Marion Lightbody

[Sparks]

British four-masted barque model.    Completely hand-built by myself - NOT a kit!      Hull - wood.    Masts, spars and rigging, 100% metal.    The masts and spars are a combination of brass rod and tube, copper rod and silver steel rod.    The rigging is fine copper wire. There are no knots anywhere.   Most of the rigging is just glued on.    The ratlines (ladders) are soldered on!      Model shipbuilders do not generally like building this type of model because it is a merchant ship (the "gunports" are only decoration, and painted on, they do not open, and do not conceal guns!).      Sailing ships are far easier to build than steamships because they have fewer decks, rails, portholes and lifeboats.       I do not have the money, space, time or patience to bother with kits!     This one took 57 hours to build, spread over several weeks!     It was a bit of a "flop" at a London maritime auction, and my profit per hour only amounted to £1.77!
Bob

[boater sam]

I think your work was very under-rated, Sparks. Its beautiful.

[peter scott]

I think your work was very under-rated, Sparks. Its beautiful.

+1

Peter 

[ppppenguin]

Great work. But I doubt that anyone could make a living from it. You have to do it for the love.

I've met artists (and that model is art) who refuse to sell their work. Some might give it away to somebody who appreciates it but not sell it for an amount that undervalues their time and craft.

[Sparks]

Thanks,
I did make a living of it for a number of years!      I tired of the electronics "rat race" in late 1992, at the age of 48 and took voluntary redundancy after 31 years at sea.     I took up ship model building and writing, full time.     The maritime auctions in London brought mixed results, but it evened out.    The one attached, HMS Carcass, only took 33 hours to build, and sold for £780!     Christie's auction house asked me to build something for their "Nelson" sale, so I built his 2nd ship, HMS Carcass, shown jammed in the ice with young midshipman Nelson aboard.    They did not consider it suitable for the Nelson sale,    claiming that collectors were only interested in the large ships in which he sailed - Victory - Agamemnon - Captain etc.    Anyway, they just put it in a normal maritime sale with the astonishing result above!     My book and other manuscripts were rejected by just about all the mainstream publishers, who assured me that "no-one is interested in boats these days!"    I then took to the much sneered-at "vanity publishing," where I paid for the books to be produced as I wished them to be.     This is supposed to be the last resort for those who are simply not good enough to get accepted by a conventional publisher.     My last three books have now each been reprinted about a dozen times each, and have sold like hot cakes and currently, only 5 copies remain of one book, whilst the other three are sold out!      I ran a monthly column in a shipping journal for ten years, before I tired of it!      Wrote for Conway Maritime press quarterly journal for a number of years before they discontinued it.     Also have a number of e-books on the go that bring in a steady income (today's sales just over £10).    I stopped taking private commissions when I was old enough to take my pension.   I build for pleasure only now, and don't haggle over the price.     But this success is because I keep well clear of the ever-popular subjects such as Royal Navy, Napoleonic wars.    I build, and write about the obscure, and semi-obscure.    My radio construction also follows the same non-conventional path as some of you will have seen.    My very eccentricity has been my success!
Bob

[ppppenguin]

Brilliant stuff. The job you should have done was the commentary on the Diamond Jubilee Flotilla. Would have been useful if the BBC had emplyed somebody who knew about ships.

[Sparks]

Oh, I couldn't have done anything like that.   My knoweldge of naval ships, ceremonial barges etc is very low.     I only deal with merchant vessels built between the years of about 1850 to about 1965.    When I used to sail up the Thames in the early 60s, it was in colliers, that never attracted a second glance from 99% of the sightseeers along the Thames embankment.     Here is a famous painting of my old ship "Wandsworth," South Eastern Gas Board, through "rose-tinted spectacles!"     It looks very romantic, and nostalgic now, but it was pretty miserable at the time!    -   Wouldn't have missed the experience though!   I keep well clear of anything famous - Cutty Sark, Great Britain, etc.      
Bob
http://collectionsonline.nmsi.ac.uk/deta...pe=related&kv=526272&t=objects

[ppppenguin]

Bob, not quite your field but these are worth a mention. I somehow feel they are linked in spirit:

One of Turner's most famous works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fighting_Temeraire

Newbolt, set by Stanford. Peter Dawson's diction is superb:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyFSx5vSlAk

PS: Was reading around the subject and found that Newbolt had written a poem about the Temeraire:
http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/sir...t-m-raire/

[Sparks]

Thanks for the links.     I never really liked the painting of Temeraire, always felt it looked more like an onion than a ship   And his famous paintin of the train appeared to me as a bottle!    The song was not bad, and the poetry OK.      I noted that the painitng on the song cover was actually a merchant sailing ship - a warship would have been more suitable.    
Now, here is a sea song that I really like:
https://youtu.be/K6OYb_7bhME
Bob

[ppppenguin]

I noted that the painitng on the song cover was actually a merchant sailing ship - a warship would have been more suitable.   

If you look at the songs on that disc they're a fair mixture. A setting of Masefield's "Cargoes" isn't exactly naval. I don't think this setting really works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VO2syBK4Xk