it into my embroidery .
You've probably guessed by now , she's sinking !
Your needlework is brilliant, sounds as if you both had a great day out.
ReplyDeleteThankyou 🦋x
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