Rainy days are good for building ships in a bottle

It rained for the last 3 days and the dog and I were trying to find something to do. We had already chased the cats till they would not play with us any more, so no more fun there. I was taking out the recycle bottles and cans when the ship in a bottle idea  materialized. I had not done one in a few years and it was fun, time consuming, and cost nothing. I had saved the perfect bottle, and the fishing box had most everything I needed in it.

I would build my boat the Reefwolf. First I shaped the hull from a scrap of wood, carved its shape and then mounted it on a work block to do the rigging.  A toothpick became the mast, another toothpick became the boom and they were articulated with thin wire and thread. The sail came from a piece of thread bare rag from the rag box. The base of the mast was hinged with a fine wire so it could be lowered to the deck of the boat. A thread from the top of the mast down to the bow point could raise the mast when pulled from the bow. I glued the sail to the mast and boom, painted the boat  and set aside to dry. I stuck blue clay in the bottle to make the sea. A groove for the boat to sit in was made in the clay. The bottle was ready.

By lowering the mast, the boat would go through the neck of the bottle. The thread from the top of the mast and through the bow extended out the bottle neck. After sticking the hull in to the clay the mast was raised with the thread. With a drop of glue the thread was secured to the bow so the mast stayed upright and the extra thread could be cut off. The last step is to stopper the bottle and you are done.

Building ships in bottles were one the ways seaman passed there free time on a ship. Many are very detailed and took days to make. Mine are not all that fancy or detailed but they are fun to make. It is fun to see people look at the bottle to see if it had been cut to get the boat in the bottle.