A Shipbuilder's Hull, Quarter Block Lift Model of the Steam Ferry, "City of Norfolk"

 For more than three centuries, the ferry across the Elizabeth River joined Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia — a crossing recognized as the oldest continuously operating pedestrian ferry in North America. It ran until 1955, when the historic service ceased after more than 300 years.

The steamship ferry "City of Norfolk" crossing the Elizabeth River
from Norfolk to Portsmouth, Virginia.

By the 1920s and 1930s, the crossing had outgrown its passenger boats. Massive, multi-decked vehicle ferries took over the run, carrying pedestrians and early automobiles alike. The City of Portsmouth, at 140 feet, was followed by the City of Norfolk, deliberately elongated to an operational length of 175–176 feet with an expanded hull width, built later in the 1920s to significantly increase capacity over her predecessor.

Unlike a standard ocean-going steamship, these ferries were entirely symmetrical. Bow and stern were identical, with rudders and propellers at both ends — a vessel that never needed to turn around, only to run the same short crossing in either direction.

Front view of the steamship ferry half hull, quarter block model with lifts.

That symmetry is what makes this piece possible. In traditional ship design — especially for a completely symmetrical double-ended ferry — a half hull builder's model (technically a quarter-block model) represents exactly one half of the ship's length, from midships to one end, and one half of its total width, from the centerline keel out to the outer deck guard. Because the bow matches the stern and the left matches the right, shipwrights could carve one quarter of the geometry and still hold the whole design in their hands.

Closeup view of the stern of the shipbuilder's half hull, quarter block lift model of the steam ferry "City of Norfolk"

This exceptional American shipbuilder's hull of the steam ferry "City of Norfolk," circa 1930, is constructed in seven layers of pine — seven lifts — at a shipyard scale of 3/8 inch to the foot (1:32). It measures 33 inches in length, 5 1/4 inches tall, and 8 inches deep at its widest point, and weighs 17.20 pounds. It was displayed in the Portsmouth, Norfolk Ferry Terminal, at 102 High Street in Portsmouth, Virginia, originally without a backboard, attached to a wall using the added narrow top board with 5 screws. The backboard now measures 13 1/2 by 40 inches.

This is a physical representation of the largest class of vehicle ferry ever built for that service — a remarkable, museum-grade piece of Virginia maritime history, from a crossing that served two cities for over three centuries. Here is the link to the half hull model on Skipjack's website.

Skipjack Nautical Wares

 1172 State Route 32, Round Pond, ME 04564.  (207) 219-0897.

Off season showroom hours are by chance or by appointment; webstore always open.

A Port Light is Red and a Starboard Light is Green. So What Is a Blue Light?

 Every boater knows the first half. Red is port, the left side of the boat. Green is starboard, right side. White rides high as the masthead light and astern as the stern light. Each sidelight throws its color over a 112.5-degree arc, from dead ahead to just behind the beam — so a vessel approaching at night can read, from color alone, which way you are heading and which side of you it is seeing. The system is simple, and it has saved more lives than any other invention in boating.

Port red and starboard green side navigation lights.

But here is the puzzle that stops visitors in our showroom cold. If green means starboard, why do so many antique starboard lanterns have deep blue lenses? Here's the answer!

When the British Steam Navigation Act of 1846 formalized the color-coded system of red for port (left) and green for starboard (right) to prevent collisions — the Admiralty regulations that followed in 1848 required steam vessels to show them — the physics of early lighting posed a serious challenge. Pure green glass severely dampened the low-intensity light of candle or oil flames. Consequently, antique starboard lanterns from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were purposefully fitted with deep blue curved lenses. To an observer on a modern dock, the unlit artifact appears strikingly blue; however, to a 19th-century sailor looking through the midnight fog, it glowed an unmistakable green.

An early 20th century starboard light with cobalt blue Fresnel lens.

In maritime history, blue Fresnel lenses serve a fascinating optical purpose: they were primarily engineered to produce green starboard navigation lights. Because early ships relied on oil, whale oil, or kerosene lamps, the light source emitted a warm, yellowish-orange flame. Passing this yellow light through standard green glass resulted in a dim, muddy, or unrecognizable color at sea. To solve this, marine manufacturers utilized a deep cobalt or sapphire blue glass Fresnel lens. The subtractive color mixing of the yellow light source passing through the rich blue glass filter effectively produced a distinct, piercing green beam that could be easily seen at night, from a ship miles away. But if you observe the blue lens with a white background light, it will be viewed as it's natural blue color.

Skipjack Nautical Wares 

1172 State Route 32, Round Pond, ME 04564. Seasonal showroom hours from late spring to the end of October; year-round by appointment. Webstore always open. Call us at (207) 219-0897.

WWII US Liberty Ship Hatch Cover Nautical Coffee Table

 

This Liberty ship hatch cover coffee table displayed in a living room. this table
is unique with the scrolling wrought iron base and legs.

The Liberty ships were the workhorses of World War II — some 2,751 of them built in American yards between 1941 and 1945, each one ferrying the tanks, trucks, and munitions that kept the Allies moving. Above every cargo hold sat heavy wooden hatch covers: thick yellow pine planks banded in steel, made to be lifted off by crane, built to take weather and weight for a whole crossing.The top of this coffee table is one of those hatch covers.

A WWII Liberty ship hatch cover, remade into a sturdy
coffee table.

In the 1970s, someone gave that authentic WWII-era hatch cover a second life as a table. The thick three-board yellow pine top, with its wide metal band ends, is fitted onto an iron base that is screwed into the bottom — and the base lifts off for moving or storage. That base is fashioned from flat, wide strips of metal, hammered into intricate scrolling legs: a craftsman's flourish on a piece of working cargo gear. The wood carries a dark walnut patina under a high-gloss resin finish, with one small repaired spot on the end of one of the metal bands (see the close-up image on the listing) — left honest, as it should be.

Metal repair to one corner of an end band.

It measures 27 inches wide, 59 inches long, and 20-1/2 inches tall, and weighs about 120 pounds. A substantial piece in every sense — real ship's gear, real weight, real history. The WWII US Liberty Ship Hatch Cover Nautical Coffee Table is $1,275 — listed now on our webstore, one in stock:

See it in person at 1172 State Route 32, Round Pond, ME 04564. Seasonal hours through October 31: Thu–Sat 11–4, Sun 1–4, Mon 11–4; year-round by appointment after that. Webstore always open. (207) 219-0897.

A Whaler's Sea Chest From the Collection of Henry Alexander Murray

 A sailor's sea chest was one of his most important possessions — on a long voyage it held everything he owned, and served as his table, his chair, his bank, and his bureau. Most were plain and utilitarian. The chest now in our webstore is something else entirely: a mid-19th-century decorated six-board sea chest, American, probably New England, that is exceptional in both construction and decoration.

Top of the sea chest lid with painted whaling scene.

The chest is built of white pine with nailed joints and a canted front and back. The single-board top carries tooled molded edges and applied end cleats — structural details added to keep the lid true against warping. The top hangs on snipe hinges, an early forged-iron form made from cotter-pin-like pieces driven through the top and the chest back, their hooked ends interlacing to form the hinge itself.

White pine was used to build this sea chest. Closeup view of one
of the snipe hinges, fastening the top to the chest.

The lid's exterior carries a colorful panoramic painting of a dramatic whaling chase scene, enclosed within a painted rope border that follows the lid's rectangular outline. Lift the lid and the underside is left in natural pine, bearing a painted silhouette of a black sperm whale backed by a crossed whaler's harpoon and oar. 

View of the interior lid with black silhouette painting of a whale
with crossed harpoons.

The chest's exterior is painted olive green. Inside, a ditty box (till) is fastened in the upper right with a single drawer and an open cavity below. 

The interior till (ditty box) with lower drawer.

And in a detail collectors will appreciate: the original leather-wrapped beckets survive, with their painted-wood side cleats, and the original lock remains in place (the key is missing).

Original leather-wrapped rope becket sea chest handle with 
green-painted side cleat.

Dimensions: 39 3/4 inches wide, 18 1/2 inches deep, 17 1/4 inches high.

Painted chests come to market regularly; chests with a period whaling chase scene on the lid, original beckets intact, and an undisturbed ditty box do not. This is a rarity in the survival sense — a decorated whaler's chest where everything that should have survived, did.

PROVENANCE: The chest came from the personal collection of Henry Alexander Murray (1893–1988) — Harvard psychologist, leading authority on Herman Melville, twice president of the Melville Society, whose collection of Melville books, manuscripts, and artifacts was donated to the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A man who spent a career inside Melville's world owned this chest, and that ownership is what moves it into a different tier. We price it at $6,250 — above comparable decorated chests — because the Murray provenance, combined with the piece's physical rarity, puts it in museum-quality territory. There is one, and only ever one, of these.

See the full listing and photographs on our webstore:https://www.skipjackmarinegallery.com/a-mid-19th-century-whalers-personal-sea-chest-with-painted-whaling-chase-scene.html — $6,250, one in stock.

Visit us at 1172 State Route 32, Round Pond, ME 04564. Open year-round, Thu–Sat 11–4, Sun 1–4, Mon 11–4, and by appointment. (207) 219-0897

The Clock That Marked the Watches: A 1944 Chelsea Ship's Bell Clock

There is a sound that means "ship" the way no other sound does. Not the foghorn, not the gull — the bell. For centuries, a ship's bell marked time in four-hour watches, eight bells for the changing of the guard at 4, 8, and 12. This week's piece carries that sound in its bones.

It's an authentic World War II ship's bell clock, built in 1944 by the Chelsea Clock Company of Boston for the Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. of Chester, Pennsylvania — ordered at the very height of America's wartime shipbuilding surge. The matching serial numbers, 451054, date it precisely to that year.

Look closely, and the war is written into the materials. The case is zinc, not brass — brass was going to the war effort, so military clocks got the standard wartime zinc case. The bezel is Bakelite. The 6-inch silvered brass dial carries bold Arabic numerals swept by classic blued steel hands, with the fast/slow adjustment just below the 12. The hinged bezel opens on the left with a thumbscrew lock, and three bulkhead mounting holes on the back flange tell you exactly where this clock lived: bolted to a bulkhead, keeping a ship's time. It measures 7 inches across, 3½ inches deep, and weighs a hefty 7.7 pounds. It comes with its winding key.

A WWII Chelsea ship's bell clock
from the Francis J. Trainor Maritime Collection.

The condition report is an honest one, the way we like them: the clock runs and keeps perfect time. The bell strike wants adjusting to ring properly — and there's a small piece of paper attached to the back noting the last service date: August 2001. Twenty-five years ago, someone cared for this clock. Now it's waiting for its next caretaker.

Here's why it belongs in a coastal home: a ship's bell clock is the rare object that is both instrument and sculpture. Hang it in the entryway and it greets you with purpose. Put it on the mantel or the study wall and the whole room steadies around it. Guests will ask about it. You'll have a story — a real one, with a serial number and a shipyard and a war in it.

From the Francis J. Trainor Maritime Collection

One of one, as always: when it's gone, it's gone.

WWII Chelsea Ship's Bell Clock — $925.00. See it here: Chelsea Clock

Visit us at our skipjack showroom — 1172 State Route 32, Round Pond, Maine. 

(207) 219-0897.

Seasonal showroom hours through the end of October: 

Thu–Sat 11–4, Sun 1–4, Mon 11–4; open year-round by appointment.  The webstore never closes. 

Maine Wood Carver Adam Pearson brings His Marine Carvings to Skipjack Nautical Wares

 Adam Pearson grew up on the southern coast of Maine, in the coastal town of Wells. During Adam's youth, he began at the young age of fourteen working on deep sea fishing boats out of Perkins cove, a small harbor bay and fishing village in the town of Ogunquit. He now resides in Kennebunk with his wife and three daughters. Adam is captain of his own small lobster boat 'SILKIE,' a 25 foot lobster boat built in Arundel, Maine and moored on the  river of the historic boatbuilding town of Kennebunkport. An important note: Adam fishes in a sustainable way to maintain an ecological balance and not depleting our marine resources, using far fewer traps than the majority of Maine lobstermen.

In his youth, Adam went with his mother to work at the store/workshop Wooden Wildlife, where she painted and decorated wooden decoy blanks imported from Canada. His father was a trained artist where he studied at the Boston School of Painting. His father brought home a number of weathervane templates where Adam used to draw and recreate similar works. He also learned to carve wooden fishing lures and as a contestant, were into local art shows for viewing and judging where he won awards for his quality work.

For the last 20 years, Adam has created folk art in his woodworking shop carving various marine animals and fish in a traditional manner, using only hand chisels and drawknives in the way that 19th century seaman would create "sailor" art during their leisure time. Adam personally selects choice white pine for his carvings from barn-stored seasoned, renewable wood at Spiller Farm.

 From the local docks to the waters of the Gulf of Maine, he has personally observed the creatures that he carves. His goal is to create a reminder of the ocean’s great beauty in hopes of its safety for future generations.

Shown below are four carvings by Adam Pearson that are currently available at Skipjack Nautical Wares & Marine Art Gallery with links to each art piece on Skipjack's webstore. You can also see these carvings in person by visiting the gallery located in the fishing village of Round Pond, Maine.

01. A  Humpback whale made from Maine white pine, and carved by Adam Pearson. Finished only with dark wax. It really brings out the best of the wood and would be a great match for any rustic home interior. Dimensions are 35 inches long by 13 inches high and 5 inches deep.

Carved white pine Humpback Whale by Adam Pearson

02.  This one of a kind loggerhead sea turtle was carved by Maine artist Adam T Pearson. The whale was carved from one thick piece of white pine found at a local farm and captures the gracefulness of these beautiful creatures in motion. The rich wax gives the turtle a leather-like appearance to the shell. This antique appearance brings to mind hand-crafted folk art, fashioned during the turn of the 20th century. 22 inches long x 12 inches wide and 3 inches thick

Hand carved Loggerhead Sea Turtle by Adam Pearson

03. Hand-carved Right Whale by Maine artist Adam T. Pearson. This wonderful three dimensional art piece was created using local aged white pine from a nearby farm. The artist has gouge marks from the chisels on the body to present a pleasing surface texture and hand carved look. Finished with acrylic paints and waxed with beeswax to bring out the chiseled strokes. Measures 38 inches long x 16 inches high and an overall depth of 4 inches from the wall. 

A beautifully carved Right Whale out of white pine and painted by Adam Pearson.

04.  This exceptional carving of a large halibut was created by Maine artist Adam T Pearson. Many hours were involved removing white pine chip by chip to reveal what is now a beautiful sculpture that looks as though it could swim off the wall. A wonderful example of realistic art that would compliment any seaside coastal home. Measurements are 49 inches long x 22 inches high and a total of 2.5 inches deep.

This exceptional extra-large Halibut fish was hand-carved and painted by Adam Pearson.

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Dealers of nautical antiques and collectibles, marine art, lamps, lighting, ship salvage and hardware, Skipjack sells quality nautical furniture and furnishings, marine instruments, model boats, nautical gifts and décor. Skipjack’s Marine Art Gallery features marine paintings, sculptures, ship models and folk art featuring mermaids, whales, fish and fowl.

Skipjack Nautical Wares & Marine Art Gallery

Visit our Maine Showroom: 1172 State Route 32; Round Pond, ME 04564

Open Year-Round by chance or appointment

(207) 219-0897

Visit Us On the Mid-Coast of Maine In Round Pond

Yes, the mid-coast of Maine is a great destination, and especially during the summertime. We left the stifling heat and humidity behind years ago and transplanted ourselves here to the quaint fishing village of Round Pond in Bristol, Maine. This tranquil  little seaside destination was the perfect choice for a

Pemaquid Lighthouse

place to live AND house our maritime antiques and fine art business, Skipjack Nautical Wares & Marine Art Gallery. Our new home is situated on Maine Route 32 in Bristol, just outside of the village. We are also located a few miles down the road from New Harbor where you catch the ferry to Monhegan Island and then can continue down route 130 to the  Pemaquid Lighthouse. Also nearby is the beautiful town of Damariscotta. We are also within a 40 minute drive to  Boothbay to our south and Rockland, Rockport and Camden to our north. We are also less than an hours drive to Freeport, Augusta and a little more than an hour to Portland. Of course the real destination for visitors and locals alike are the many waterside restaurants featuring fresh caught lobsters and other delicious seafood delights and they are open during the summertime just about everywhere. There are also numerous art galleries, primarily run by and/or featuring local and regional artists and their artwork.

Now that leads us to our nautical antiques and marine art gallery. Skipjack Nautical Wares is now housed in an early 19th century restored barn with two floors of showroom space filled with authentic maritime antiques, marine art as well as choice furniture and home furnishings selected for the coastal home owner. We also feature a wide variety of nautical lighting, from early lanterns to repurposed table lamps. Navigational chart lampshades are also made here in our lamp works studio. Custom furniture is produced using recycled ship grates and hatch covers and specialized tables housing brass ship portholes and windows. 

A view of Skipjack's first floor showroom
located in Round Pond, Maine.

Skipjack also carries a large collection of ship models and pond yachts, navigational instruments, telescopes and spyglasses, compasses, and all types of unique ship and yacht salvage. You can preview our wares by visiting our webstore 24/7 online at www.skipjacknauticalwares.com. 

We are open year-round by appointment with regular business hours from the month of June through early fall. So, if you are planning a trip to Maine's mid-coast you may want to plan a visit, do a little shopping, a lot of sightseeing and indulge in your favorite fresh seafood from one of our region's exceptional restaurants.

Skipjack Nautical Wares & Marine Art Gallery 

1172 State Route 32,  Round Pond, Maine